CHAPTER II. 



Inherited Memory. 



MANY of our observations seemed to suggest a quasi-intelligent 

 action on the part of the beings under examination ; and we 

 were led, early in the course of our studies, to adopt provisionally the 

 hypothesis that memory was inherited — that the whole was con- 

 sequently wiser than its parts, the species wiser than the individual, 

 the genus wiser than the species. 



One illustration will suffice to show the possibility of memory 

 being inherited. Chickens, as a rule, are hatched with a full know- 

 ledge of how to pick up a living, only a few stupid ones having 

 to be taught by the mother the process of pecking. When eggs are 

 hatched artificially, ignorant as well as learned chicks are produced, 

 and the less intelligent, having no hen instructor, would infallibly 

 die in the midst of plenty. But if a tapping noise, like pecking, be 

 made near them, they hesitate awhile, and then take to their food 

 with avidity. Here the tapping noise seems certainly to have 

 awakened the ancestral memory which lay dormant. 



It may be said all this is habit. But what is habit ? Is it any 

 explanation to say a creature performs a given action by habit % or is 

 it not rather playing with a word which expresses a phenomenon 

 without explaining it % Directly we bring memory into the field we 

 get a real explanation. A habit is acquired by repetition, and could 

 not arise if the preceding experience were forgotten. Life is 

 largely made up of repetition, which involves the formation of 

 habits ; and, indeed, everyone's experience (habit again) shows that 

 life only runs smoothly when certain necessary habits have been 

 acquired so perfectly as to be performed without effort. A being at 

 maturity is a great storehouse of acquired habits; and of these many 



