Instinct and Reason. 35 



Tliursday, May 30///, 1867. 



The Twenty-seventh Meeting of tlie Society was held at Mr. 

 Hayward's House. 



The objects exhibited were : — 



A Crossbill . . . . . . . . By Mk. Farrae. 



Attention was especially directed to the peculiar adaptation of the 

 beak of this bird to the extraction of the seed of pine cones, its usual 

 food. 



Fossil Fruits and Plants from the Stonesfield Slate, Oxfordshire. 

 A fine specimen of a Crustacean, from the same. 

 Tooth of a Megalosaurus, from the same. 



A Proportion-table, on the principle of the Sliding Rule, invented by 

 Dr. Everett . . . . . . By Mr. Griffith. 



Davidson then read the following Paper on 



INSTINCT AND REASON. 



On few points has there been greater or more irreconcilable dif- 

 ference of opinion, than on the subject of Instinct and Keason 

 in man and in the lower animals. One author believes that the 

 two are so widely distinct from one another, that both cannot 

 exist in the same organization ; a second holds a directly opposite 

 opinion, and considers them to be identically the same in kind, 

 though difTerent in degree ; while a third modifies the opinion of 

 both, and believes the two powers, though distinct from one 

 another, to be combined in almost every member of the animal 

 kingdom. This last is the theory which seems to be supported 

 by the greatest number of those most competent to decide, if 

 indeed a decision be possible. 



If, then, we adopt this third view of the question, the distinction 

 between instinct and reason would be somewhat as follows. 



An Instinct, or more properly an instinctive action, " is de- 

 pendent on the sensations received by the animal, and is there- 

 fore never performed without its consciousness ; nevertheless the 

 animal in executing them is not guided by any perception of the 

 object to be attained, but acts blindly and involuntarily in accord- 

 ance with an irresistible impulse, implanted in it by its Creator."* 



In reason, on the other hand, the animal makes use both of 



• Carpenter, Auirnal Physiology, p. 514. 



