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formed the foundation of a gigantic speculative edifice. The 
controversy has in reality been a three-sided one. 
I, First, we have Fabre disbelieving in evolution altogether, 
and adducing evidence that his favourite insects have not 
gained their wonderful instincts by progressive change 
pointing out that they perform their duties under some 
stimulus which to them is imperative, whether the object of 
their pains be achieved or not: arguing, for example, that in 
those that feed their larve from time to time, the stimulus 
to enter and deposit the insect food is not the young larva 
itself but the door of the tunnel. 
II. Secondly, Lord Avebury and the late George J. Romanes 
have argued in favour of evolution by a gradual education, 
finally inherited as instinct. There is reason to believe that 
Darwin accepted the same view. He certainly never opposed 
it. Lord Avebury alludes to the letter written to Fabre, in 
which Darwin “refers to the great skill of the Gauchos in 
killing cattle, and suggests that each young Gaucho sees how 
others do it, and with a very little practice learns the art.” * 
Lord Avebury identifies himself with this view, which, 
indeed, he had himself set forth in the “Contemporary Review,” 
in 1885. Concerning the instinct of the Ammophila to sting 
the ganglionic centres of its caterpillar prey, he suggests that 
“during these long ages they may have gradually learnt the 
spots where their sting would be most effective, and .. . so 
have gradually acquired their present habits.” + He finally con- 
cludes that “these remarkable instincts ” are ‘‘the result. of 
innumerable repetitions of similar actions carried on by a long 
series of ancestors.” { 
George J. Romanes in reviewing Lord Avebury’s book goes 
much further :—‘“ Here, by the way, we have an excellent 
instance of the dificulty which we so often encounter in 
the domain of instinct, when we relinquish the so-called 
Lamarckian principle of the inheritance of acquired characters. 
The hypothesis in question goes upon the supposition that 
* Sir J. Lubbock, ‘‘On the senses, instincts, and intelligence of 
animals, with special reference to insects.” London, 1888. Internat, 
Sci. Ser., p. 248. 
t p. 248, Tt p. 252, 
