286 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 



observation that the chicks drank " only after they had 

 the taste of water by accident, or by imitating the old 

 fowl." Granted but they also peck only after seeing 

 small objects under certain conditions, and there is no 

 instinct that does not require some stimulus in the 

 environment to bring it into action. The mechanism 

 is ready, but it is useless without this stimulus. 



If one knew but of those domestic chicks, or those 

 jungle chicks, that peck only on seeing this act, one 

 might speak of a certain imperfection in the instinct 

 of pecking, as, if you will, in drinking; but what I 

 must again object to, is drawing radically different 

 conclusions as to the nature of eating and drinking 

 by chicks, and even building theories of evolution on 

 them. 



As I understand Prof. Cope is to reply to Prof. 

 Baldwin's views on "Consciousness and Evolution," 

 through the medium of the American Naturalist, I 

 will only remark regarding his discussion in Science, 

 p. 438, on " Heredity and Instinct," that, while I find 

 his views very interesting, as illustrations of natural 

 selection, the Lamarckian principle, the influence of 

 environment, etc., they seem, in the main, to fall within 

 the range of principles already recognised by the Dar- 

 winians and Lamarckians, though perhaps not ade- 

 quately. But I fail to see that a single safe step can 

 be taken in explaining evolution either in biology or 

 psychology, if the effects of the environment and of 

 use be ignored ; indeed, Prof. Baldwin's very facts and 

 illustrations are, to my mind, only comprehensible by 

 the introduction of those factors ; and why there should 

 be such anxiety on the part of many to get rid of 

 factors so obvious, and to substitute for them the bio- 

 logical fatalism and reasoning in a circle of Weismann, 

 is a puzzle to nie. 



