1 26 Instinct. 



summer, as they do with us in winter. The exact 

 counterpart of hibernation is there repeated under 

 entirely different conditions. Instinct is as perfect 

 in its work there as here. Its object in both coun- 

 tries is to aid in saving the animal when his food 

 fails and the extremes of climate are too severe for 

 him. It does its work well ; but it would utterly fail 

 in both hot and cold countries, if the functions of 

 the animals did not supplement it in producing 

 those remarkable changes in vital activity, render- 

 ing multitudes of animals here torpid in winter, and 

 there in summer. Instinct has not only to meet 

 these different conditions, but it must vary in both 

 places, in many ways, to meet the wants of different 

 species of animals. And in this whole work of hi- 

 bernation, — if it be proper to apply this term to the 

 change that occurs in hot countries, — in all this 

 work of hibernation, which is a wonder in itself, we 

 find Instinct true to its character as thus far traced, 

 as an agency spontaneous in its action supplement- 

 ing the physiological agencies, to preserve the indi- 

 vidual and species. 



If now we claim that all these hibernating ani- 

 mals are what they are because Natural Selection 

 has been going on from age to age until only those 

 are left that Structure, Function and Instinct all 

 combining, have adapted to the conditions of the 

 world in the northern regions and under the equator, 

 the question still returns. How were the species pre- 

 served till these changes in action were all brought 

 into harmony with each other and with the world 

 without — until adaptations were secured that sin- 



