Organic Nature s Riddle 323 



I ally neuter insects, the special instincts and peculiarities 

 which have of course to be transmitted not directly by 

 an antecedent set of neuter animals, but by females, the 

 instincts and peculiarities of which are very different from 

 those of the neutral portion of their progeny. 



The instincts we have hitherto referred to, and, I may say 

 briefly, the instincts of animals generally, are destined to 

 subserve two functions, (1) the preservation and, mainly, the 

 nutrition of the individual, and (2) the reproduction of the 

 species. Armed with the facts we have now noticed, let us 

 turn to consider instinct as it displays itself in ourselves. 

 As one example, there is the instinctive action by which an 

 infant first sucks the nipple, and then swallows the thence- 

 extracted nourishment with which its mouth is filled. This 

 action must be reckoned as instinctive, because it is done 

 directly after birth, when there has been no time for learn- 

 ing to perform the action ; it is one absolutely necessary for 

 the life of the infant ; it is an action which is definite and 

 precise, similarly performed by all the individuals of the 

 species, though effected by a very complex mechanism, and 

 it is effected prior to experience. Yet it is not as mechanical 

 as reflex action, for not only sensation, but consentience, 

 accompanies the act. Thus sucking in man is an instinctive 

 action, while spitting, on the other hand, is an art. The 

 latter is not necessary to life, and the power of performing 

 it is slowly acquired by experience, as are also our powers 

 of walking and feeding ourselves. But the action of suck- 

 ing in an adult human being is of course not instinctive; 

 and because the child learns to walk, it by no means follows 

 that the insect learns to fly. It is thus plain that actions 

 may be instinctive in one animal and not in another ; or at 

 one period of hfe in the same animal and not at another. 

 In a child, however, sucking, deglutition, inspiration, and 

 expiration are instinctive actions, as are also those by which 



h 



