Eimer on Growth and Inheritance 447 



lead to such innate faculties as our chicken has shown?' 

 We also fully agree with him in his remarks concerning the 

 very singular instinct of the cuckoo. He does not hesitate 

 to declare ^ that it appears to him to be a -priori unpossible 

 that 'instincts can be explained by mere accidents,' and 

 especially impossible that the young bird derived from an 

 Q^^ which was for the first time accidentally laid in the 

 nest of another species should itself repeat that action — an 

 action which, by the hypothesis, was opposed to inherited 

 tendencies derived from countless generations of ancestors. 

 But if Eimer sees clearly the moat in the eye of Weismann, 

 he is none the less blind to the beam which is in his own. 

 He tells ^ us that he believes that the original progenitors of 

 the cuckoo, when they first began to lay their eggs in the 

 nests of other birds, ' acted by reflection and with design.' 

 Again, he says, 'Every bird must, from the first time it 

 hatches its eggs, draw the conclusion that young will also 

 be produced from the eggs which it lays afterwards.' As 

 if the instinct which induces it to hatch its first brood was 

 not enough to induce it to hatch those which succeeded ! 

 Even more strange is his remark ^ that ' it is undecided how 

 far all birds, even before they begin to incubate themselves, 

 obtain a knowledge of their origin from eggs \yj observing 

 others incubating.' 



Once more, Avith respect to that wonderful instinct which 

 results in the production of imperfect females, or workers, to 

 constitute the great mass of the inhabitants of a hive, the 

 Professor again supposes the presence of true intellect — 

 imagining that the habit arose from some humble bee 

 having been aided in the hard task of feeding all her 

 grubs by certain workers accidentally produced. 



' The insect must,' lie says,* ' have recognised this advantage 

 afterwards ; and ac >rdingly reared similar workers intentionally by 

 1 P. 257. P. 258. 3 p 264. ■* P. 278. 



