326 



NA TURE 



[February 3 1898 



log A 



Epheineris for Greevwich Afidiiight. 

 189E. A pp. a A pp. 8 



h. m s. „ , II 



Feb. 1-5 ... 1725 1-63 ... -105356-4 



3'S ■ •■ 34 3395 ••• " '7 2i-o ... 0-1527 



5-5 ... 44 14-66 ... II 39 50-2 



7-5 ••• 1754 3'34 ••• -12 I 18-5 ... 0-1457 

 The nearest bright star to the comet during this period is 

 o Serpentis, which rises about four hours in advance of the 'sun. 



Rowland's Tables. — In the December number of the 

 Aslrophysical Journal, tables of corrections and additions to 

 Prof. H. A. Rowland's table of solar spectrum wave-lengths 

 are given. The errors in wave-length have been carefully 

 determined for the whole table, but the identification of solar 

 lines with the lines of the elements in the spectrum of the 

 electric arc has been revised only from wave-length 3722 to 

 4175. Therefore the corrections and additions to the identifi- 

 cations have been given only for the most important lines 

 between these limits. A few small solar lines have been added 

 to the table. 



The changes in wave-length are few, most of them being 

 additions to the identification.s. 



Nebula near Castor. — Prof. Barnard records in \\\&Astio- 

 ttomical Journal (^o. 422) a list of new nebulae which he found 

 with the 12-inch equatorial when he first went to Mount Hamil- 

 ton, and which have remained unpublished until now. There are 

 five within less than a degree of Castor, whose positions here 

 given are reduced to ic6oo— the epoch of Dreyer'sNew General 

 Catalogue. 



No. 



Description. 



1 ... 7 24 23 ... -f3i 44-4 ... Close p. 10 mag. star, 



2 ... 7 24 43 ... -I- 31 35-5 ... Small, faint. 



3 ... 7 25 12 ... +31 40-5 ... Small, 3 S *s in curve 



2' p. ± 



4 ... 7 25 27 ... -f3i 40-5 ... Very, very faint. 



5 ■•• 7 25 59 ... -t-31 31 o ... Small, faint. 



Prof. Barnard remarks that he has discovered several nests of 

 these nebulce, but in most other cases the individual nebulae are 

 very much smaller. 



Dr. Karl Necker. — The name of yet another astronomer 

 has to be added to the death roll of last year. Dr. Karl 

 Necker, who occupied the position of assistant in various 

 observatories, was unfortunately killed in a railway accident at 

 Cairo, to which town he had removed for the benefit of his 

 health. Born in 1867, and with his University career only 

 completed in 1893, he entered first the Strassburg Observatory 

 as a temporary assistant, but after a few months removed to 

 Vienna, and in the Kiiffner Observatory devoted himself to 

 making a series of observations on the prime vertical. When 

 Dr. Halm left Strassburg to occupy his present position at 

 Edinburgh, Dr. Necker returned to fill the vacancy thus 

 created, and was engaged in the fundamental meridian work. 

 But his health compelled him to take long rests, and finally he 

 was recommended to reside in Cairo, where he hoped to secure 

 a position in the Khedival Observatory. This hope was 

 defeated by his tragic death, while making a short excursion to 

 the Sinai Peninsula. 



INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE IN 

 ANIMALS} 



"O lOLOGY is a science not only of the dead but of the living. 

 The behaviour of animals, not less than their form and 

 structure, demands our careful study. Both are dependent on 

 that heredity which is a distinguishing characteristic of the 

 organic world. And in each case heredity has a double part to 



Clay. It provides much that is relatively fixed and stereotyped ; 

 ut it provides also a certain amount of plasticity or ability to 

 conform to the modifying conditions of the environment. In- 

 stinctive behaviour belongs to the former category ; intelligent 

 behaviour to the latter. When a caterpillar spins its silken 

 cocoon, unaided, untaught, and without the guidance of pre- 

 vious experience ; or when a newly-mated bird builds her nest 

 and undertakes the patient labours of incubation before ex- 

 perience can have begotten anticipations of the coming brood ; 



1 A Friday evening discourse deliveied at the Royal Institution, on 

 January 28, by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan. 



NO. 1475, VOL. 57] 



we say that the behaviour is instinctive. But when an animal 

 learns the lessons of life, and modifies its procedure in accordance 

 with the results of its individual experience, we no longer use 

 the term instinctive, but intelligent. Instinct, theiefore, com- 

 prises those phases of active life which exhibit such hereditary 

 definiteness as fits the several members of a species to meet 

 certain oft-recurring or vitally-important needs. To intelligence 

 belong those more varied modes of procedure which an animal 

 adopts in adaptation to the peculiar circumstances of its indi- 

 vidual existence. Instinctive acts take their place in the class 

 of what are now generally known as congenital characters ; 

 intelligent acts in the class of acquired characters. 



But the study of instinct and intelligence in anjmals opens up 

 problems in a different field of scientific investigation. They 

 fall within the sphere not only of biological but also of psycho- 

 logical inquiry. And in any adequate treatment of their nature 

 and origin we must endeavour to combine the results reached by 

 different methods of research in one harmonious doctrine. This 

 involves difiiculties both practical and theoretical. For those 

 invertebrates, such as the insects, which to the naturalist present 

 such admirable examples of instinctive behaviour, are animals 

 concerning whose mental processes the cautious psychologist is 

 least disposed to express a definite opinion. While the higher 

 mammalia, with whose psychology we can deal with greater 

 confidence, exhibit less typical instincts, are more subject to the 

 disturbing influence of imitation, and, from the greater com- 

 plexity of their behaviour, present increased difficulties to the 

 investigator who desires carefully to distinguish what is congenita) 

 from what is acquired. 



Nor do the difficulties end here. For the term " instinct " 

 is commonly, and not without reason, employed by psycho- 

 logists with a somewhat different significance, and in a wider 

 sense than is necessary or even desirable in biology. The 

 naturalist is concerned only with those types of behaviour which 

 lie open to his study by the methods of direct observation. He 

 distinguishes the racial adaptation which is due to congenital 

 definiteness, from that individual accommodation to circum- 

 stances, which is an acquired character. But for the psycho- 

 logist instinct and intelligence comprise also the antecedent con- 

 ditions in and through which these two types of animal activity 

 arise. The one type includes the conscious impulse which in 

 part determines an instinctive response ; the other includes the 

 choice and control which characterise an intelligent act. When 

 a spider spins its silken web, or a stickleback builds the nest in 

 which his mate may lay her eggs, the naturalist describes the 

 process and seeks its origin in the history of the race ; but the 

 psychologist inquires also by what impulse the individual is 

 prompted to the performance. And when racial and instinctive 

 behaviour is modified in accordance with the demands of special 

 circumstances, the naturalist observes the change and discusses 

 whether such modifications are hereditary ; but the psychologist 

 inquires also the conditions under which experience guides the 

 modification along specially adaptive lines. Each has his part 

 to play in the complete interpretation of the facts. And each 

 should consent to such definitions as may lead to an interpretation 

 which is harmonious in its results. 



In view, therefore, of the special difiiculties attendant on a 

 combined biological and psychological treatment of the problems 

 of animal behaviour, I have devoted my attention especially to 

 some members of the group of birds in the early days of their 

 life. And I shall therefore draw my examples of instinct and 

 intelligence almost entirely from this class of animals. The 

 organisation and the sensory endowments of birds are not so 

 divergent from those of man, with whose psychology alone we 

 are adequately conversant, as to render cautious conclusions as 

 to their mental states altogether untrustworthy ; when hatched 

 in an incubator they are removed from that parental influence 

 which makes the study of the behaviour of mammals more 

 difficult ; while the highly developed condition in which many 

 of them first see the light of day affords opportunity for observing 

 congenital modes of procedure under more favourable circum- 

 stances than are presented by any other vertebrate animals. Even 

 with these specially selected subjects for investigation, however, 

 it is only by a sympathetic study and a careful analysis of their 

 behaviour that what is congenital can be distinguished from 

 what is acquired. For from the early hours of their free and 

 active life, the influence of the lessons taught by experience 

 makes itself felt. Their actions are the joint product of instinct 

 and intelligence, the congenital modes of behaviour being liable 

 to continual modification in adaptation to special circumstances. 



