INSTINCTS OF NEUTER INSECTS. 241 



by the bees, and that enough, therefore, has been said 

 already. Mr. Darwin supposes that these modifications 

 of structure and instinct have been effected by the accu- 

 mulation of numerous slight, profitable, spontaneous 

 variations on the part of the fertile parents, which has 

 caused them (so, at least, I understand him) to lay this 

 or that particular kind of egg, which should develop into 

 a kind of bee or ant, with this or that particular instinct, 

 which instinct is merely a co-ordination with structure, 

 and in no way attributable to use or habit in preceding 

 generations. 



Even so, one cannot see that the habit of laying this 

 particular kind of egg might not be due to use and 

 memory in previous generations on the part of the 

 fertile parents, " for the numerous slight spontaneous 

 variations," on which " natural selection " is to work, 

 must have had some cause than which none more 

 reasonable than sense of need and experience presents 

 itself; and there seems hardly any limit to what long- 

 continued faith and desire, aided by intelligence, may 

 be able to effect. But if sense of need and experience 

 are denied, I see no escape from the view that machines 

 are new species of life. 



Mr. Darwin concludes : " I am surprised that no one 

 has hitherto advanced tLis demonstrative case of neuter 

 insects against the well-known doctrine of inherited 

 habit as advanced by Lamarck " (" Natural Selection," 

 p. 233, ed. 1876). 



After reading this, one feels as though there was no 

 more to be said. The well-known doctrine of inherited 

 habit, as advanced by Lamarck, has indeed been long 



