1881 ON TRANSMITTED MEMORY 111 



originally stung caterpillars and spiders, &c., in any 

 part of their bodies, and then observed by their in- 

 telligence that if they stung them in one particular 

 place, as between certain segments on the lower side, 

 their prey was at once paralysed. It does not seem 

 to me at all incredible that this action should thus 

 become instinctive, i.e. memory transmitted from one 

 generation to another. It does not seem necessary 

 to suppose that when Pompilius stung its prey in the 

 ganglion that it intended or knew that the prey would 

 long keep alive. The development of the larra may 

 have been subsequently modified in relation to their 

 half-dead instead of wholly dead prey, supposing 

 that the prey was at first quite killed, which would 

 have required much stinging. Turn this notion 

 over in your mind, but do not trouble yourself by 

 answering. 



Yours very sincerely, 



CH. DAKWIN. 



N.B. Once on a time a fool said to himself 

 that at an ancient period small soft crabs or other 

 creatures stuck to certain fishes ; these struggled 

 violently, and in doing so, discharged electricity, 

 which annoyed the parasites, so that they often 

 wriggled away. The fish was very glad, and some 

 of its children gradually profited in a higher degree 

 and in various ways by discharging more electricity 

 and by not struggling. The fool who thought thus 

 persuaded another fool to try an eel in Scotland, and 

 lo and behold electricity was discharged when it 

 struggled violently. He then placed in contact with 



