160 Prof. F. 0. Guldberg on Movement in a Circle. 



in spite of the innumerable false steps into which the animal 

 may be betrayed by unpractised senses and inexperienced 

 brain, it always brings it back to the right spot and to the 

 proper conditions. To formulate my interpretation of this 

 fact, I would say that nature's educational skill would be 

 Tinintelligible without the law of circular movement. 



Moreover, it is also necessary to point out that the same 

 law appears to be the foundation of the instinct of locality in 

 the higher animal world — that is, the already mentioned im- 

 pulse to return to the spot where the animal lost its followers, 

 and, in connexion therewith, the capacity for easily finding 

 its companions again. 



How far the importance and breadth of this instinct ex- 

 tends, it is certainly as yet impossible to say ; whether it will 

 ever he possible I know not ; it may, however, be assumed 

 that the fundamental forms of movement mentioned and the 

 instinct founded thereon are closely connected with the " law 

 of love of home " or the instinct of locality, lo which the 

 great annual migrations of animals are to be referred. And 

 it 1 may be allowed to cast a glance beyond the limits of this 

 paper, while presupposing that the law of physiological 

 circular movement is recognized by the scientific world, I 

 must first refer to the circumstance that circular movement 

 will be a very serviceable instrument in investigations as to 

 the functional breadth and signification of the senses in the 

 different animals and animal groups. 



Furthermore, in alluding to observations upon lower 

 animals attention must also be directed to the probability 

 that in the lowest classes the physiological circular movement 

 is perhaps the sole form of movement that the organism 

 possesses besides the mechanical action and the physiological 

 reaction. In the case of such a manifestation, physiological 

 circular movement, when its reality and extent shall be 

 sufficiently investigated and understood, may perhaps prove 

 to be of greater biological importance and open up a wider 

 field for study than we at present anticipate. In any case, it 

 will probably be found that even now we may with some 

 show of justice regard the circular movement alluded to as a 

 fundamental form of movement in animals, which we must 

 never omit to take into joint consideration in studying the 

 phases in the development of animal life, no matter whether 

 we are dealing with the biology of individual species or with 

 the paychical genealogy of a larger animal group. 



