Popular or Scientific Animal Psychology. 9 



cannot exclude a psychic element from the definition of 

 "instinct" without ignoring its very nature and taking 

 it for a reflex motion, as was done by Herbert 

 Spencer, 1 who states that instinct is a "complex reflex- 

 activity.". 



As some psychic element is essential to all instinctive 

 actions, it can only be that element which distinguishes 

 instinctive from intellectual functions. This is, however, 

 the unconsciously adaptive connection of certain sensile 

 affections with their corresponding activities. For the 

 sake of illustration let us recur to our example of the 

 babe whose cries are an instinctive manifestation of its 

 feeling of hunger and its impulse for nourishment. 

 Now, we do not call this manifestation intelligent, be- 

 cause the tiny screamer does not cry with conscious 

 intention. It is quite unaware of the suitableness of 

 its very suitable clamor. Therefore the consciousness 

 of the end is the chief element which distinguishes 

 intelligent from instinctive actions. 



Hence, the following principle established by Prof. 

 H. E. Ziegler in an essay on the "Notion of Instinct" 2 

 is by no means tenable: "We must omit the element 

 of consciousness in trying to determine the notion of 

 instinct in a useful manner." Ziegler gives his reason 

 for this principle. "Who can ever know when a dog, 

 a lizard, a fish, a beetle, a snail, or an earth-worm 



*) "Principles of Psychology," Vol. I, Chapt. 5, p. 451. Romanes 

 attacks this definition in his "Mental Evolution in the Animal Kingdom" 

 (1885), p. 283. 



a ) "Verhandlungen der Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft," 1892, 

 pp. 121-136. The same lecture has been published as an appendix to his 

 book: "Die Naturwissenschaft und die socialdemokratische Theorie." 

 Stuttgart, 1893. 



