402 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Darwin, while allowing that some intelligent actions 

 may become converted into instincts and be inherited, claims 

 for the greater number of complex instincts an entirely dif- 

 ferent origin ; that is, "through the natural selection of varia- 

 tions of simpler instinctive actions, — variations that arise 

 from unknown causes." * He thus attempts to explain the 

 most complex cases of instinctive action. The full discussion 

 of his theory, as a whole, and the specific cases under it, 

 would require more space than we can here give.f 



The impulses of animal life are functional, as the appetites; 

 or instinctive, as the desires. In the animal kingdom, as it 

 now exists, the impulses find their expression through com- 

 plex, directing powers that supply, for these lower animals, the 

 place of acquired knowledge and skill in man. In specific, 

 simple acts instinctive action depends upon the impression 

 made upon the senses. Instinct may thus be deceived by 

 appearances. In many cases we find instincts the exercise of 

 which immediately after birth is essential to life, as the 

 instinct of the young mammal to seek the udder. We cannot 

 conceive of a time when such an instinct was not essential to 

 all such animals. If wo attempt, with Darwin, to explain 

 the comb-making instinct of the honey-bee, by the influence 

 of natural selection in preserving those swarms that built 

 best, because they need less honey in making wax {"Origin 

 of Species"), we cannot help asking how we shall account for 

 the same six-sided cells in the nest of the wasp, where no 

 honey is used for making wax and no food stored for winter? 

 We can only state as a fact that we find each species, as it now 

 exists, endowed with such instincts as enable it, as a whole, to 

 hold its place in the world against all ordinary contingencies. 

 We find these impulses and directive powers arising in indi- 

 viduals as naturally as the different organs develop by growth. 

 The young animal comes into the world with a physical organ- 

 ization sufficient for carrying on the physical system to per- 

 fection, and with instinctive impulses and capabilities sufficient 

 for beginning and carrying on the same work. While physi- 

 ological forces carry on the growth within the body, instinc- 

 tive forces adjust the relatious of the animal to the external 



* Descent of Man, Vol. I., p. 37. 



t See Chadbourne's " Instinct in Animals and Man." 



