1S47.] Instinct and Reason. 27 



deferred until about the last of September, the season then being 

 past Avhen the fly usually deposits its eggs. If at any time in au- 

 tumn the eggs of the insect are observed to be profusely deposited 

 upon the leaves, the crop should be speedily grazed down by sheep 

 and other stock, or if this cannot be done, a heavy roller should 

 be pass d over it, that as many of the eggs as possible may be 

 crushed or dislodged thereby. One or the other of the same mea- 

 sures should also be resorted to in the spring, if the same contin- 

 gency occurs; or if the worms are at a later date discovered to be 

 numerous at the first and second joints of the young stalks, the 

 experiment may be tried of mowing as close down as possible, ihe 

 most infested portion of the field. Where the soil is of but me- 

 dium fertility, a resort to some of the hardier varieties of wheat, 

 which are known to be in a measure fly proof, may be advisable. 

 Fiic/i's Point, Salem, JY. Y., JYov., 1846. 



Note. — Since our yirecclin^ essay, upon the Cecirfomyia tritici was publish- 

 ed, having hai] an opportunity of perusin? the orisinal articles of Mr. Kirby 

 upon that species, we lind that he both figures and describes the joints of its 

 anlennne as " medio constrictio." It is singular that this most important dis- 

 tinctive mark has been so misstated in the descriptions of that species w iiich 

 have been republished upon this side of the Atlantic, and also in Turlon's 

 edition of the Si/stem of Nature. From the remarks introductory to our 

 " Descriplion" some might perhaps infer that this error arose with ti>e found- 

 er of the species. We hasten, therefore, to obviate any such impression. 



INSTINCT AND REASON. 



BY ALONSO CALKINS, M. D. 



Could there be suddenly unfolded to the eye in one grand pa- 

 noramic array and in regular gradation the myriad configurations 

 of animated being, from the simple radiated asterias up to the 

 most complex of the vertebrate genera, the zoologist would c.sk, 

 are these forms the products of superaddition, or of independent 

 evohition; are they incrementary developements only, or specific 

 and intransitive individualities? 



Now the mind takes cognizance of but two classes of ideas, its 

 own cogitative perceptions, and the conceptions of material o- 

 ganizations in relation with those perceptions. "Nihil est in in- 

 tellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu," Thought never cuts loose 

 and strays away from sense. Satyrs and dryads, centaurs and 

 mermaids, inconcinnate and grotesque as they may appear to the 

 view of the naturalist, are but fanciful reconstructions of sensible 

 ideas. The primary idea is the " cogito,'^ the consciousness of 

 thought; the consecutive or inferable one is the " ergo sum,'" the 



