90 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



experiments have been tried and their results 

 seem quite fatal to the conclusions which have 

 been set out above. Let us substitute a sea- 

 bird for the mouse and a man for the cat. It 

 will be granted by all that the re-actions which 

 might be supposed to take place between the 

 mouse and the cat might equally well take 

 place between the bird and the man. 



And as a matter of common observation we 



Seagulls know that a sea-gull will not allow one to walk 

 up to it, but will fly or exhibit the phenomenon 

 of motion at the approach of a man. But this 

 has not been true always or of all places. We 

 know quite well from the writings of early 

 explorers that when they set foot on islands 

 where men had never previously trodden, they 

 found the sea-birds quite tame, and instead of 

 exhibiting a movement of repulsion it was one 

 of attraction which took place, for the creatures 

 waddled up to see what new thing had drifted 

 on to their shores. All this was changed when 

 the poor birds came to know what men were 

 and how dangerous it was to remain long in 

 their vicinity. 



Again, Mr Chatterton Hill in his interesting 



Walruses book* gives an account of the walruses in 

 the South Sea Islands visited by German ex- 



* Heredity and Selection in Sociology; Black, London, 

 1907, p. 74. 



