SIR GILBERT BLANE. 335 



by outward bodies. They are either immediate, 

 as in the case. of those motions which are excited, 

 whether by mechanical means, or by acrimony, 

 directly and artificially applied to a muscular fibre ; 

 or they are remote, as in the various instances of 

 sympathy, and in the case of those instincts which 

 nature has implanted for the purpose of self-pre- 

 servation in brutes, and in the early part of human 

 life. I shall here confine myself to a few remarks 

 on instinct, as the other branches of this subject 

 have been fully and ably handled by those who 

 have gone before me in this Lecture. There is a 

 connection established between the impression of 

 certain external bodies and the action of certain 

 muscles, analogous to what has already been noticed 

 with regard to the internal motions excited in 

 vessels by the peculiar stimulus of their fluids, 

 Nature having instituted certain habitudes between 

 outward stimuli and the moving powers, whereby 

 natural propensities are established equally neces- 

 sary to the support of life as the internal functions. 

 Thus, in a new-born animal, the first contact of 

 the external air excites the act of respiration, and 

 the contact of the nipple excites the act of sucking ; 

 both of which actions are absolutely necessary to 

 the maintenance of life, and require the nice co- 

 operation of a great number of muscles, prior to 

 all experience. Actions of this kind are called 

 instinctive, and differ from voluntary motions in 

 this respect, that the latter are the result of memory 

 and experience, whereas the former are the imme- 

 diate effect of external impressions, in consequence 



