Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom. 17^ 



owed its origin to the adoption instinct o* a she- wolf 

 that gave suck td Romulus and Remus, yet similar 

 facts are fully authenticated; for instance, that suck- 

 ling cats adopt young rabbits and squirrels. 1 Espe- 

 cially among apes this instinct is quite prominent, but 

 much more characteristically unreasonable than with 

 any other animal. Of course, for a certain kind of 

 modern animal-psychology, which is accustomed to 

 the most superficial observation, such occurrences are 

 noble manifestations of human compassion, and of an 

 abundance of "motherly tenderness" lavished on the 

 offspring of strangers. But accurate, scientific obser- 

 vation and critical investigation prove the very con- 

 trary, namely, that throughout the animal kingdom 

 the nursing instinct is but a sensual impulse, unac- 

 companied by individual intelligence or individual 

 morality. 



If a hen calmly continues trying to hatch pieces of 

 limestone or links of iron chains put in place of her 

 eggs, she can hardly be said to be actuated by 

 "motherly love." Animals merely endeavor to satisfy 

 their instinctive breeding impulse; the higher pur- 

 poses of their action are altogether unknown to them. 

 William of Reichenau relates that a bitch, being rob- 

 bed of her pups, fetched an old pair of slippers and 

 tried to suckle them. 2 Whether she thereby intended 

 to allay her pangs of conscience as to the fulfillment 

 of her "maternal duties," animal psychologists a la 

 Brehm will be better able to decide than we, to whom 

 such facts merely prove, that the nursing instinct in 



*) Cf. W. Herd, in "Scottish Naturalist," 1872, p. 155. 

 z ) Cf. "Kosmos," 4th year, VII (1880), p. 21T. 



