in.J ORIGIN OF TASTE FOR SCIENCE. 189 



I caught at all scraps of lessons for self-improve- 

 ment. (9) I cannot recollect the time when 

 I was not fond of animals and of knowing 

 all I could learn about them. (11) Love of 

 birds and their study ... I feel that I must 

 have had a taste for science independently of 

 external circumstances. (12) My taste [for 

 science] was entirely innate. (13) As a boy I 

 had a passion for mechanical contrivances ; [my 

 scientific tastes are] altogether innate. (14) I 

 was always fond of construction ; my turn for 

 scientific inquiry led me in early life to syste- 

 matise the knowledge of others. (15) Largely 

 inherited from my father. (17) They appear to 

 have been inherited. (18) Nearly in an equal 

 degree the mixed result of a natural bias and 

 education. (19) I should have been an ob- 

 server of animal life under whatever conditions 

 I might have lived. (20) I believe my interest 

 in zoology to have been innate. 



Botany. 8 cases out of 10. (1) My scien- 

 tific tastes were inborn. (2) As far as the word 

 applies in any case, I should say decidedly in- 



