Art and Science 



through heredity, of habits which were prac- 

 tised in succeeding generations ? " l 



I may say in passing that Professor Weis- 

 mann appears to suppose that the view of 

 instinct just given is part of the Charles- 

 Darwinian system, for on page 389 of his 

 book he says "that many observers had 

 followed Darwin in explaining them [in- 

 stincts] as inherited habits." This was not 

 Mr. Darwin's own view of the matter. He 

 wrote : 



" If we suppose any habitual action to 

 become inherited and I think it can be 

 shown that this does sometimes happen- 

 then the resemblance between what originally 

 was a habit and an instinct becomes so close 

 as not to be distinguished. . . . But it would 

 be the most serious error to suppose that 

 the greater number of instincts have been 

 acquired by habit in one generation, and 

 then transmitted by inheritance to succeed- 

 ing generations. It can be clearly shown 

 that the most wonderful instincts with which 

 we are acquainted, namely, those of the hive- 



1 Page 83. 

 285 



