Applicatio7is of Organic Selection 179 



directly reenforces and supplements congenital endow- 

 ment at the same time that there is indirect selection of 

 variations which intelligence finds most suited to its needs. 

 Thus congenital tendencies and predispositions arc fos- 

 tered. The orthoplastic influence of family life is well 

 illustrated by Headley (cited in Appendix B). This is 

 seen also in the rise of many instincts for the performance 

 of which intelligent direction has gradually become un- 

 necessary (cf. the use of the principle in an independent 

 way by P. Marchal in the Rev. Scient., Nov. 21, 1896, 

 p. 653, to explain the origin of the queen bee). 



The principle appHes also to the origin of the forms of 

 emotional expression {e.g., Darwin's classical case of the 

 inherited fear of man by certain birds in the Oceanic 

 Islands: see Darwin, Descent of Man, Chap. II.), which 

 are thought to have been useful, and in most cases intelli- 

 gent, accommodations to an environment consisting of other 

 animals. In man also we find reactions, such as those of 

 bashfulness, shame, etc., largely organic, whose origin it 

 is difficult to explain in any other way, unless we admit 

 the inheritance of acquired characters. It is also recog- 

 nized that social action by animals, as for example more 

 or less intelligent herding, was often of direct utility and 

 caused their survival until the corresponding instincts be- 

 came fixed. 



It also works another way, as Professor Groos shows : 

 an instinct is broken up and so yields to the intelligent per- 

 formance of the same function, by variations toward the 

 increased plasticity and ' educability ' which intelligent 

 action requires. In this way another objection to Darwin- 

 ism is met — that which cites the difficulty of securing the 

 modification and decay of instincts by natural selection alone. 



