Feb 6, 1885.] 



♦ KNOAVLEDGE ♦ 



113 



Light for Lighthouse Puqiosos." Tho learned professor has spent 

 acme time at the South Foreland testing the experimental instal- 

 lations there. He described a number of these experiments, but, 

 while indicating many of tho advantages pertaining to the electric 

 light, did not contribute anything of iniportunce towards answering 

 the question : Which gives the best light in tho worst weather — 

 gas, oil, or electricity ? 



TBI Health Kxhuutiox. — At a meeting, on Tuesday, of tho 

 CouDcil of the International Health Exhibition, held at the Rooms 

 of the Society of Arts, Sir James Paget, Bart., in the chair, the 

 accounts made up to date were presenfed, and a probable surplus 

 erf £19,000 was slioivn. It was resolved that, inasmuch as tho late 

 Exhibition was ouly the first of the series announced by the Prince 

 nf Wales at the close of the Fisheries Exhibition, the surplus 

 should not bo disposed of until the financial success of the Inter- 

 national Inventions Exhibition was assured. Tho question of tho 

 distribution of the surplus will, therefore, be postponed till the end 

 of the present year. 



A Gardening Hint. — The February operation in the greenhonse 

 i« re-potting. All those pots that have been in use before should 

 Srst of all be wasbed and thoroughly dried ; this again might be a 

 winter operation, done at a time when you thought you were a 

 little slack of work in the garden. Tlie most vigorous growers, and 

 those plants in the most forward state, should first be attended to. 

 And in doing this be particular about the drainage of your pots : 

 cover the little pieces of tile and crocks with a little moss or turf, 

 so as to prevent the soil mixing up with them. And when you find 

 the roots matted as you take out the ball of earth from the pot, 

 very carefully loosen them a little, and pierce the ball of earth so 

 a« to allow it water more readily. IJut the greatest care is necessary 

 to have your new soil filled into every crevico around the ball of 

 earth, which should be placed so deep in the pot as to admit of 

 being just covered over when you are shifting And speaking of 

 soils reminds us that all our different kinds of composts should be 

 kept protected from rain. It is of no good to have them perpetually 

 washed and soaked through, but they should be kept in a dry 

 potting-shed, well tamed over, and in a good friable condition for 

 use when required. — Cas!-cll's Famihj Matjaziiie. 



Dedicatoey Flowers. — In the media;val ages many of them were 

 associated by the Catholic Church with different apostles and 

 saints. Thus, the Canterbury bell was so named after St. Augus- 

 tine, of England; the crocus was dedicated to St. Valentine ; the 

 crown imperial, which was introduced into England in the time of 

 Shakespeare, to St. Edward, king of the first Saxons ; the carda- 

 mine, the white lily, an emblem of purity, and the marigold, the 

 petals of which were supposed to represent the glory surrounding 

 her head, to the Virgin Mary. The snowdrop, the " first pale 

 blossom of the unripened year," prettily said by the ancients to be 

 sent by the goddess Flora to ascertain if the cold and frost were 

 mitigated, was called the Purification flower, from its opening in 

 Candlemas. We have also the Lent lily, the herb Trinity, 

 herb Christopher, herb St. Robert, the daisy of St. Margaret, 

 St. Bamaby'a thistle, the Peter's wort, and St. John's wort. 

 Culpepper, in his " English Herbal," quarrels with this nomen- 

 clature. Regarding St. Peter's wort, he says: — "If superstition 

 had not been the father of tradition as well as ignorance the father 

 of devotion, this herb, as well as St. John's wort, had found some 

 other name to be known by ; but wo may say of our forefathers, as 

 St. Paul of the Athenians, ' I perceive in many things you are too 

 auperstitious.'" As another instance of this superstitious custom 

 may be mentioned the Passion flower, in the form and arrangement 

 of the stamens of which believing Catholics found resemblance to 

 a cross and crown. Amongst the associations, also, of flowers with 

 religion, is the tradition in connection with a small red flower, in- 

 digenous to Palestine, where it is very abundant, which is called 

 " the blood-drops of Christ," it being said to have sprung from 

 the blood which issued on the ground when our Saviour's side 

 was pierced. A similar feeling seems to have animated the 

 ancients in dedicating certain trees and flowers to different gods 

 and goddesses. The tall, straight poplar, an emblem of strength 

 and vigour, was sacred to Herctiles ; the olive, an emblem of peace, 

 to Minerva; the laurel to Apollo ; the kingly oak to Jupiter; and 

 the myrtle and marigold to Venus. The amaranth, from remote 

 times, has been an emblem of immortality, for, when dead, its 

 flowers still retain their deep scarlet colour. Achilles' tomb was 

 strewn with amaranths, and 'the ancients crowned their g^ds with 

 garlands of them. When Christina, Queen of Sweden and daughter 

 of the famous Gtistavus Adolphus, renounced the throne to devote 

 herself to study, she instituted an order of Knights of the Ama- 

 ranth, whose decoration is a gold medal with an amaranth in 

 enamel, and the motto Dolce nella memoria. Prom the acanthus 

 clustering round a basket upon a virgin's tomb, Callimachus took 

 the idea of the Corinthian column, with its beautiful foliated 

 capital. — Amateur Oardeniny. 



^^-^^^■nj>^ 



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THE PSYCHOLOGT OF INSTINCT. 



[1578] — Instinct has been defined as the unconscious adaptation 

 of means to ends. This, however, is the external act of the in- 

 stinctive faculty, not the faculty itself. The latter may bo 

 described as a blind tendency to some action indepfudent of any 

 consideration, on the part of the agent, of the end to which the 

 action leads. In an ordinary human action the coiisciouaness is 

 awake, and a number of mental faculties are involved. There is 

 emotion based on a motive or appetency, and setting aflow the 

 physical force which the will (having resolved or chosen to carry 

 out the action) controls on its jjassage to the muscles; and in 

 this execution of a resolve, the intellect comes into play. A boat- 

 builder, for instance, modelling and constructing a boat, is actuated 

 not only by the motive (the desire of gain, ic.) and by his resolve 

 to act, but all his previous intellectual knowledge as to the proper 

 lines, length and breadth of beam, &c., operates as a guide in this 

 his new undertaking. He is an agent acting from exjierience and 

 instruction, and with a conscious design and coi siderution as to the 

 aim or end in view. The principal mental faculties which are 

 involved in his design and work are intelligence, emotion, and 

 volition, or more particularly, practical intelligence, a certain 

 motive, and will in its ordinary use. 



Suppose now, however, that the same or a similar undertaking to 

 boat-building (say nest-building) were attempted, but in a manner 

 impulsive and independent, as it were, of volition or control, or of 

 experience, and without consciousness or knowledge of the end in 

 view. In this case, the mental elements involved in the action 

 would be, as it were, obscured or eclipsed, and some peculiarities 

 incident to this observation would bo discernible in the action 

 itself. What are these peculiarities ? Tliey are simply those 

 which we see ordinarily exhibited in the movements of an auto- 

 maton ; in other words, we should see a listless, invariable, nn- 

 deviating, unceasing, rhythmical action, l.avini; for its evident 

 object the physical well-being of the individual or the preservation 

 of the species. Almost all — perhaps we may say all — of the instinc- 

 tive actions of the lower animals are connected with their purely 

 selfish or material comforts and requirements. The procuring of 

 food, shelter, and security for their offspring, &c., are the motives 

 or objects of the conduct ; and it will be readily admitted that the 

 amount of intellectuality required in the satisfaction of such per- 

 sonal needs is not very eminent. It is absolutely indispensable 

 that the animal .should be fed at all states of youth and maturity, 

 that it should be guarded more or less effectually from enemies, &c. 

 The very possibility of animal existence imperatively demands such 

 conditions as these; and it is over these, and these alone, that the 

 wondrous instincts of the lower animals evince power. With man, 

 on the other hand, the case is different. His reason or original 

 practical intelligence is plastic and, as it were, universal. It covers 

 not merely physical needs and indispensable wants, but it enjbraces 

 in its way innumerable actions and ingenious devices, whose aim 

 is luxury, or mere pleasure, or profit ofttimes superfluous and 

 detrimental. 



Reason is, therefore, as it wore, independent of life ; instinct is 

 closely connected with life, and may be regarded as the practical 

 talent or energy involved in the carrying out of the more necessary 

 processes of life, such as each particular species is peculiarly 

 organised to perform. It is essentially a practical faculty, whose 

 relations to the intellect are not very clear. A human action, not 



