This theory of the origin of instincts is inseparably related 

 to the origin of species, and although Darwin has elaborated 

 his grand scientific hypothesis with the utmost skill and 

 ingenuity, Science cannot yet be said to have solved the 

 question as to the origin of species, and until she has done 

 so, if she ever does, opinions will differ as to whether 

 instincts should be regarded as a sum of hereditary habits. 

 "Should Darwin's doctrine be confirmed," says Ribot, "it 

 must then be admitted that all instincts have been acquired, 

 and that what is now fixed was at first variable ; that all 

 stability comes from heredity, which conserves and accumu- 

 lates ; and that, in the formation of instincts, heredity is 

 supreme." It is still, however, impossible to say whether an 

 instinct is the result of hereditary habit, or "a primitive, 

 natural, and irreducible fact." There is, indeed, no means 

 of determining which view is correct. 



The sensorial qualities the modes of sensorial activity, 

 in a word, the perceptive faculties are undoubtedly trans- 

 missible, and therefore subject to heredity. This is un- 

 questionable so far as concerns not only specific qualities, 

 but in everything regarding race or variety ; it is, therefore, 

 only in relation with individuals that any doubt can arise. 

 Ribot asks the following question : " Is the transmission 

 of secondary and individual characters governed by the 

 same heredity which governs the transmission, of the 

 perceptive faculties, in their essential and fundamental 

 features?" Facts can alone reply; but I hope to show 

 that " heredity is usually the rule, even with what is indi- 

 vidual, anomalous and capricious." A brief consideration 

 of the special senses will now be necessary, and, as 

 generally enumerated, these consist of five viz. : touch, 

 sight, hearing, smell, and taste although a sixth, repre- 



