386 TRANSMISSION 



the germ and the protoplasm of the developed body are essentially 

 different has long since been disproved. Both are susceptible 

 to any influence that can reach them, and in climatic conditions 

 generally we have abundant influences of this kind. 



May we not consider as established the possibility that the 

 germ itself, and therefore descent, may be directly modified by 

 external influences ? How far this may go, and what influences 

 are included, is another subject, and one calling for the most 

 careful study and requiring the most reliable data as a basis for 

 an intelligent opinion. 



The present state of knowledge is insufficient to entirely 

 solve the problem, but there is additional evidence worth 

 consideration. 



SECTION VI EVIDENCE FROM HABIT AND INSTINCT. 

 IS INSTINCT INHERITED HABIT? 



Habit and instinct both refer to the use which individuals 

 make of those racial characters that are capable of action. It 

 is a matter of common knowledge that an oft-repeated act 

 speedily becomes a habit with the individual, and, as such, 

 repeats itself almost mechanically ; so that what was at first 

 a nice adaptation of means to end shortly becomes little more 

 than reflex action. 



Building upon this fact, it is a plausible assumption that 

 what is habit with one generation becomes instinct in the next. 

 It is a sweeping but easy generalization that " no distinct line 

 can be drawn between instinct and reason " ; 1 that instinct is 

 inherited habit, and reason inherited instinct modified by indi- 

 vidual experience. 



This is the position taken by many of the older naturalists, 

 especially Romanes, who defined instinct as " reflex action into 

 which there is imported the element of consciousness," 2 and 

 reason as " the faculty which is concerned with the intentional 

 adaptation of means to end." 2 



1 Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 15. 



2 Ibid. p. 17. This volume is perhaps the most extreme exponent of the idea 

 of inherited habit, and of intelligence as lying at the basis of all animal activity. 



