394 



TRANSMISSION 



the twenty previously recorded observations no two agreed, and 

 not one gave a complete account of what may be called the 

 typically instinctive process. Bearing all these facts in mind, we 

 are not to suppose that still more complicated processes are 

 successfully carried forward in every instance, as we have been 

 led to infer. Instinct is, therefore, not unerring, nor does it 

 insure uniformity of procedure. It looks as if important links 

 in the chain of impulse may be omitted, or, if the series is inter- 

 rupted for any cause, it may be resumed at almost any point. 

 Certain it is that different series are far from uniform and that 

 very many of them fail of their evident and final object. 



Instinctive acts are not always adaptive ; their origin is there- 

 fore not in purposeful acts. It is of necessity true that in most 

 cases instinctive acts are for the good of the species and, there- 

 fore, by definition, adaptive. If they were not for the good of 

 the species they would speedily lead to extinction, which is but 

 another way of saying that instincts not adaptive have long 

 since been blotted out by selection, along with the individuals 

 in which they arose. 



That such non-adaptive instincts exist, however, is easily 

 shown. For example, when the moth flies into the flame and is 

 killed, by no stretch of the imagination can this be called an 

 adaptive act ; nor can it be conceived as having arisen in the 

 purposeful acts of its ancestors. It never could have served 

 any but an evil purpose to the race, and the only element that 

 now stands in the way of the utter extinction of races possessing 

 this instinct is the relative infrequency of the naked flame, so 

 that comparatively few individuals suffer, too few to affect 

 either the race or its instincts. We must, therefore, look farther 

 than habit for the origin of instincts. 



Instincts originate in reflex action not in habit. If a piece of 

 meat be laid upon the tentacles of an actinian they will imme- 

 diately contract, infolding the meat and carrying it into the 

 mouth. If a piece of paper be laid upon the tentacles no action 

 follows ; but if the paper be covered with the juice of meat the 

 action is the same as if the piece were valuable for food. 

 Tentacles that have arisen from a wound in the side of the body 

 will react t) meat and meat juice as do the normal parts, 



