TRANSMISSION OF MODIFICATIONS 403 



without it. 1 Young things have little or no sense of fear at 

 birth, and at the first consciousness of fear make nothing like 

 intelligent discrimination. The young chick, so Lloyd Morgan 

 tells us, is as much afraid of a flying newspaper as of a hawk, 

 and has no preconceived notion of the danger from bees, which 

 can sting, as compared with that from flies, which are harmless. 

 Its first fears are of "largish things," but experience rapidly 

 informs it of specific things. It has at first no appreciation of 

 water as water, but when it accidentally pecks at a shining drop 

 and wets the bill, the presence of the water starts the series of 

 reflexes and the chick holds up its head to swallow, or, if a duck, 

 it "shovels," each organism reacts in its own characteristic 

 manner, and both learn rapidly by experience. 2 



Habits follow and are founded upon instincts. The true order 

 seems to be that the earliest attempts are instinctive, but that 

 they are rapidly shaped up and perfected by experience, and in 

 this condition they become habitual. It also appears that no 

 exact line can be drawn between what we call instinct and what 

 is nothing but response to stimuli. Manifestly we have applied 

 the word " instinct " to those reflex acts that have the appearance 

 of being purposeful. It would apply equally as well to many acts 

 clearly reflex, and when it is shown that these so-called instinc- 

 tive acts are themselves only reflexes and can be performed per- 

 fectly in the absence of all possible application of intelligence, 

 either on the part of the individual or of its ancestors, it appears 

 that our present use of the word is a convenience rather than a 

 fair mark of a scientific distinction. 



The theory, therefore, which places habit at the point of origin 

 of instinctive acts clearly takes it out of its proper order in the 

 series. It is a property of the individual rather than of the race, 

 except as we speak of the habit of a race, meaning there- 

 by the habit developed by all or most of the members of the 

 race. The common development of such a habit is not unnatural 

 since all of the individuals of the race possess the same organs 



1 The action of the heart and of the secreting organs is beyond the control of 

 the will, and that of the intestines is largely so ; but many parts of the organism 

 aj-e under control either of the will, of impulses internal to the part, or of causes 

 external to the organism. 2 Morgan, Habit and Instinct, pp. 40-90. 



