The Modern Theory of Instinct 



idea of plunging a knife into the seat of the 

 marrow, in order to produce the sudden 

 death of a colossus which would never suffer 

 its throat to be cut without first offering a 

 dangerous resistance? Outside those in the 

 trade and men of science, nobody knows or 

 suspects the lightning result of that particu- 

 lar wound; we are almost all in the same 

 state of ignorance on this subject in which I 

 myself was when my childish curiosity drew 

 me into the killing-shed. The desnucador 

 and the butcher have learnt their craft from 

 the teachings of tradition and example : they 

 have had masters; and these were brought up 

 in the school of other masters, harking back 

 by a chain of linked traditions to him who, 

 served, no doubt, by some hazard of the 

 chase, first realized the tremendous effects of 

 a wound in the nape of the neck. Who shall 

 tell us that a pointed flint-stone, driven by ac- 

 cident into the spinal marrow of the Reindeer 

 or the Mammoth, did not rouse the attention 

 of the desnucador 1 's forerunner? A casual 

 incident furnished the original idea; observa- 

 tion confirmed it; reflection matured it; 

 tradition preserved it; example disseminated 

 it. After that, the same transmission-cur- 

 rent. For generation might follow genera- 

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