August 15, 1895] 



NATURE 





ight mirrors attached preferably to the portion of the string near 

 •one of its points of attachment or a node. Light figures similar 

 to Lissajous' figures have been obtained. With the mirror at- 

 tached parallel to the axis, all the components of the vibration 

 are effective : when its plane is perpendicular to the axis, the 

 torsional vibrations are eliminated. — Some considerations on the 

 construction of great dams, by M. Maurice Levy. — The inter- 

 national committee on glaciers. A note by >I. F. A. Forel. 

 From the observed facts it is deduced that the general behaviour 

 of glaciers is individual and special to themselves. There are 

 some traits, however, which appear in certain cases in con- 

 Tiection with the whole of the glaciers of a countr)'. The 

 ■duration of the oscillations of glaciers is measured in years by 

 lens, the mean being at least thirty or forty years. The same 

 ■variations are met with in other glacier regions as well as 

 iin the Alps. The committee ask the co-operation of scientific 

 •observers to ascertain whether there is coincidence, alternation, 

 •or lack of agreement in glacial variations : (a) In the dift'erent 

 ■glaciers of the same continent ; (i) in the glaciers occurring in 

 the same hemisphere ; (i) in the glaciers of all parts of the earth. 

 — On the Krownian movement, by M. C. Maltezos. The con- 

 ■clusion is drawn that the Brownian movement is a capillar)' 

 phenomenon. — Lighting by luminescence, by M. A. Witz. 

 iighting by means of a vacuum tube in circuit with a Holtz 

 machine or Kuhmkorff coil is proved to give a smaller propor- 

 ition of heat in relation to the quantity of light developed than 

 «ny other means of obtaining light, yet the light so obtained 

 requires the expenditure of much more energy per candle-power 

 than ordinary sources, .and hence the disposition of apparatus 

 will re<juire tt) be very much modified before light can l>e i>ro- 

 duced commercially at a low temperature. — On the nuclei of the 

 Uredini;e, by MM. G. Poirault and Raciborski. — On diphtheritic 

 .anti-toxin, by MNL Guerin and .Mace. The active substance 

 ^appears to be of the same nature as the soluble ferments classed 

 Hinder the name " dia.stase." — On a toxic substance extracted 

 Aom the suprarenal capsules, by M. D. Gourfein. — Instantaneous 

 ihyperglobulia, by ])eripheric stimulation ; consequences, by M. 

 Jules Cheron. Hypodermic injection of artificial serum or 

 stimulating actions on the sensitive skin surface (such as a cold 

 •douche, mass<age, Aic. ) cause an immediate loss of the an.'emic 

 symptoms in patients suffering from an;\;mia. The result is prob- 

 ably produced by a stimulation of the central nervous system, 

 followed by a bracing up of the vascular system as evidenced by 

 the increase in arterial pressure. The apparent increase in the 

 ■numbers of red corpuscles is caused by the greater extravasation 

 •oi serum brought about under the greater pressure. 



New Zealand. 



Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, May i.- Mr. 

 C. W. rurneli. on " true instincts of ;inimals." The definition 

 I of the term "instinct" has been greatly narrowed of late 

 years. Formerly every act of an animal betokening intelligence 

 was ascribed to " instinct," but the term is now restricted to 

 acts which are performed in an apparently mechanical manner 

 by generation after generaticm, and seem to be prompted by 

 ^iimc other faculty than intelligence. The author thought that 

 the definition could bo still further restricted. Writers u|Xjn 

 'he subject had not taken sufficiently into account how' much 

 he young animal might be taught by the old, and how 

 much it might learn from imitation. The migratory habits 

 of certain birds, for example, were always set down to 

 instinct, but birds usually migrated in flocks, and, in any case, 

 with the yoimg bird it was *' follow my leader."' The same 

 M-mark applied to the periodical migrations of the Norwegian 

 iemming, the salmon, and other animals. The nest-building 

 habits of birds could be similarly explained : and even such 

 extraordinary habits as that of the Australian .Megapodida-, 

 which formed immense mounds of vegetable and other matter, 

 and deposileii their eggs in the midst, leaving them to be hatched 

 i)y the heat evolved from the fermentation of the decaying mass. 

 The beaver's remarkable habit of constructing dams and canals, 

 >ome of which are of great antiquity, and which, if constructed 

 '•y human beings, woukl be deeiuetl jiroofs of considerable 

 I ngineering skill, illustrated the .author's argument. The young 

 lieaver remained in the parental lodge until the summer of 

 its third year, when it began housekeeping for iiself, so that it 

 had abundant opportunity, during its youth, of receiving 

 instruction from its elders, in the peculiar ways of beaverdom, 

 ind when it did make a .start in life upon its own account, it still 

 iijoyed ■>pporlunities of receiving instruction and of gaining 

 NO. 1346, VOL. 52J 



skill by experience. Cats, dogs, and monkeys instructed and 

 corrected their young : and the adult carnivora taught their 

 offspring how to capture and kill their prey. Some of the most 

 remarkable so-called instincts displayed by animals could be 

 accounted for in the same way, and when we came to analyse 

 these instincts, we found them to be nothing more nor less than 

 racial habits, transmitted from generaticm to generation, and 

 acquired in a similar way to that in which the racial habits of 

 mankind are acquired. Mr. Purnell then referred to the singular 

 instinct of the huanaco, which, in the southern part of I'atagonia, 

 resorted to ancient dying places, whither all individuals inhabit- 

 ing the .surrounding plains repaired at the approach of death. 

 Mr. Hudson, author of " The Naturalist in La Plata," attributes 

 this practice to the possession by the huanaco of "a fixed 

 immutable instinct, a hereditary knowledge, so that the young 

 huanaco, untaught by the adults," goes alone and unerringly 

 to the dying place. Sir. Purnell considered this an unwarranted 

 assumption, and that it was a far more likely supposition that, if 

 a young huanaco was in extremis, the older members of the herd 

 expelled it from their ranks, as other sick or wounded animals 

 are usually exjielled by their fellows, and indicated to it whither 

 it should go. Traditi<jnal and tribal memories, perpetuated by 

 communication from old to young, would account for such 

 habits as the hive-constructing habits of the bee and the 

 domestic and militarj' habits of the various species of ants, 

 which were so commonly regarded as typical of the more 

 wonderfiil development of instinct in the lower animals. 

 The fact that many so-called instinctive acts were really the 

 products of education and experience, did not clash with the 

 view that animals might be and probably were born, into the 

 world with a hereditary predisposition to certain tribal habits 

 which rendered instruction in those habits easier and more 

 effective. The mental, like the bodily, structure of any- 

 individual animal was the sum and outcome of all its progenitors' 

 faculties, and just as its bodily organisation was better fitted to 

 perform certain acts than others, so its mental organisation was 

 better fitted for certain mental operations than others. Body 

 and mind were correlated and developed in unison. The web- 

 building spiders secreted web-building material in their bodies, 

 and possessed highly specialised organs enabling them to produce 

 the material in such manner and quantity that it can be used in 

 the construction of snares, and just as this specialised anatomical 

 structure has gradually been evolved from simjile beginnings, .so 

 the mental faculty required for the construction of snares has 

 been evolved with it. The spi<ler is, so to speak, endowed with 

 mental as well as with anatomical spinnerets. If we eliminated 

 j all such habits as might have been acquired from teaching or 

 observation, there were left comparatively few fixed haliits of 

 animals which, in the present state of our knowledge, could not 

 1 l)e .accounted for by the individual having received in.struction 

 I from its fellows, or gained knowledge from its own observation, 

 j and it was to such habits that the author proposed to confine the 

 '1 term "instinct." For the purposes of this paper, he woidd call 

 them " true instincts." These true instincts were found almost 

 solely amongst insects. By way of illu.stration, he would 

 take the case of the caterpillar of a butterfly ( Thekla), which 

 fed within the pomegranate, but when full-grown ^^nawed its 

 way out, and then proceeded to attach with silk threads the 

 point of the fruit to the branch of the tree, so that the fruit 

 could not fall before the metamorphoses of the insect was 

 complete. Here, there was apparently no means by which the 

 caterpillar could receive instruction, since no visible intercourse 

 ' took place between the butterfly whose offspring the caterpillar 

 was and the caterpillar. In considering this problem, we must 

 ; firmly grasp the fact that, although the caterpillar, the pupa, 

 and the imago were, to outward seeming, three distinct animals, 

 in reality they were but varying phases of the same animal. 

 Therefore the insect posses-sed the power of inheriting memories 

 We could understand how the memory of an inherited habit 

 useful andcommim to one phase of the animal's existence, might 

 re.idily be transmitted from the perfect insect to its oflTspring 

 through the various stages of that offspring's existence. The 

 order in which these memories were transmitted would be the 

 order in which they wouU! manifest themselves in the new life 

 cycle. Did, then, the Thekla possess the ]xnver of transmitting 

 the habit referred to? It appeared not unreasimable lo sup- 

 pose that such a habit might become (metaphorically speaking) 

 so ingrained in the mental constitution of the animal as to be 

 capable of transmission from parent to offspring. The life of an 

 insect was short and monotonous, and its range of locomotion 

 limited ; its world was a small world ; it enjoyed little scope fir 



