has himself accurately described. The fol- 
ing ears a more comprehensive enume- 
ration. ree great classes of instinctive ac- 
tions may be distinguished; the first designed 
for the preservation of individuals; the second 
for the propagation and support of their off- 
spring; and the third for various purposes im- 
‘portant either to the race of animals exhibiting 
them, or to other animals, but not distinctly 
referable to either of the former heads. 
_ Each of these classes admits of obvious sub- 
_ I. Of instincts designed for the preservation 
of the individuals exhibiting them, we may 
enumerate the following :— 
1. All animals are endowed with instincts 
ag them to some means of escaping or 
lling injury or violence, but these are ex- 
-eeedingly various, both as to the kind and as 
to the degree of complexity of the actions 
which they excite; from the simple retraction 
‘of the tentacula of the infusory Vorticella, or 
the Medusa, Polype, or Actinia, up to the 
ve and formidable resistance of the ele- 
phant or the tiger. The most common instinct 
of self-preservation excited by the emotion of 
fear, is that which prompts to flight, an in- 
‘Stinct so obviously existing in the human 
species, that the effort by which it is resisted 
has inal] ages been regarded with respect; and 
another very common propensity in animals is 
that which prompts to concealment. This is 
often combined with flight, as in most of the 
Carnivorous Mammalia, the Rodentia, the Ce- 
tacea, the diving birds, reptiles, insects, &c.; 
‘but some of the higher animals, and many of 
‘the Mollusca and insects, and others of the 
lower tribes, remain quite motionless and 
counterfeit death when under the influence of 
ar;* and it is remarkable that when the cir- 
ances of the animals render this mode of 
ence the most effectual, it is that adopted, 
a preference to flight, even by single species 
_ of families, the other members of sich oka 
no such instinct, as in the case of the ptarmi- 
yan, which so frequently cowers among the 
grey lichen, or the snow on the mountain- 
tops, instead of taking wing like the moor fowl, 
or in that of the hedge-hog, which on occasion 
of any imminent danger makes no effort but 
that of coiling itself into a ball. 
_ In many instances the instinct either of flight 
or concealment is aided by very various special 
‘contrivances, equally instinctive, fitted either 
_ to deceive, or to alarm, or injure an assailant. 
4 even of the Mollusca, and some of the 
Teptiles, as the toad, squirt water on him; 
“many reptiles and some lower animals, as 
the scorpion, bee, wasp, &c., even some of the 
_ gelatinous radiata,t have the power of emit- 
_ * * Tn this situation, spiders will suffer them- 
“selves to be pierced with pins and torn to pieces, 
‘without discovering the smallest sign of pain. 
‘This simulation of death has been ascribed toa 
strong convulsion or stupor occasioned by terror ; 
wm: Ay is solution of the phenomenon is erroneous. 
If the object of terror is removed, in a few se- 
__ conds the animal runs off with great rapidity.”— 
leg on Instinct. 
i” + Kirby, vol. i. p. 198. 
INSTINCT. 7 
ting irritating matter of greater or less inten- 
sity; the electrical animals, as the gymnotus 
and torpedo, use their appointed weapons ; the 
hedge-hog and porcupine oppose their sharp 
thorns to any one who attempts to molest them ; 
many insects and some reptiles protect them- 
selves by emitting peculiarly fetid effluvia; the 
cuttle-fish tribe have the remarkable power of 
emitting an inky fluid which darkens the wa- 
ter and hides them; and on the other hand 
there is reason to believe that the phosphores- 
cent light which so many marine animals ex- 
hibit, may be suddenly augmented on occa- 
sion of any threatening of injury, and serve as 
a means of defence.* (See Lumrnousness.) 
The means of defence, and the instincts guid- 
ing them, in the case, not only of the higher 
Carnivorous animals, but many of the stronger 
of the Herbivorous classes, the elephant, the 
hog, the horse, the buffalo, the deer, &e. re- 
quire no illustration. 
The instinct which prompts many animals to 
utter cries when injured or threatened, (as well 
as on other occasions and for other purposes,) 
deserves notice as a means of protection, parti- 
cularly on this account, that as it is one of the 
instincts which most clearly extends to the 
human race, so we may perceive in man, as 
well as in some of the lower animals, that its 
use is not merely to frighten assailants, but 
especially to procure assistance and protection 
for the young animal from its parents. 
2. The most conspicuous and most remark- 
ably varied of the instincts under this head 
are those by which the food of different ani- 
mals is procured. With the exception of the 
sponges, and some others of the lowest Zoo- 
phyta, in which the nourishment is supplied by 
currents, all animals have organs corresponding 
to a mouth and stomach, into which aliments 
are taken by a process of deglutition, imply- 
ing sensations and instinctive efforts conse- 
quent on these; and in the Articulata and 
Mollusca, the most important central organ of 
the nervous system seems to be the nervous 
collar surrounding the cesophagus, which in 
the vertebrated animals seems to be developed 
and subdivided into the first, fifth, and part of 
the eighth pairs of nerves, with the corres- 
ponding portions of the cerebro-spinal axis, by 
which the sensation of hunger is felt, the 
suitable nourishment discriminated, and the 
instinctive effort, whether of deglutition only, 
or of mastication more or less powerful ac- 
cording to the food, is excited. 
In some instances subsidiary instincts are 
also implanted in certain animals, which are 
essential to their digestion and nutrition. The 
art of cookery, as universally practised by the 
human race, may be said to be the result of 
experience ; but this cannot be said of the pro- 
cy of many animals to swallow salt, still 
ess of the swallowing of gravel or pebbles by 
the graminivorous birds, or of the copious 
draughts of water, sufficient to store the nu- 
merous and peculiar cells of their first and 
second stomachs, which are taken by the camel 
* Ibid, vol. i. p. 178. 
