INSTINCT OF MOLLUSCA. 179 



little salt is thrown into the hole, the animal instantly 

 quits his habitation. But it is still more remarkable, that, 

 if you seize the animal with your hand, and afterwards 

 allow it to retire into its cell, you may strew as much salt 

 upon it as you please, but the fish will never again make 

 its appearance. If you do not handle the animal, by apply- 

 ing salt you may make it come to the surface as often as 

 you incline ; and fishermen often make use of this strata- 

 gem. This behaviour indicates more sentiment and recol- 

 lection than one should naturally expect from a spout- 

 fish." * I think that it indicates neither; for nothing more 

 can be safely inferred from it than that the creature has 

 experienced, from the rough handling, a disagreeable sensa- 

 tion, which continues to operate for its safety for a time ; 

 and analogous facts meet us everywhere. They are all 

 of them purely instinctive. Intelligence and reason, fore- 

 thought and memory, are connected with, and, in some way, 

 dependent on, a nervous system and a central brain ; but 

 instinct operates without any such apparatus, and is even 

 weakened by its high developement. Thus, the nerveless 

 Ascidia conceals itself with extraneous matters as effectu- 

 ally as doth the nervous Gasteropod ; and the guiles and fears 

 of the Cephalopod do not exceed those of the inferior Solen. 

 The happiness of molluscous animals, then, depends on 

 the possession of life, and on the play of its functions ; and, 

 if thence we estimate their pleasures at a low scale, we must 

 remember that their pains and sufferings are proportionably 

 slight. Their days pass away in an even stream of quietness : 

 there is no anger to ruffle, no disappointments to sour them ; 

 they are amply provided by Him who careth for all, and they 

 take no care for to-morrow ; and, if it prove the precursor 

 of evil, the evil has been unforeseen and undreaded. But 

 many of this class of animals have additional means of enjoy- 

 ment in the organs of sense with which they are furnished, 



* Phil, of Nat. Hist. i. 139. See, also, Forbes and Hanley's Brit. Mol- 

 lusca, i. 244. Boethius's history of the pearl-mussel is written in the same 

 loose style, but is sufficiently amusing to be given here. " They are so 

 sensible and quicke of hearing, that although you, standing on the braie or 

 banke above them, doo speake never so softlie, or throw never so small a 

 stone into the water, yet they will descrie you, and settle againe to the bot- 

 tome, without returne for that time. Doubtlesse they have as it were a 

 naturall carefulnesse of their owne commoditie, as not ignorant how great 

 estimation we mortall men make of the same amongst us, and therefore so 

 soon as the fishermen doo catch them, they bind their shells togither, for 

 otherwise they would open and shed their pearles of purpose, for which they 

 know themselves to be pursued." p. 15. Mr. Roberts almost emulates 

 Boethius when detailing some interesting peculiarities in the habits of the 

 Patellse. Ann. and Mag. N. Hist. xix. 70. 



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