SOCIAL HEREDITY 275 



species of wild animals which persist under all 

 conditions are the results of heredity which is in- 

 born in all the individuals of the species. For 

 instance, one of the most persistent and dominant 

 of the characteristics peculiar to wild animals is 

 that quality, held to be inborn, which is called 

 instinctive fear of natural enemies. Darwinians 

 have dealt at great length with this instinct. At 

 first sight it appears to be an obvious example 

 of inborn heredity, developed by natural selection. 

 For individuals which did not possess it would 

 always tend, it was said, to be weeded out and to 

 leave no descendants. Fear of natural enemies 

 is one of the most powerful of the instincts existing 

 in wild animals, and it usually appears to be so 

 deeply registered in the physical basis of the animal's 

 mind that it is nearly always ineradicable by train- 

 ing in the adult. 



Now anyone who is acquainted with the literature 

 of this subject, and who recalls how Darwinians 

 like Romanes dwell on fear of natural enemies in 

 animals as an inborn inheritance transmitted from 

 ancestors in whom it was developed by natural 

 selection, will probably experience great surprise if 

 he turns to one of the most valuable and interesting 

 records of observation and experiment on animals 

 published in recent years, namely, the Childhood 



