Chap. XIV.] ITS NATUTxE AND ORIGIN. 229 



previous abortive attempts and failures. D. A. Spalding 

 says :* 



" The pig is an animal that has its wits about it quite aa soon 

 after birth as the chicken. I, therefore, selected it as a subject of 

 observcition. The following are some of my observations : That 

 vigorous young pi^js get up and search for tlie teat at oace, and 

 within one minute after their entrance into the world ; that if re- 

 moved several feet from their mother, when aged only a few minutes, 

 they soon find their way back to her, guided apparently by the 



grunting she makes in an.swer to their squeaking One 



pig I put in a bag tbe moment it was born, and kept it in the 

 dark till it was seven hours old, when I placed it outside the sty, 

 a distance of ten feet from where the sow lay concealed inside the 

 house. The pig soon recognized the low grunting of its mother, 

 went along outside the sty, struggling to get under or over the 

 lower bar. At the end of five minutes, it succeeded in forcing itself 

 through, under the bar, at one of the few places where that was 

 possible. Xo sooner in, than it went without a pause into the 

 pig-house to its mother, and was at once like the others in its 

 behaviour." 



In other cases, however, powers or instincts [h) which 

 cannot be manifested at birth become developed after 

 days or weeks ; apparently because, in these cases, the 

 Nervous Systems of the young animals have to go through 

 certain stages of development beyond those which have 

 been attained at the time when the young leave the 

 oriducts or womb of the mother. 



On this subject, D. A. Spalding remarks : *' The 

 human infant cannot masticate ; it can move its limbs, 

 but cannot walk, or direct i.s hands so as to grasp an 

 object held before it. The kitten just born cannot catch 

 mice. The newly-hatched swallow or tomtit can neither 

 walk, nor lly. nor feed itself. They are helpless as the 

 human infant. Is it as the result of painful learning that 



* *• ^[aemillan's Magazine," February, 1S73. 

 11 



