CHAPTER XXII 



THE PROBLEM OF INSTINCT ^ 



There is probably no subject in the whole range of 

 biology, the study of which has been so universally 

 neglected as Instinct. Both scientific and popular writers 

 continually refer to it as if its nature and limitations were 

 matter of common knowledge, and its facts so well 

 established as to be almost above criticism. Yet when we 

 ask how it is known that certain actions of man or 

 animals are due to instinct and not to experience or 

 imitation, we find an almost total absence of accurate 

 observation or experiment, while hardly two writers are 

 agreed as to the exact meaning of the term. It is only 

 within the last quarter of a century that a few biologists 

 have made any careful experiments on the phenomena 

 presented by the actions of the higher animals, under such 

 conditions as entirely to exclude the agency of imitation 

 or of parental guidance ; and although these experiments 

 are as yet quite insufficient in quantity and far too limited 

 in scope, having regard to the wide field covered by the 

 actions and behaviour usually considered to be instinctive, 

 yet the results reached are already very interesting, and 

 are sufficient to show us that we need not despair of a 

 complete solution of the problem, at all events as regards 

 the higher animals. 



One of the first English observers to attack the problem 



^ Hahit and Instinct, by C. Lloyd Morgan, F.G.S. Pp. 351, 

 London : Edward Ai'nold, 1896. Price 16s. 



VOL. I. K K 



