14G ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, ESQ., M.D., M.R.C.S., ETC., ON 



and in the lower forms of animal life does not this open up 

 the whole of the great question of the formation of natural 

 reflexes or automatic action and instinct? Are the rhythmic 

 pulsations of the jelly-fish or the movement of an amoeba 

 the outcome of purely reflex action, or were they at flrst 

 voluntarily acquired habits passing by long use into hereditary 

 reflexes ? 



In the marvellous labours of the ant and bee instinct 

 seems to have reached its apogee. Do they, as Romanes 

 suggests, speak to us of a lapsed intelligence that having by 

 long use formed all needed habits, has ceased to act when 

 these have been crystallized into instincts ? These questions, 

 fascinating and interesting though tliey may be, are un- 

 answerable in our present state of knowledge. Although 

 the evidence in favour of lapsed intelligence increases, Prof. 

 AV. H. Thompson from the Chair of Physiology in Belfast, 

 read only last week (Jan. 1894), " that the amoeba presented 

 active and spontaneous movements, and that here one not 

 only meets with a power of choice, but also an intelHgent 

 consciousness in selecting food." 



Habit in man, as generall}^ understood, means an act or 

 thought, or sensation, or any combination of these, simple or 

 complicated, that has been sufiiciently often repeated to no 

 longer require the same intelligence and will-power for its 

 execution that were at first needed. It thus becomes an 

 acquired or an artificial reflex. 



Nearly all natural instincts in animals have thus to be 

 formed as artificial reflexes in man. In man artificial habits 

 formed at will replace instincts of a fixed character, or, if you 

 please, voluntary habits replace automatic habits. Routine 

 is living by habit. We sow acts and we reap habits ; we sow 

 habits and we reap character ; we sow character and we 

 reap destiny. Habit has well been called the railroad of 

 character. Habit is physical memory. Memory is psychical 

 habit. Character is organized habit. It is wonderful to note 

 that even fixed habits that have passed (as we have sug- 

 gested) long since into instincts or reflexes, can be modified 

 by environment. It is the habit of all ova to build organisms 

 in accordance with certain exact laws. But the ovum of a 

 w^orking bee that would produce a working bee is made to 

 produce a queen bee by altering its food and feeding it on 

 royal bee bread. 



The force of liahlt, — The force of habit is, however, very 

 great, and is only short of natural reflexes, which are 



