1G8 ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, ESQ.^ M.D., M.H.C.S., ETC., O'J 



accompanied by a peculiai" call, the association with the call was 

 at once and pernianentlj established. With fish the process was 

 slower bnt sure and lasting. Whether and what impressions are 

 transmissible to offspring is a wide question. In the Eevne 

 Scienf.ijjque, May 4th, 1889, an account is given of the " formation 

 d'un instinct," to the effect that every evening for ten years 

 (beyond which the narrator's observation did not go) a flock of 

 geese manifested wild terror at a place and twilight hour coin- 

 cident with a murderous attack that had once been made on them 

 by dogs, although all the older members of the flock had been 

 killed off every year for market. 



Aside from the subject of transmission, implied in instinct, one 

 may affirm that all animals below man are perfect mechanisms 

 for the instant or speedy and permanent fixation of every 

 associated sensation and impulse. The first act thus ingrained 

 may be I'egai'ded as accidental or as foreoi'dained, according as 

 one may be disposed to interpret the universe. Intelligence, 

 higher in its proper human sphere, is lower than this principle 

 on the plane of animal life, and is worse than superfluous in this 

 matter. The perfection and ruling principle of developed man is 

 intelligence proper. The perfection and operating principle of 

 the animal is quite another thing, — simple and comprehensible as 

 daily illustrated and also as familiar, subordinate and imperfect 

 in our own experience, but so different from our usual, conscions, 

 mental action that it will probably continue to be mysterious or 

 misleading to most persons iu all time to come. 



On this side of the Atlantic, the chimney-swift (Cha-tura 

 pelagica), with the same habit as the chimney-swallow of Europe, 

 is the triumphant instance put forward of intelligent formation or 

 change of instinct. But, first, it does not appear that the original 

 instinct was other than for any high hollow place of nesting; 

 secondly, it is lack of intelligence to affix the nest perilously on a 

 sooty surface, and exposed to rain if not to heat, as many a 

 wi'ecked nest and dead young swift in the old chamber fire-places 

 abundantly proved ; and, thirdly, notwithstanding this, the 

 chimney generations, not being exposed to enemies in the few 

 remaining hollow trees of disappearing forests, may alone have 

 survived, according to the hjq^othesis of natural selection pure and 

 simple. Beyond this instance we have little except the very 

 natural change of nesting-place by any animal when disturbed, and 

 the crow's speedy association of danger with a gun, &c., &c., all 



