NA TURE 



49 



THURSDAY, NO\'EMBER 21, 1901. 



ZOOLOGICAL PROBLEMS STUDIED BY A 

 PSYCHOLOGIST, PSYCHOLOGICAL PRO- 

 BLEMS STUDIED BY A ZOOLOGIST. 



Aniiihil Behaviour. By C. Lloyd Morgan, F.R.S. Pp. 

 viii + 344. (London ; Arnold, 1900.) Price lo.f. 6d. 



THIS interesting and highly suggestive work grew 

 out of an attempt to revise the author's " Animal 

 Life and Intelligence." It was found that "the amended 

 treatment would not fall conveniently under the previous 

 scheme of arrangement." The subject is divided into 

 seven sections, dealt with in as many chapters, the first 

 concerned with " Organic Behaviour," the second " Con- 

 sciousness," the third "Instinctive Behaviour," the fourth 

 " Intelligent Behaviour," the fifth " Social Behaviour," 

 the si.icth " Feelings and Emotions," the seventh " Evo- 

 lution of Animal Behaviour." The illustrations are 

 numbered I to 26 ; but some of them contain several 

 figures. Part of the work is coarse and unsightly, 

 alihough clear {e.g: Fig. 13); on the other hand, some 

 of the process blocks are quite successful, especially 

 those which reproduce Mr. Charles Whymper's three 

 drawings (Figs. 4, 5, 15). The book is well and clearly 

 printed, and there are very few slips or misprints. 



The first chapter of the work opens with an intro- 

 ductory section on behaviour in general, followed by an 

 account of the more fundamental types of behaviour, viz. 

 of cells and cell-aggregates, of plants and of reflex action, 

 which latter is held to involve the e.xistence of a difiter- 

 entiated nervous system. The chapter concludes with 

 a section upon the evolution of consciousness, while the 

 five succeeding chapters similarly include discussions 

 upon the evolution, respectively, of consciousness, in- 

 stinctive, intelligent, social and emotional behaviour. 

 The last chapter is confined to the consideration of the 

 evolution of animal behaviour. The principles which 

 the author lays down for his guidance in the discussion 

 of animal behaviour are the attempts to realise, in every 

 case, 



"first, the nature of the animal under consideration; 

 secondly, the conditions under which it is placed ; 

 thirdly, the manner in which the response is called forth 

 by the circumstances ; and fourthly, how far the be- 

 haviour adequately meets the essential conditions of the 

 situation." 



A rigid adherence to these wise principles, perhaps 

 more than anything else, leads to a sense of con- 

 fidence and security as we are guided through the 

 intricacies of this most complex subject. Our gratitude 

 is all the more real because of the difficulty and con- 

 fusion which have been gratuitously introduced into the 

 study of animal behaviour on account of the unfortunate 

 conviction held by nearly every owner of a domestic pet 

 that he, or even more frequently she, is intimately ac- 

 quainted with the workings of its mind, and because of 

 the unfortunate zeal with which hasty conclusions are 

 spread abroad. May every lover of dog stories be in- 

 duced to read the observations and conclusions on dog- 

 beha\ iour (p. 141 et sgg.), and learn caution and restraint 

 in interpretation. And caution is not needed less, but 

 NO. 1673, VOL. 65] 



more, when the subjects of observation are farther re- 

 moved from us in the zoological system, and combine 

 far inore wonderful instincts with a psychology more 

 difficult to penetrate because far more remote and foreign 

 to us. Maurice Maeterlinck's charmingly written book 

 on the bee would have been more trustworthy if its 

 author had received the advantage of Prof. Lloyd 

 Morgan's friendly guidance in " Animal Behaviour " and 

 his other kindred works. Many poetically expressed 

 motives which are believed to bring about the wonderful 

 instincts of the bees, and thoughts which are supposed 

 to guide them, would thus have been advantageously 

 omitted. 



In speaking of the corporate behaviour of the cell-units 

 of the higher animals it is well pointed out that the 

 periods of apparent rest are in reality the periods of 

 work during which are elaborated and stored up the un- 

 stable substances in preparation for the time of action ; 



"just as the brilliant display of intellectual activity in a 

 great orator is the result of the silent work of a life- 

 time, so is the physical manifestation of muscular power 

 the result of the silent preparatory work of the muscle- 

 cells." 



In explaining this apparently wasteful and roundabout 

 process the author points out that 



" only thus could the organs be enabled to act under the 

 influence of stimuli and afford examples of corporate 

 behaviour. They are like charged batteries ready to 

 dis charge under the influence of the slightest organic 

 touch " (p. 23). 



The adaptive behaviour of plants is illustrated by a tew 

 of the most remarkable examples, such as the fertilisation 

 of Vallisneria and Catasetion, and we are led to the safe 

 conclusion that the behaviour, beautiful and effective as 

 it is, " does not afford any indication of the guidance of 

 consciousness." Nowhere among plants do we meet 

 with 



"so much as a hint of that profiting by individual ex- 

 perience which is the criterion of the effective presence 

 of conscious guidance and control" (p. 31)- 



With the same wise caution the terms "discrimination" 

 and" perception" are abandoned in favour of "differential 

 reaction" in speaking of the movements of the tentacles 

 of the sun-dew and of some of the lower animals. Thus 

 all possibility of confusion with conscious choice is 

 deliberately excluded. 



In the brief section on the evolution of organic be- 

 haviour the author provisionally rejects the hypothesis of 

 the hereditary transmission of acquired characters. He 

 follows Osborn's convenient restriction of the term 

 modification to the changes wrought by use or envirori- 

 ment, and varialion to the inherent differences which are 

 due to the germ-cell. The distinction between these two 

 classes of characters is carefully drawn and clearly illus- 

 trated, although the author omits to point out with 

 sufficient clearness that the favourable modificalion is 

 dependent no less than the favourable variation upon 

 natural selection. The power of the organism to respond 

 adaptively to environmental stimuli is probably an even 

 higher effort of natural seleclion than that put forth in the 

 production of some favourable inherent character which 

 comes forth ready-made in the dexeloping individual 



D 



