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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 64. 



as in intelligent adaptation. The instinct to 

 imitate requires a general tendency to act out 

 for himself the actions which the animal sees, 

 to make the sounds which he hears, etc. Now 

 this involves connections of the centers of sight, 

 hearing, etc., with certain muscular coordina- 

 tions. If he have not the coordinations he can 

 not imitate; just as we saw above is the case 

 with intelligence, if the creature have not the 

 apparatus ready, he can not use it intelligently. 

 Imitation diifers from intelligence in being a 

 general form of coordinated adaptation, while 

 intelligence involves a series of special forms.* 

 But both have to have the apparatus of coordi- 

 nated movement. So we find, as an actual 

 fact which all agree upon, that by imitation the 

 little animal picks up directly the example, in- 

 struction, mode of life, etc., of his private 

 family circle and of his species. This then 

 enables him to use effectively, for the purposes 

 of his life, the coordinations which become in- 

 stincts later on in the life of the species; and 

 again we have here two points which directly 

 tend to neutralize the arguments of Romanes 

 from ' selective value ' and ' co-adaptation. ' 

 The co-adaptations may be held to be gradually 

 acquired ; since the coordinations of a partial 

 kind are utilized by the imitative function be- 

 fore they become instinctive. And the law of 

 ' selective value ' does not get application, since 

 the imitative function, by using these muscular 

 coordinations, supplements them, secures adap- 

 tations, keeps the creature alive, prevents the 

 'incidence of natural selection,' and so gives 

 the species all the time necessary to get the 

 variations required for the full instinctive per- 

 formance of the function. 



III. These positions are illustrated in a very 

 fortunate way by the interesting cases reported 

 by Prof. Morgan in his discussion this evening. 

 He cites the beautiful observation that his 

 young chicks had the instinct to drink by throw- 

 ing their heads up in the air, etc. , but that it 

 came into action only after they had the taste of 

 water by accident or by imitating the old fowl. 

 As Mr. Morgan says, the ' incidence of natural 



* That they are really the same in type and origin 

 I have argued in detail in my work Mental Develop- 

 ment in the Child and the Race (2d ed.j Macmillans, 



1895). 



selection ' is prevented by the imitation or in- 

 struction or intelligent adaptation (in cases 

 where experience is required). So, in this in- 

 stance, the instinct of drinking, which has only 

 got so far as a connection of certain muscular 

 coordinations with the sense of taste, is made ef- 

 fective for the life interests of the chick. Thus 

 kept alive the .species has plenty of time — in 

 case it should be necessary — to get a connection 

 established also between the sight center and 

 the same coordination of movements ; so that 

 future chicks may be born with a capacity for 

 drinking when water is seen only without wait- 

 ing for instruction, a fortunate accident, or 

 an example to imitate. So we may imagine 

 creatures, whose hands were used for holding 

 only with the thumb and fingers on the same 

 side of the object held, to have first discovered, 

 under stress of circumstances and with varia- 

 tions which permitted the further adaptation, 

 how to make intelligent use of the thumb for 

 grasping opposite to the fingers, as we now do. 

 Then, let us suppose that this proved of such 

 utility that all the young that did not do it were 

 killed off; the next generation following would 

 be intelligent or imitative enough to do it also. 

 They would use the same coordinations intelli- 

 gently or imitatively to prevent natural selec- 

 tion getting its operation ; and so instinctive 

 ' thumb-grasping ' might be waited for indefi- 

 nitely by the species and then be got altogether 

 apart from use-inheritance. 



We may say, therefore, that there are two 

 great kinds of influence, each in a sense heredi- 

 tary ; there is natural heredity by which varia- 

 tions are congenitally transmitted with original 

 endowment, and there is ' social heredity ' by 

 which functions socially acquired (i. «., imita- 

 tively, covering all the conscious acquisitions 

 made through intercourse with other animals) 

 are also socially transmitted. The one is phylo- 

 genetic ; the other ontogenetic. But these two 

 lines of hereditary influence are not separate 

 nor uninfluential on each other. Congenital 

 variations, on the one hand, are kept alive and 

 made effective by their conscious use for intel- 

 ligent and imitative adaptations in the life of 

 the individual ; and, on the other hand, intel- 

 ligent and imitative adaptation become con- 

 genital by further progress and refinement of 



