460 Canadian Record of Science 



theirs. The scientific spirit was pre-eminently his. How 

 earnestly he planned and how patiently he waited and 

 worked to get at the truth this volume makes clear. 

 While accepting evolution as a working theory, he put 

 fact above theory. Nothing was taken for granted, and 

 no detail was deemed unimportant in his observations 

 on the development of the intelligence of the animals 

 under study. No portion of this delightful book more 

 conspicuously displays his love of truth than the corre- 

 spondence regarding "instinct" with which it con- 

 cludes. He would not bind himself to any hard and fast 

 theory which would not take in the facts which he had 

 personally collected. 



Having established that animals have mind, which 

 usually goes by the name of instinct, he proceeds to 

 show that their mental powers are capable of great ex- 

 pansion from the moment of the creature's birth until 

 the time it has reached full growth and maturity. He 

 concluded that individuals sometimes went beyond the 

 stage of intelligence attained by the mass of the species. 

 He thought this an important fact bearing upon the evo- 

 lutionary theory. Henri Fabre, in his studies on insect 

 life, pointed out similar instances of the acquisition of 

 knowledge by individuals in advance of that reached by 

 the species as a whole : but neither of them was able to 

 assert that the offspring of these more intelligent indi- 

 viduals had any advantage over the offspring of the 

 common herd. They all started with the same degree of 

 intelligence. So that the link is wanting, postulated by 

 the theory of evolution, that habits acquired by indi- 

 viduals in their passage through life are transmitted to 

 their offspring, and become the basis for subsequent 

 general advancement of the species. Proof is lacking 

 that special acquirements of individuals are inherited by 

 their descendants. 



His last publication was on the somewhat curious sub- 

 ject of "Voice Production in Singing and Speaking on 

 Scientific Principles." He would appear to have 



