Affective Tendencies 281 
its lips; and these efforts are continued until the little 
animal sucks.’ 24 
This example is very significant for it shows clearly 
how the necessity for the elimination of the milk must 
end in arousing an attachment for the nursling as the 
customary means for attaining this end, just as we have 
seen that the need for the elimination of the germinal 
substance must lead to an affectivity for the other sex, 
here again as the customary means to effect this 
elimination. 
Just as “sexual attraction” ceases after the elimina- 
tion of the germinal substance, so also does “mother 
love” disappear as soon as the need for lactation is no 
longer felt. ‘Maternal affection does not generally sur- 
vive the causes which produced it and only vague traces 
of it are noticeable after lactation has ceased.” 5 
Finally, the fact that the mother’s affection is stronger 
than that of the father, and that the parents’ love for 
their children is stronger than that of the children for 
their parents confirms the hypothesis that all these affec- 
tivities have arisen exclusively by way of habit, for it 
shows that affection for those with whom we have cer- 
tain relations is the more intense the more numerous 
and prolonged these relations are. “Among animals as 
a whole,” remarks Ribot, “paternal love is rare and in- 
constant and among the lower representatives of man- 
kind it is a feeble sentiment and forms but a slight 
bond.” 2 Paternal love exists only where the union of 
the sexes is close, that is, where the communal life 
241 loyd Morgan, Habit and Instinct, p. 115, New York, Arnold, 
1896. 
25Giard, op. cit., p. 273. 
26Ribot, psych. des sent., 285. 
