March 25, 1899.] 
Instincts 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Fred Mather, m his paper, "Reason and In- 
stinct," intimates that he expects the other fellow to 
whack him. In this case I am the other fellow, and I 
am going to whack some of the instinct out of his 
argument if I can express my ideas in words, • 
The ideas -conveyed by the word instinct, had their 
origin when ignorance and superstition swayed the 
mind of man. When it was the belief that 'there was 
an impassable gulf between man and brute. When 
all mystery in animate nature was explained by the term 
instinct. AH this is changed. True, it may not be known 
to the casual reader, but it is a fact- that scientific in- 
\ cstigation has swept away the last vestiges of these old 
dclusioiis. 
Science teaches us that the tissue that rendci-s mental 
faculties possible is not confined to man, but is shared 
by other animal life. Mr. Pvlather's observations of the 
lower animals hus led to this conclusion, hence he 
grants reason to the brute creation, thus far over- 
tiirowing instinct. But he does not go far enough, 
lie yet holds to the word in.stinct to explain a seem- 
ing inystery. His statement that instinct closes the eye 
of man to protect it, is one of the old delusions that 
science has exposed and annihilated. 
Forty-four years ago, when I was about sixteen years 
of age. and was attending Hampden Academy, Me., 
T heard the Professor in a lecture make the same state- 
ment. It was a puzzle for me. I could not grasp the 
idea. What is instinct? Where is it located? How 
does it get control of the muscles of the eyelid? These 
were questions I asked myself in vain. In my study of 
mind and matter, it was a mountain in the pathway, and 
at last I asked the professor to explain. My thirst 
for knowledge received a setback, when he smilingly 
JUNE 13. 
Why does science claim that there is a consciousness 
that protects and controls the animal organism? Science 
claims it because the existence of the organism is ab- 
soIutel.v dependent on some such power. All the facts 
point in one direction. The mechanism is perfect and 
its action proves the theory. All the organs necessary 
with Mr. Mather, while fighting the battle for the lower 
animals. I shall use my knowledge of animal life to 
show how unjust are the arguments advanced by the 
opposition. If words do not fail me, I believe I can 
prove that the line of reasoning deduced from hypo- 
thetical idiotic actions of the lower animals is unjust and 
will not stand the test of common sense. 
Hermit. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Wade's so-called argument is so incoherently weak 
that it falls of its own defects.' 
The attainment of particular ends by the combination 
of materials and labor is the result of education, not of 
reason alone. I will gamble that if brother Wade 
wore out a hunting shirt he could no more replace it by 
making one himself — though surrounded by materials 
and machinery — than the dog could build the fire, and 
he might "hover around" a plate of pate de foies gras till 
the same was exhausted and he could not produce an- 
other dish if the streets swarmed with geese — he con- 
founds reason with education. His allegations in re- 
gard to the calf and the pups is without weight, as there 
is no means of proving that the mother is deceived. I 
have known of a cat suckling a rabbit, but was never 
of the opinion that the cat was fooled any. I believe 
the mother instinct to exist to greater or less extent in 
all animals. 
When a dog hovers around an "expiring fire" or any 
other kind of a fire, he "deduces inferences from the 
premises"; being cold, he reasons that the fire will warm 
iiim, and governs himself accordingly. 
Out of his own mouth shall he be judged. He says 
"I never saw an intelligent act in one of my dogs that 
was not readily accounted for by its previous acts and 
experiences." Just so; they "deduced inferences from 
the premises," i. e., their experiences. This very abil- 
MAY 23. AUGUST I, 
MOOSE HORN DEVELOPMENT. PHOTOGRAPHS BY O. R. MITCHELL AND WM. R. DUTEMPLE. 
said; "Master Walton, I frankly admit that I don't 
know anything about it." 
I think if Mr. Mather were hard pressed he would have 
to make the same reply. 
Now, in the light of science, let us see what takes 
place when an eye is threatened: The dangerous object 
is focused on the retina, thus brought in contact with 
the optic nerve. The optic nerve conveys the image 
to the area in the brain, where the knowledge of sight 
exists. Consciousness takes alarm and calls upon the 
proper muscles to close the eyelid. How do we know 
this? We know it because consciousness must be prop- 
erly alarmed. If the mechajiism of the eye is imperfect, 
protection will not take place. If the optic nerve were 
severed, the eye would be sightless, for the reason that 
there would be no connection with the area in the brain, 
where the knowledge of sight exists. Under such 
circumstances consciousness could not be alarmed by the 
sense of sight. But science teaches us that consciousness 
may also take alarm through the sense of feeling, even 
if the eye were sightless. 
Removing the foot from a burning coal is not de- 
pendent on instinct, as Mr. Mather seems to think. It 
is wholly unthinkable that instinct can control the proper 
muscles to remove the foot. Here pain conveys the 
alarm. The nerves connect the burning llesh with the 
spot in the brain, where the knowledge of pain exists, 
and consciousness does the rest. _ If the nerves were 
severed, no pain would result, and' no alarm and pro- 
tection take place. The sight or smell of burning flesh 
could carry the alarm to the brain, and consciousness' 
would afiford protection just as in the case of pain. 
The inability to feel pain when the nerves fail to 
connect with the brain is often emphasized when we 
lie on an arm in the night. 1 awoke one night not 
long ago and found that in some way I had stopped the 
nerves of my left arm from communicating with the 
brain. For a short time my hand was completely par- 
alyzed. It did not feel natural to the touch of the 
other hand. There was no reciprocity of feeling. I 
sharply pinched the fingers without producing pain. A 
live coal would have had no power to insure protec- 
tion by the burning of the hand, because the brain 
being disconnected, there could be no sensation of pain. 
Pain is a necessary provision of nature to protect the 
flesh of animal life. If there were no pain animals would 
be careless, and doubtless their bones and muscles would 
become exposed through ragged wounds. 
to prove the theory of consciousness are provided, in^ 
eluding nerve, muscle and gray tissue. This holds goo'd 
in relation to the lower animals as well as to man. 
I do not want it inferred from what I have written of 
consciousness that I indorse that old definition: ' "Man 
is an intelligence served by organ.s." 
Man is an organism, the whole dependent on the 
MOOSE CALF. 
Williams Park, Providence, R. 1. 
parts. The service is reciprocal. Man, with all his 
boasted intelligence, may be sent to the mad-house by 
a slight change in his nerve tissue. 
I hope Air. Mather, when he writes for Forest and 
Stream, will kindly substitute the word heredity for 
instinct. It is a much better word, and it expresses all 
that the word instinct can without partaking of the 
supernatural, 
In my next paper I shall stand shoulder to shoulder 
ity to profit by experience or the results of previous acfs 
is the strongest possible proof of reason. Shelter can- 
not be had in the claim that this is memory, for memory 
unassisted by reason would but record the result in a 
specific case; it could not connect that result with the 
probable result of future acts. Man at birth is as feeble 
and helpless as is the dog, and the development of his 
ability to reason is based upon his experiences and the 
experiences of others. The child may once grasp the 
hot iron, but he seldom does it twice. The pup may 
once put his nose on the hot radiator, but he refrains 
thereafter. The child and the dog "deduce inferences 
froni the premises." Is there any possible warrant for the 
claim that one travels the road of reason and the other 
than of instinct? As I said before, our friend Wade 
confuses reason and education. 
No one will for a moment contend that the possibili- 
ties of education in the dog are equal to those in most 
men, but the fact that they are circumscribed does not 
confute their existence any more than would the fact 
that one man's mental grasp is greater than another's 
prove the absence of mind in the weaker. 
I am well aware that in some of our modern diction- 
aries reason is given as an attribute of man only, as 
distinguished from the intelligence of the brute creation, 
but in the definition given by Mr. Wade, and the generally 
accepted use of the term, the position of the antis is 
untenable. Counselor. 
The« Flight of an Eagfle. 
Springfield, 111., March S-— Editor Forest and Stream. - 
My friend, Charles C. Sedgwick, the well-known sports- 
man of Dansville, N. Y., who, by the way, is always on 
the lookout for something interesting in the doings of 
wild creatures, writes under a recent date that some weeks 
ago, while absorbed in some work in the house, his atten- 
tion was attracted to a passing pedestrian looking intently 
at the sky. Throwing open the window he beheld a large 
eagle come sailing up the street. To quote his own words : 
"The air was heavy after some rain. I ran down stairs 
just as the great bird passed over our house. He was 
flying quite low, and had to flop heavily to get on. He 
passed over the Rhoda farm and then turned to the south- 
west. It was a grand sight. He looked to spread 6 or 7ft. 
At first I thought he had been wounded, but later made up 
my mind that he was all right." j, g 
