480 
EDUCABILITY OF ANIMALS. 
spaniel. On the subject of the hereditary transmission of ac- 
quired qualities by animals, we have some curious information 
from the venerable naturalist Mr. T. A. Knight. 
In a communication to the Royal Society, in 1807, Mr. Knight 
remarked the disposition of bees to seek for cavities in trees, 
where such existed, as places to swarm to; and surmised, that 
their taking up with the hives offered them is a result of domes- 
tication, which becomes inherent in those which have for several 
generations been under the care of man. To support this view, 
he cited several other instances of domesticated animals inherit- 
ing the acquired habits of their parents. “ In all animals,” he 
says, “ this is observable ; but in the dog it exists to a wonder- 
ful extent; and the offspring appears to inherit not only the 
passions and propensities, but even the resentments, of the family 
from which it springs. I ascertained that a terrier, whose parents 
had been in the habit of fighting with polecats, will instantly 
shew every mark of anger when he first perceives the scent of 
that animal, though the animal itself be wholly concealed from 
his sight. A young spaniel brought up with the terriers shewed 
no marks of emotion at the scent of the polecat, but it pursued 
a woodcock, the first time it saw one, with clamour and exulta- 
tion : and a young pointer, which I am certain had never seen a 
partridge, stood trembling with anxiety, its eyes fixed, and its 
muscles rigid, when conducted into the midst of a covey of those 
birds. Yet each of these dogs are mere varieties of the same 
species, and to that species none of these habits are given by 
nature. The peculiarities of character can therefore be traced to 
no other source than the acquired habits of the parents, which 
are inherited by the offspring, and become what I call instinctive 
hereditary propensities .” 
It appears from another communication made by Mr. Knight 
to the same society in 1837, that he had then been pursuing in- 
vestigations on this subject for nearly sixty years He proceeds 
in that communication to give a general account of his investi- 
gations. “ At the period,” he says, “at which my experiments 
commenced, well-bred and well-taught springing spaniels were 
abundant, and I readily obtained possession of as many as I wanted. 
I had at first no other object than that of obtaining dogs of 
great excellence ; but within a, very short time, some facts came 
under my observation which very strongly arrested my attention. 
In several instances, young and wholly inexperienced dogs ap- 
peared very nearly as expert in finding woodcocks as their expe- 
rienced parents. The woods in which I was accustomed to shoot 
did not contain pheasants, nor much game of any kind, and I 
therefore resolved never to shoot at any thing except woodcocks, 
