120 
F. M. CAMPBELL-ON INSTINCT. 
the door open, but that he considers some action on the handle is 
requisite to effect the opening; or he will jump at the door and 
wait for a few seconds as if he wanted a response. Similar actions 
of domestic pets and animals occur in every household. There are, 
for instance, few dogs or horses in establishments where the daily 
practices are different on Sundays who do not show by their 
conduct a recognition of the change which has never been taught 
them. Christmas Day, Good Friday, come round, and the usual 
Sunday occurrences are repeated. The indications may be the 
hour of rising, of breakfasting, of performing some daily work, the 
change of dress, the silence of the early morning, or some unsus¬ 
pected detail; but, whatever they are, the animals show that they 
note them, and know what will be expected of them on that day. 
In the same manner, where the habits of a kennel and stable are 
regular, dogs know when they are going shooting, and hunters and 
hounds when they are going hunting. I know of a cat in Devonshire 
Square, City, who wilfully absents himself on Saturday afternoons, 
when his home, which is a warehouse, is deserted and closed, until 
Monday. He spends this time as a welcome guest in the kitchen 
of the next house. 
The more we know of animals, the more we see that they profit 
by experience. Many ascribe this adaptive action to Instinct— 
a word which has been so frequently misapplied as to have made 
many wish that it could be erased from the dictionary. Indeed, 
it would seem that many regard intelligence as the monopoly of 
humanity, and, as they cannot indict animals for infringement of 
right, attribute the manifest signs of its co-possession to some other 
faculty. There can be no doubt that the use of the word Instinct 
would never have become so general were it not for the apparent, 
though not real, anomaly of animals showing the most remarkable 
adjustments, whether as structures or as actions, side by side with 
incapacity under some conditions. The general admission of in¬ 
herited aptitudes with tendencies to variation in the lower animals, 
as well as in men, and “ the survival of the fittest,” have dispelled 
the mystery formerly attached to the word. Scientific men believe 
that the phenomena included under the term “Instinct” have 
been as gradually developed during many generations, as our 
own greatest inventions, which, if seen without a knowledge of 
their history, would strike us with the wonder frequently expressed 
at the sight of the waxen comb of the hive-bee. Darwin says that 
he “will not attempt any definition of Instinct,” and he adds, 
“ every one understands what is meant when it is said that instinct 
impels the cuckoo to migrate, and to lay her eggs in other birds’ 
nests. An action which we ourselves require experience to enable 
us to perform, when performed by an animal, more especially by a 
very young one, without any experience, and when performed by 
many individuals in the same way, without their knowing for what 
purpose it is performed, is usually said to be instinctive. But I 
could show that none of these characters of instinct are universal.”* 
* ‘ Origin of Species,’ 6th ed., p. 205. 
