Heredity : a psychological study of its phenomena, laws, causes, and consequences / From the French of Th. Ribot.

  • Ribot, Th. (Théodule), 1839-1916.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Heredity : a psychological study of its phenomena, laws, causes, and consequences / From the French of Th. Ribot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/460 (page 16)
    16 Heredity. 'that aboriginal habits are long retained under domestication. Thus with the common ass we see signs of its original desert life in its strong dislike to cross the smallest stream of water, and in its pleasure in rolling in the dust. The same strong dislike to cross a stream is common to the camel, which has been domesticated from a very ancient period. Young pigs, though so tame, sometimes squat when frightened, and thus try to conceal themselves even in an open and bare place. Young turkeys, and occasionally even young fowls, when the hen gives the danger-cry, run away and try to hide themselves, like young partridges or pheasants, in order that their mother may take flight, of which she has lost the power. The musk-duck, in its native country, often perches and roosts on trees, and our domesticated musk-ducks, though sluggish birds, are fond of perching on the tops of barns, walls, etc We know that the dog, however well and regularly fed, often buries, like the fox, any superfluous food; we see him turning round and round on a carpet, as if to trample down grass to form a bed In the delight with which lambs and kids crowd together and frisk on the smallest hillock, we see a vestige of their former alpine habits.' ^ II. Instead of dwelling unnecessarily on the heredity of natural and primitive instincts, it will be more instructive to inquire whether acquired instincts are transmissible. We have already said, when giving, according to F. Cuvier and Flourens, the characteristics generally attributed to instinctive acts, that none of them are abso¬ lutely true. Thus, instinct is not always invariable. The beaver changes, according to circumstances, the site and form of his house, and from being a builder becomes a miner. The bee can modify her plan of construction, and substitute for hexagonal cells penta¬ gonal cavities. In the Island of Goree the swallows remain through the whole year, because the warmth of the climate enables them to find food at all seasons. In many species the mode of nest- building varies according to the nature of the soil, the locality, and the temperature of the country. Instinct is certainly not as pliant an instrument as intelligence ; it cannot, like intelligence, adapt itself ^ Variation, etc., vol. i. p. i8o.