Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/162

"It was said by the late Dr. Robert Ball, that when the common Sargartia parasitica is attached to a stone, and a hermit crab is placed in its vicinity, the anemone will leave the stone and attach itself to the hermit's shell."—Animal Intelligence, p. 234.

 

Instinct is certainly present in worms, as Darwin proved.

 

"Seeing that they always lay hold of the part of the leaf (even though an exotic one) by the traction of which the leaf will offer least resistance to being drawn down."—Quoted by Professor Romanes in Animal Intelligence, p. 24.

 

"This animal is of a timid disposition, darting into its burrow like a rabbit when alarmed."—Quoted by Professor Romanes in Mental Evolution in Animals, p. 344.

 

Instinct is certainly present also in the molluscs, and, as every one knows, it is developed to an astonishing degree in the annulosa—e.g. insects; and here also may we detect the first glimmering of reason, if my definition of it as "the faculty which is concerned in the conscious adaption of means to ends by virtue of acquired non-inherited knowledge and ways of thinking and acting" be correct.

 

"Even the headless oyster seems to profit from experience, for Dicquemase (Journal de Physique, vol. xxviii. p. 244) asserts that oysters taken from a depth never uncovered by the sea, open their shells, lose the water within, and perish; but oysters taken from the same place and depth, if kept in reservoirs, where they are occasionally left uncovered for a short time, and are otherwise incommoded, learn to keep their shells