onsciousness. In sucking, for instance, sensation accompanies
both the discomfort of the organism giving rise to the movements and
also the instinctive act itself. In this respect it differs from such
automatic actions as breathing, the circulation of the blood, and the
beating of the heart.

=Origin of Instinct.=--The various instinctive movements with which an
organism is endowed, not being a result of experience or education, a
question at once arises as to their source, or origin. Instinct has its
origin in the fact that certain movements which have proved beneficial
in the ancestral experience of the race have become established as
permanent modes of reaction, and are transmitted to each succeeding
generation. The explanation of this transmission of tendencies is, that
beneficial movements are retained as permanent modifications of the
nervous system of the animal, and are transmitted to the offspring as a
_reactive tendency_ toward definite stimuli. The partridge family, for
instance, has preserved its offspring from the attacks of foxes, dogs,
and other enemies only by the male taking flight and dragging itself
along the ground, thus attracting the enemy away from the direction of
the nest. The complex movements involved in such an act, becoming
established as permanent motor connections within the system, are
transmitted to the offspring as predispositions. Instinct would thus
seem a physiological habit, or hereditary tendency, within the nervous
system to react in a fixed manner under certain conditions. In many
respects, however, instincts seem to depend more largely upon bodily
development than upon nervous structure. While the babe will at first
instinctively suck; yet as soon as teeth appear, the sucking at once
gives way to the biting instinct. The sucking instinct then disappears
so completely that only a process of education will re-establish it
later. Birds also show no instinctive tendency to fly until their wings
are developed, while the young of even the fiercest animals will flee
from danger, until such time as their bodily organism is properly
developed for attack. From this it would seem that instinctive action
depends even more upon general bodily structure and development than
upon fixed co-ordinations within the nervous system.

HUMAN INSTINCTS

On account of the apparently intelligent character of human actions, it
is often stated that man is a creature largely devoid of instincts. The
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