REASON AND INSTINCT

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 8292, 30 November 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

REASON AND INSTINCT

(Bv Dr Andrew Wilson.) It -is a faaiiiiar fact of science that many actions in animals which we are apt «> suppose are directly concerned witih the brain as their source of governance are really performed indepEndently of ithia brain -altogether. Thus, if -a- frog be decapitated, " wihan thus practically killed, and when the 'life -of tlhie tissues in -tine cd'.d-bboded animal still persists for a time, i t will wipe off a drop -of acid placed on one side of the body with the hind lee of that- side. It wili also put itself verv much about to effect this object- if .the"drop cf acid is placed in a position not ■readily reached by t-he foot. One is reminded' of these familiar facts'

bv the perusal of an interesting paper on

"instinct" by Dr W. Beat hall. The term "instinct" m-.isy persons find' hard of explanation. Animals (and plants also, for nhafc ■matter) do certain things in a fashion which suggests that they have not- so much learned to perform the actions in question as that tlhey have inherited the capacity of doing them,. This w.e call "instinct." When, on the other hand, an action is performed as the result of a

conscious impulse towards its execution, we teim' the operation one of "reason." Divested -of metaphysical subtleties, one might hold that when -we understand why we do {tnythin~ and do it in obedience to our understanding, Ae action denot'es "reason." When, contrariwise, tlhe operation is executed 'Witlhout the apparent or necessary intervention of .this understanding, it is termed "instinct." This is, I think, a fair statement of tfae case. It is on this account that the main run of acts cf lower life, being believed to be dictated, not by reason or knowledge, but simply by the perpetuated exigencies of existence —often reflected in "habits" of miaiibed kind—are referred to "instinct" simply and entirely. The .young bee, liberated fromj its chrysalis .state, at' once enters upooi the performance of all its duties in .the hive, including tie making of the cells, and discharges its work as perfectly as did its pr&dectssors. Here, tihen, can be no question of knowledge, reason, or .training; but what iwe do see exhibited is tlhat 'instinct" w ! hich is .tlhe outcome of perpetuated like habiits, transmitted from countless genieratio-ns of bees in the past to the insects of ito-day. When a lad is put to leann a trade, and at first handfe his tools awkwardly, w.e are dealing witlh something different from the case of tlhe bee. -He 'has to learn how to execute Ibis w-ork, and only after a given tenia of experience and practice will he attain to perfection in its performance. So fair, all is clear sailing enough. 'Bu-t tiher-e are points and resemblances to be netted between "reason" and "instinct" which must not escape the notice of tike observer. It is a common fact of existence that actions which were ati first inteKieotiual in tihiedr nature and of conscious origin, in due season and from repetition become automatic and instinctive in character.

We require to "learn" to read and Do write, for example, but these acts soon become as perfectly automatic as -do tie actions of the bee. The boy <who a.fc first has to confine all his attention to the manner of using Ms tools, soon -employs tlheim in a fashion which betokens that lie has conquered the initial difficulties! of his trade. His acts, like .those of reading and writing, have become essemtiallv of instinctive nature. In tfhis -way, -Tre begin to see that the real basis of iour actions is perpetuated -habit. 'Over iaind) above this state -we find in man, and probab3y also in a good number of lis fellow-ani-mals, the -intervention of those higfcer powers which we (am in one word, "consciousness," _ the highest ' attribute of imind. Bub it is very evident everything begins -with -instinct, and many of our daily acts are performed not by us, but for us, through the brain's (habit of automatic action. When our eyelids close suddenly as the result of someone passing his hand rapidly before our face, that act is just as instinctive as is th'e behaviour of the decapitated frog. When, on the other hand, we come faoe to face with a, problem wihich demands all our mental resources for its solution, we bring into play the peculiar faculties which mark -thte rea-soning man. The procedure of closing our 'eyes when someone threatens a blow, and that of tihe headless frog, are examples of "reflex action." That is to Siy, a stimulus received by, say, a sense organ, is transmitted to some nerve centre or other, and is "reflected" therefrom, somewhere else, producing the desired result. If I cross the sfrretet rapidly because I hear a cab driving up at .a furious pace behind me, it is because the impression made on mv ears is reflected" froin the (brain to fhe muscles °r carrying* me out of the reach of danger. We can see "how repeated "reflex actions" become in this way what we term "instinctive" ones ; and in the case of 'lower life there can be little jioubt that when "reflexes" useful to the race have been acquired, they become, as "instincts," part and parcel of the habit and constitution of the animals -which exhibit them. True, as time passes, modifications set in, and habits may be altered and varied; but in reality it is the same process of evolution, arid the fixing of the habits that are advantageous to the race, that mate for success in the battle of existence.

One 'word more. If Weismann be right "that acquired habits cannot "be transmitted to offspring, how, may one ask, can all this handed-on neurology, if so I may term it, bo accounted for ? I confess I fail -to understand how, on any 'otiher view than that the acquirements life boasts of to-dav may be perpetuated in the to-morrows of existence, we can explain the whole fabric of inheritance. As Dr Benthall puts it in his paper, it is ail the effect of drill, of practice, in the forgotten past. This at least is a simpler view than that which regards our evolution as due to minute and fortuitous variations, tihe origin of which nobody can explain.