Morning journal and courier., 1883-03-30
Inherited Mental Attributes of the Squirrel.
From the American Naturalist.I

Squirrel.
 From the American Naturalist.1
 After the weather began to grow cold I placed one evening on the floor handful of acorns before Skip was let out. He began his frolic as usual, and finally ran upon them. The circumstances were such that the acorns awakened in him a new and intense emotion, which in an instant seemed to fill his whole being to overfowing. For few minutes he | appeared transformed into 8 wild squirrel and went bounding about the room shying l from objects with which he was perfectly | familiar, and starting at the slightest noise. | He soon returned to the pile of nuts and
 took one of them in his mouth, running with | it to corner of the room, where he made 8 | hurried, eager effort to bury it, humping the
 acorn upon the floor as if he was endeavor- | ing to push it beneath the surface. After | from three to five thrusts, made as rapidly as one can count without separating the words, he made as many strokes with his fore feet upon the carpet, scratching as if to
 cover the acorn up. This done he hurried
 back to the pile of acorns, seized another, rushed back to the same corner again, going | through the same motions as before. I kept his pile supplied, and he worked during a
 full half hour, depositing a few nuts in all corners of the room, behind table legs, be-
 hind the books in my secretary, and in the pits made by the tie-buttons in all the up- holstered chairs. The next evening before letting him into the room placed an assort:
 nent of nuts upon the floor, among which were acorns hazelnuts, hickory nuts, oceans
 and English valnuts, all of which he had
 been fed upon frequently, exhibiting but lit
 tie preference for either, so far as observed.
 On discovering the pile, Skip did not appear
 agitated as on the previous evening, but set at once to carrying of the acorns and hazel
 nuts, hiding them with the same motions as
 before but to my surprise he touched none r k-sa T. ing nights with the same, and to me strange, results, for acorns and hazel nuts are the only ones that grow in the vicinity where the squirrels were taken. The g-nut nick ory is found in abundance not more than ten miles distant. Have we here inherited men, tai attributes so strong as not only to origi- nate the generic act of storing up nuts on the approach of cold weather, but so specific 8 form of it as selection of the two kinds of nuts from among three others which, beyond much question, were the only ones of the five named with which his near ancestors had anything to do It should be stated in this
 connection that the squirrel had eaten of the other nuts during at least two months prior to the selection in question, with as much sp- parent relish he evinced for either the hazel-nuts or acerns. This particular squir- rel, only about fiva months old, had had no experience whatever with nuts except in con-
 fnement, and, of course, had never before
  l instance and in similar ones evidence that an act, executed repeatedly during particular
 seasonal conditions and under certain sense impressions, as sight and smell, may impart l so definite set to the organization as that it shall be transmitted to an offspring? Is this set 6 molecular one and located in the ner- vous tissue? Is it so sensitive that if, when
 the body is experiencing those seasonal
 changes due to the change of seasons in the earth during which the original set had it's origin, 8 combination of vibrations (those
 accompanying the sight and smell of an acorn, for exanple) like those which were in | strumental in producing the set, are again imposed upon the nervous tissues. similar feelings will be awakened which tend to cul- minate in desire like the ones which had
 prompted former generations to the act ID question? And is this way to repetition of
 that act !? Did not Skip on the night in ques-
 ton experience true recollection Tn which
 the memory he had inherited was logged by the combination of the sight and smell of
 acorns and the systemic feeling of approach
 ing winter?