Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-21
INSTINCT OF THE INSECT.
Mystery of Its Presence in Beings
That Live Only Short Time.
From Literary Digest.

According TO the theory that instinct Is
inherited experience It Is difficult to see
why insects that live only a few weeks or
months should have any instincts at all,
since the time in which they may accumu-
late experience is SO limited. But Ed
mond Perrier. an advocate OF this theory,
shows that We may reconcile 1t with
these facts by supposng that the original
experience, of which the instinct of insects
Is the successor by hereditary transmission,
was acquired by their ancestors ages ago.
when they lived longer and had time to
learn. OF this ingenious theory NJ. A. La
tour says In La Nature:
THE progress made recently In the study
OF the nervous system led Edmond Perrier
to new theory OF instinct, regarding which
philosophers will probably be somewhat
skeptical, but OF which a geological conse-
quence deserves to be known for it's in
genuity. The author is endeavoring to
explain by means of experience and hered-
ity alone how insects whose adult life lasts
only few weeks. or even few days. and
who know nothing of their parentage. have
the time and the ability to acquire their
wonderful instincts. Evidently there is no
possibility here of education nor of Gus
toms; 1t would seem as IL the manifesto
ton of instinct in the individual were quito
spontaneous.
But NJ. Perrier notes that the existence of
the seasons We know them, appears to
be of very recent geological origin Cecil
ogists in general agree that temperature
and climate were once. for very long pc
rfods absolutely uniform in all parts Of the
earth and throughout the whole year. This
Is explained by the fact that the sun was
then much larger, the inequalities OF the
seasons having been brought about, little
by little. by its gradual condensation. Now.
insects existed at a time when this con-
densation had not yet taken place. Insects
were remarkably abundant on the banks OF
the carboniferous lakes or lagoons, and the
Interesting discoveries of Messrs. Fayol
and Charles Brongiart at Commentry have
shown how great was their variety and
how huge their size at that time.
NOW since there were then no seasons
the cause of that now brings about the
early death OF insects, so soon after their
must have lived as long as any other
creatures: they must have been able, like
our higher animals, to acquire experience
and transmit 1t to their offspring. thus
gaining acquired and cultivated intelii-
gence in the same measure as other living
beings. This was then Transmitted by
heredty, and when the seasons began to
appear. in the tertiary epoch, when by the
appearance of cold insect life was reduced
to brief season. when experience and
parental education could no longer play
their part. the intelligence formerly ac-
quired and transmitted from generation to
theory, have been changed into immutable
instinct; that is to say. 1t must have been
fixed at Discriminate point without power
to progress further Our present insects
are thus reproducing indefinitely the facul-
ties and cerebral development Of the in
sects of the secondary epoch OF geological
Tune"