“Instinct and Acquisition”

Abstract

IN NATURE (vol. xii. p. 507) there appears, under the above heading, a very interesting article, being an epitome of a paper read by Mr. Spalding at the Bristol meeting of the British Association. Now that the doctrine which is maintained in this article—a doctrine with which Mr. Spalding's name is associated as almost its only experimental verifier—has proved itself so completely victorious in overcoming the counter-doctrine of “the individual-experience psychology” —and this along the whole line both of fact and theory—it seems unnecessary for anyone to adduce additional facts in confirmation of the views which Mr. Spalding advocates. I shall therefore confine myself to detailing a few results yielded by experiments which were designed to illustrate the subordinate doctrine thus alluded to in Mr. Spalding's article:—