It can be clearly shown
that the most wonderful instincts with which we are acquainted,
namely, those of the hive-bee and of many ants, could not possibly
have been thus acquired."--["Origin of Species," ed., 1859, p. 209.]
Again we read: "Domestic instincts are sometimes spoken of as
actions which have become inherited solely from long-continued and
compulsory habit, but this, I think, is not true."--Ibid., p. 214.
Again: "I am surprised that no one has advanced this demonstrative
case of neuter insects, against the well-known doctrine of inherited
habit, as advanced by Lamarck."--["Origin of Species," ed. 1872, p.
283.]
I am not aware that Lamarck advanced the doctrine that instinct is
inherited habit, but he may have done so in some work that I have
not seen.
It is true, as I have more than once pointed out, that in the later
editions of the "Origin of Species" it is no longer "the MOST
serious" error to refer instincts generally to inherited habit, but
it still remains "a serious error," and this slight relaxation of
severity does not warrant Professor Weismann in ascribing to Mr.
Darwin an opinion which he emphatically condemned. His tone,
however, is so offhand, that those who have little acquaintance with
the literature of evolution would hardly guess that he is not much
better informed on this subject than themselves.
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