[2] Muller, `Elements of Physiology,' Eng. translat. vol. ii. p. 939.
See also Mr. H. Spencer's interesting speculations on the
same subject, and on the genesis of nerves, in his `Principles
of Biology,' vol. ii. p. 346; and in his `Principles of Psychology,'
2nd edit. pp. 511-557.
When there exists an inherited or instinctive tendency to the performance
of an action, or an inherited taste for certain kinds of food,
some degree of habit in the individual is often or generally requisite.
We find this in the paces of the horse, and to a certain extent
in the pointing of dogs; although some young dogs point excellently
the first time they are taken out, yet they often associate the proper
inherited attitude with a wrong odour, and even with eyesight.
I have heard it asserted that if a calf be allowed to suck its mother
only once, it is much more difficult afterwards to rear it by hand.[3]
Caterpillars which have been fed on the leaves of one kind of tree,
have been known to perish from hunger rather than to eat the leaves
of another tree, although this afforded them their proper food,
under a state of nature;[4] and so it is in many other cases.
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