WCP4074

[1]

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Dorset.

Feb^y. 7th 1912

Dear Mr. Harting¹

I return you the paper² on "Homing of Dogs"³ – It is rather curious that so many cases have been already noticed in America. But these are all so devoid of essential details as to be quite worthless for the purpose [2] of determining the process by which the animals do find their way home.

Definitions of "Instinct" are difficult because the whole idea is loose. The act of a child sucking is called (by many) an instinct, whereas it is a "reflex action" essential to life — As well call breathing an instinct.

At the other extreme is the bees' making the hexagonal cell, with the the [sic] three planes at the base of each cell at such an [3] angle as to use the least material possible. The early writers declared that the bee must have solved a difficult mathematical problem, in order to do this! But Darwin⁴ showed that the exact process of cell-building was quite simple, & needed no knowledge whatever, while as there are always old & young bees in every hive the actual work is done by imitation. Lloyd Morgan⁵ has shown, that chicks and lambs have no knowledge of ^{what is} food, or of their ^own mothers, but learn by trial and error [4]

and a simple "reflex action" of following what they see in motion.

I therefore define true "instinct" (as usually supposed) to be — "knowledge without teaching or experience" — and such knowledge I maintain, has not yet been proved to exist!

I hope you will get a committee to really work out the "homing" problem, from this point of view.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]