Note 188 — Chapter XVII · THE “PHILOSOPHIE ZOOLOGIQUE” (continued 2)

It should be noticed that Lamarck does not absolutely state that there are no variations whatever in instinct. His words are much less positive: “Sans offrer de variation notable.” This dues not exclude the fact, discovered since his time, that instincts are more or less variable, thus affording grounds for Darwin’s theory of the origin of new kinds of instincts from the “accidental variation of instincts.” Professor James’ otherwise excellent version of Lamarck’s view is inexact and misleading when he makes Lamarck say that instincts are “perpetuated without variation from one generation to another, so long as the outward conditions of existence remain the same” (The Principles of Psychology, vol. ii., p. 678, 1890). He leaves out the word notable. The italics are ours. Farther on (p. 337), it will be seen that Lamarck acknowledges that in birds and mammals instinct is variable.