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More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Charles Darwin
page 144 of 886 (16%)

I have read your Review with much interest, and I thank you sincerely for
the very kind spirit in which it is written. I cannot say that I am
convinced by your criticisms. (477/1. "Quarterly Journal of Science,"
January, 1873, page 116: "I can hardly believe that when a cat, lying on a
shawl or other soft material, pats or pounds it with its feet, or sometimes
sucks a piece of it, it is the persistence of the habit of pressing the
mammary glands and sucking during kittenhood." Mr. Wallace goes on to say
that infantine habits are generally completely lost in adult life, and that
it seems unlikely that they should persist in a few isolated instances.)
If you have ever actually observed a kitten sucking and pounding, with
extended toes, its mother, and then seen the same kitten when a little
older doing the same thing on a soft shawl, and ultimately an old cat (as I
have seen), and do not admit that it is identically the same action, I am
astonished. With respect to the decapitated frog, I have always heard of
Pfluger as a most trustworthy observer. (477/2. Mr. Wallace speaks of "a
readiness to accept the most marvellous conclusions or interpretations of
physiologists on what seem very insufficient grounds," and he goes on to
assert that the frog experiment is either incorrectly recorded or else that
it "demonstrates volition, and not reflex action.") If, indeed, any one
knows a frog's habits so well as to say that it never rubs off a bit of
leaf or other object which may stick to its thigh, in the same manner as it
did the acid, your objection would be valid. Some of Flourens'
experiments, in which he removed the cerebral hemispheres from a pigeon,
indicate that acts apparently performed consciously can be done without
consciousness. I presume through the force of habit, in which case it
would appear that intellectual power is not brought into play. Several
persons have made suggestions and objections as yours about the hands being
held up in astonishment; if there was any straining of the muscles, as with
protruded arms under fright, I would agree; as it is I must keep to my old
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