memory. Mr. Romanes quotes a letter written by Mr. Darwin in the
last year of his life, in which he speaks of an intelligent action
gradually becoming "INSTINCTIVE, I.E., MEMORY TRANSMITTED FROM ONE
GENERATION TO ANOTHER." {62a}

Briefly, the stages of Mr. Darwin's opinion upon the subject of
hereditary memory are as follows:-

1859. "It would be THE MOST SERIOUS ERROR to suppose that the
greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit in one
generation and transmitted by inheritance to succeeding
generations." {62b} And this more especially applies to the
instincts of many ants.

1876. "It would be a SERIOUS ERROR to suppose," &c., as before.
{62c}

1881. "We should remember WHAT A MASS OF INHERITED KNOWLEDGE is
crowded into the minute brain of a worker ant." {62d}

1881 or 1882. Speaking of a given habitual action Mr. Darwin
writes: "It does not seem to me at all incredible that this action
[and why this more than any other habitual action?] should then
become instinctive:" i.e., MEMORY TRANSMITTED FROM ONE GENERATION TO
ANOTHER. {62e}

And yet in 1839, or thereabouts, Mr. Darwin had pretty nearly
grasped the conception from which until the last year or two of his
life he so fatally strayed; for in his contribution to the volumes
giving an account of the voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, he