Article February 16, 1924 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Samuel Sachs, H. S. Curr, Royal S. Copeland, L. Clare Davis

[From the Capital Times, Madison, Wis., Oct. 29, 1923]

Fear, that formerly was thought to be instinctive, is now known to be the result of teaching. Many traits of animals, supposed to be instinct, in reality have to be taught them by their parents or other animals. Young seals have no intention of going into the water. They play about their mother, on shore, and gradually she entices them into the water and teaches them to swim. Darwin said: "Monkeys have an instinctive or inherited fear of snakes." This statement seemed so reasonable that it was never contradicted until recently. Experiments have been conducted with snakes and monkeys, and it was found that young monkeys have no fear of reptiles at all unless this fear has been taught them by parents or other monkeys.

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