111.1 ORIGIN OF TASTE FOR SCIENCE. 189
I caught at all scraps of lessons for self-improvement. (9) I cannot recollect the time when I was not fond of animals and of knowing all I could learn about them. (11) Love of birds and their study . . . I feel that I must have had a taste for science independently of
external circumstances. (12) My taste [for science] was entirely innate. (13) As a boy I had a passion for mechanical contrivances ; [my scientific tastes are] altogether innate. (14) I was always fond of construction ; my turn for scientific inquiry led me in early life to systematise the knowledge of others. (15) Largely inherited from my father. (17) They appear to have been inherited. (18) Nearly in an equal degree the mixed result of a natural bias and education. (19) I should have been an observer of animal life under whatever conditions I might have lived. (20) I believe my interest in zoology to have been innate.
Botany.-8 cases out of 10. (1) My scientific tastes were inborn. (2) As far as the word applies in any case, I should say decidedly in-
