AMEBOID MOVEMENT 



137 



merits of spiral swimming organisms is of the most casual and 

 fragmentary sort. Nothing beyond the mere fact that these or- 

 ganisms describe some kind of a spiral swimming, is known. 



That a spiralizing mechanism is probably also present in organ- 

 isms with highly developed equilibrating and orienting senses 

 would be the logical expectation from what has been said regard- 

 ing the presence of such a mechanism in the lower forms of life ; 

 but the effect of such a mechanism would naturally be suppressed 

 when the orienting senses are functioning. To test this point, 

 man was selected for experiment. With eyes blindfolded and 

 ears plugged (this latter precaution was subsequently found to 

 be unnecessary) so as to render the orienting senses ineffective, 

 a normal man was directed to walk straight ahead over a large 

 field towards an object he had just looked at. Although a num- 

 ber of experiments were made with several individuals, none of 

 them was able to walk a straight path. All of them walked true 

 spirals or series of circles with remarkably smooth curves (Fig- 



Figure 45. Showing the path walked by a normal right-handed man 

 (J. N.), blindfolded and counting his paces. The whole path was 546 

 paces long. The command given was to walk in the direction of the 

 arrow until halted. The field was slightly rolling. The stump made 

 necessary a termination of the experiment. 



