32 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



appears ; co-ordination sets in where incoordination had 

 been, and by no means can every single motor act now 

 be related to a single stimulus, as was the case at the 

 very beginning of the process ; on the contrary, " single ' 

 stimuli now cease to have any influence at all ; we may 

 say that the animal is not " distracted " by anything. 

 The " unified impulse >: may be based upon a great many 

 different constellations of initial movement of the single 

 arms. It is very important to notice well that the 

 righting reactions are not referable to the " normal " 

 position of the animal as such : this hypothesis is refuted 

 by the fact that during the unified period of the reaction 

 the single arms very often perform movements by which 

 they come into " abnormal " positions themselves, or which 

 are indifferent for their own righting : everything occurs in 

 the service of the whole. 



It is true, Jennings has shown that the starfish is- 

 capable of a good deal of what is popularly called 

 " experience " ; therefore the righting reaction and other 

 movements of this animal do not properly belong to this 

 chapter. But it seems to me that it was well worth 

 devoting a few words to the discoveries of Preyer and 

 Jennings at this place, as the movements of the starfish 

 have often been looked upon as enormously simple. In 

 any case the reactions of the starfish are not " reflexes," 

 but are in the highest degree what on a later occasion 

 will be called " individualised movements." 



In Vertebrates also almost all of the " reflexes " 



1 I am very glad to see that Jennings himself insists upon the unity of 

 the phenomena observed. He even concedes that my entelechy would explain 

 this unity, though he declines to see here a true " explanation." In this 

 respect I hope that Part II. of Section B will convince him. 



