THE ENERGY OF LIFE EVOLUTION. 797 



into voluntary and automatic. As the term voluntary is misleading, 

 the word ratiocinative has been substituted for it. 



The relations of animal acts may, then, be considered as follows : 

 Automatic acts display design for the well-being of the animal, but 

 are invariable in their action, not changing immediately in adaptation 

 to new or modified needs. Ratiocinative acts, on the other hand, are 

 performed in accordance with circumstances as they arise, and are not 

 rhythmical or invariable in their action. Their existence implies the 

 presence of a certain development of mind, which the automatic acts 

 do not so obviously display. Ratiocinative acts are very common in 

 animals, as those who observe them can always testify. The auto- 

 matic acts increase in relative importance as we descend the scale of 

 being, but as they also display a general beneficial design it is not 

 possible to draw the line between them and the ratiocinative. In fact, 

 the one passes into the other by the well-known process which I call 

 cryptonoy, as will presently be explained. If acts affect structure, it 

 is evident, that if the acts are beneficial, the structure they produce 

 must be so also. From what has preceded, it is also evident that the 

 more intelligent acts will produce correspondingly more beneficial 

 structures than the less intelligent. But since these changes are only 

 effected by long-continued movements on the part of an animal, it is 

 clear that an act is likely to become automatic before it can become an 

 important cause of evolution of animal forms. The history of animal 

 movements has probably been as follows : 



Fig. 7. Sktjxt. op Coryphodon elephantoptjs, two ninths natural size ; a corner removed from 

 the skull so as to display the small brain-cavity at the base, (from New Mexico.) 



Protoplasm presents certain movements, of which contractility is 

 one, which will respond to certain stimuli under proper conditions of 

 nutrition and temperature. It may perform movements which cause a 

 simple mass of it to change its location in a fluid medium. Such acts, 

 however, lack the element of design, or adaptation to the needs of the 



