278 BEHAVIOR OF THE LOWER ORGANISMS 



amine the reflex (or antitype) simply as a type of action, without regard 

 to the existence of a nervous system. 



A second phenomenon on which the concept of reflex action is based 

 is the following : In ourselves, certain acts are performed unconsciously. 

 These acts have been considered identical with those due to the passage 

 of an impulse from the nerve-ending to the spinal cord, and thence back 

 to the muscle ; that is with reflexes. Hence the reflex is often defined 

 as an unconscious or involuntary action : " Such involuntary responses we 

 know as 'reflex' acts" (James, "Psychology," Vol. I, p. 13). "Reflexes 

 are voluntary acts that have become mechanical" (Wundt). This defi- 

 nition of a reflex act as involuntary or unconscious is widely employed. 

 If we accept this definition, there is of course no way by which we can 

 tell whether the reactions of lower animals are reflex or not. By obser- 

 vation we cannot tell whether the reacting organism is conscious, for 

 this would require, as Titchener (1902) says, an objective criterion of 

 the subjective, — an objective criterion of that which is not objective, 

 and this is impossible. It is certainly as dogmatic and unscientific to 

 assert that the actions of organisms are reflex in the sense of uncon- 

 scious, as to assert the opposite, for we have no knowledge on this 

 point. We can recognize reflex acts, from this point of view, only in 

 ourselves. 



A third phenomenon on which the conception of a reflex is based is 

 the supposed uniformity of certain reactions. The muscle responds to 

 all sorts of stimuli by contracting. This uniformity is considered by 

 many authors the essential feature in reflexes. Hobhouse (1901, pp. 28, 

 29) defines reflexes as "uniform responses to simple stimuli." Accord- 

 ing to Beer, Bethe, and v. Uexkiill (1899, p. 3), reflexes are reactions 

 "always recurring in the same manner." Driesch (1903) says a reflex 

 is "a motor reaction which as a response to a stimulus occurs the first 

 time completely and securely." 



This objective definition of a reflex as an invariable reaction to a 

 simple stimulus is the only one which we can really use in determining 

 by means of objective study whether the behavior of animals is reflex 

 in character. Is the behavior of lower organisms composed of reflexes 

 in this sense? 



Possibly the best case for an affirmative answer to this question could 

 be made out for the bacteria. Here there is so far as known only one 

 form of motor reaction, — the reversal of movement when stimulated. 

 But even in the bacterium the uniformity is disturbed by the fact that 

 on coming in contact with a solid the organism sometimes comes to rest 

 against it, while at other times it reacts by the reversal of motion. Owing 

 to their minuteness, the behavior of these organisms is less known than 



