26o HUMAN BIOLOGY 



that its localization is in the nervous system — can we attach 

 meaning to that fact? 



Taking as manifestations of mind those ordinarily received 

 as such, mind does not seem to attach to life, however complex, 

 where there is no nervous system, nor even where that system 

 though present is quite scantily developed. The nervous 

 system is that system whose special office from its earher 

 appearance onward throughout evolutionary history has 

 been more and more to weld the body into one consolidated 

 mechanism reacting as a unity to the changeful world about 

 it. Mind becomes more recognizable the more developed 

 the nervous system. Hence one difficulty in tracing mind 

 to its origin is the twiht emergence of mind from no mind, 

 which is repeated even in the individual Hfe-history. But 

 that in this system mind as we know it has had its beginning 

 and has progressively with it step by step developed, is 

 significant of the system. In the nervous system itself there 

 is locahzation of function, relegation of different work to 

 the system's different parts. This locahzation shows men- 

 taHty not distributed broadcast throughout the nervous 

 system, but restricted to a certain portion of it. And this 

 particular portion to which mind transcendently attaches 

 is exactly that where are carried to their highest pitch the 

 nerve actions which manage the individual as a whole, 

 especially in his reactions to the external world, animate 

 and inanimate, outside himself. This part moreover is a 

 comparatively modern structure superposed on the non- 

 mental and more ancient other nervous parts. The mental 

 portion is so placed that its commerce with the body and 

 with the external world can occur only through the medium 

 of the archaic non-mental nervous parts. This perhaps 

 makes more intelligible the common and well-recognized 

 experience that acts essentially reflex, such as standing and 

 walking, are initiated and controlled by processess with 

 mental accompaniments although not actually run by them. 

 Thus, just as plants, for instance the pine tree on the rock 

 side, orientate themselves to the hne of gravity (geotropism) 

 so, with greater speed and nicety of movement, does the 

 animal, for instance the dog as it stands, runs, and so forth. 

 It maintains the erect attitude; and as mentioned earlier 



