THE ASSOCIATIVE PROCESSES IN ANIMALS. 79 



possessed of physical energy, are not amenable to the laws of 

 physical or chemical change. Yet this strengthening of the 

 connection between situation and act means some actual 

 change in the nervous system, some actual physical or chemical 

 readjustment, some actual phenomena of motion in space under 

 the laws of physical and chemical change. If, therefore, one 

 says simply, " The pleasurable feelings are themselves the cause 

 of the neural change which manifests itself in the strengthening 

 of the association," he is saying that a change in the physical 

 world takes place because of the presence of a certain non- 

 physical fact, and has either to admit the transference of physi- 

 cal energy into mental phenomena and back again, or to suppose 

 constant exceptions to the law of the conservation of energy. 

 In the former case we have the marvel of foot-pounds becoming 

 feelings of taste, etc., while in the latter case we have the greater 

 marvel of multitudinous uncaused feelings and multitudinous 

 motions in the nervous system uncaused save by these feelings. 

 A few psychologists, notably Prof. William James, do say so. 

 If, on the other hand, one says, " All consciousness, all feelings 

 are but a fifth wheel, paralleling certain neural facts, but unin- 

 fluenced by and not influencing them. The pleasurable feelings 

 do not cause anything. It is their neural counterpart that does 

 it," as most psychologists do say, he finds certain facts hard to 

 reconcile with his hypothesis. The old arguments pro and con 

 can be found in any elaborate psychological treatise and need 

 not be even mentioned here, especially since the question has 

 been all tangled up with speculations about the freedom of the 

 will, mental activity, voluntary attention, and all sorts of other 

 things. But the question as we meet it in a study of animal 

 behavior is as truly a question of physiological as psychological 

 biology, and certain more or less new and pertinent facts seem 

 worth mentioning. First of all, it is not the impulse and act 

 which are stamped in, but the impulse to that act in connection 

 with that situation. No cat goes around clawing, clawing, 

 clawing, because clawing at a button has freed it from a certain 

 box. No child keeps continually chewing because chewing 

 candy has brought pleasure. It is the connection, not the act, 

 that is strengthened. Secondly, the pleasurable feeling may 



