VITAL RESERVES 323 



havior which in mankind is controlled from the cere- 

 bral cortex where the end sought is consciously 

 formulated and the course of action is shaped in part 

 in terms of past personal experience and in part by 

 impulsive and emotional drives whose energies come 

 in some measure from visceral and other reactions 

 linked with the process as it advances. This is vol- 

 untary effort (Carr, 1925).^ The intellectual compo- 

 nent of this process is purpose; the affective compo- 

 nent is desire or wish. 



It need not be repeated, I trust, that none of these 

 centrally motivated processes are to be regarded as 

 spontaneous in the sense of being uncaused action, 

 nor are their manifestations capricious or lawless. 

 The causes of the release of the various sorts of 

 latent reserves here under consideration may be di- 

 verse. Ordinarily, it is some sensory activation from 

 lower centers which releases the trigger of a cortical 

 pattern of neuronic discharge. In other cases it may 

 be a product of endocrine activity, oxygen-hunger, or 

 some other peculiarity of the composition of the 

 blood stream which acts directly upon cortical tissue, 



' Cf. Lotka (1925, p. 4.11): "With regard to the present and past the 

 Self is a Knower. With regard to the future he is a Wilier, that is to say, 

 he has direct cognizance of certain past and present events through sensa- 

 tion and memory; he has direct cognizance of certain future events 

 through his will 



This consciousness of causes within us of certain future (external) 

 states is just what we call will. Will is our subjective realization of what 

 to an objective observer would appear as (physical) causes of the 

 events 'willed.* " 



