302 BRAINS OF RATS AND MEN 



ous tissue and biologically there is no more reason 

 for detaching this function from its organs than for 

 detaching the function of contraction from its organs, 

 the muscles. Each of these functions is unique, but 

 both are evidently fitted into a single natural bio- 

 logical order in lawful fashion. 



Now, the unique property of the organs of con- 

 sciousness is that the mechanism is aware while it is 

 acting. The clear-cut awareness of human experience 

 seems to have emerged from less differentiated vital 

 processes gradually just as other highly specialized 

 functions (such as respiration, flight, and tone analy- 

 sis) have done in the course of evolution. Of course 

 it is unique, of course it is strictly personal, of course 

 it is not demonstrable by the usual technique of ob- 

 jective physiology, for these are just the character- 

 istics which differentiate awareness from the other 

 bodily functions. 



The trouble seems to be, as Professor Landacre 

 has pointed out to me, that in our attacks upon the 

 problems of consciousness we have too often sought 

 to get at the absolute or ultimate nature and essence 

 of mind as a preliminary to an investigation of its 

 practical working and natural relationships. This is a 

 reversal of the ordinary procedure in scientific investi- 

 gation. Productive research in physics did not begin 

 with the determination or the postulation of the ulti- 

 mate nature or pure essence of matter and energy, 

 and if we ever reach valid conclusions upon such 



