74 STELLA BURNHAM VINCENT 



been discussed, no doubt li\'e for the most part on the lower, 

 more primitive, thalamic level whose perfect reflexes and low 

 grade consciousness serve most of their needs. 



In man with his highly developed distance senses and great 

 correlation and association centers built over them, the cortical 

 center has become the controlling and important one and the 

 peripheral scarcely comes into consciousness in revival. With 

 some animals this may not be so : the early revival may largely 

 be effective in the periphery and function in action and attitude 

 as an immediate reinforcement of present sense stimuli, as a 

 certain pure sense or feeling of familiarity, lending steadiness 

 and a certain degree of control to movements, but finally becom- 

 ing elaborated, when higher connections have grown stronger 

 with repeated use, even in such animals as these, into a cortical 

 control based upon discriminated sense elements. 



(\ The Emotional Element 



The action at the plate has been rather fully described. Can 

 we analyze it? Here a check arose in the midst of an habitual 

 activity. There is but one general response to a painfvil cuta- 

 neous stimulus and that is a movement away from it, a move- 

 ment protectiAT, instinctive. The shock was slight, but it came 

 as a surprise and the animal nished off the plate. This happened 

 several times. Then the pain became associated with the sight 

 of the plate and the activity was aroused in advance of the 

 actual cause. The plate became a warning signal, "Keep oft"." 

 The quest for food urged the animal on but all the actiA^ties 

 were also present which were associated with danger. The con- 

 flict between the impulses resulted in an exaggerated activity 

 and the emotion grew. He nished up. He rushed back. He 

 tested with one foot a perfectly safe plate, pulled it back quickly 

 as if burned and washed it with his tongue. He danced about, 

 quivered, and finally made a wild dash in or out. 



The blind animals were upon the plate before they knew it. 

 The shock was only a stimulus to action. They either tried the 

 door or ran oft". It could not be said that they showed no signs 

 of emotion or that there were no associations in their case with 

 the plate; they did give evidence of some emotional activity 

 but this was very feeble in comparison with that exhibited by 

 the others. There was no preparatory interval, no warning in 



