148 Kansas Academy of Science. 



merely prophesy as to the course of conscious activities in others; 

 we can be fairly sure as to the form of movement of the subcon- 

 scious activities; and can be nearly certain as to the ends that will 

 be reached by the instinctive activities. The uncertainties in the 

 second and third forms of activities are due to slow modifications 

 of subconscious and instinctive powers by repeated additions and 

 subtractions. Man shows in his body nearly one hundred and 

 twenty vestigial parts, according to Wiedersheim, and sixty others 

 whose functions are changing. But these slight daily variations 

 in the subconscious and instinctive activities of plants and animals, 

 with corresponding changes in the body parts, do not prevent suc- 

 cessful experimentation with these organisms. This is common 

 experience, and the fact that Jennings himself has been exceed- 

 ingly successful in his experiments with lower organisms empha- 

 sizes this conclusion without in the least impairing the validity of 

 indeterminate vitalism. 



The conscious additions and subtractions to the various subcon- 

 scious and instinctive forms of activity have another, though re- 

 lated, effect which is highly important in biology. These changes 

 in the ego following the conscious use or disuse of parts finally re- 

 sult in the evolution of many new varieties, subspecies and species 

 of plants and animals. These new forms are preserved through 

 the inheritance of instincts modified consciously in the direction 

 of greater efficiency, through isolation by means of barriers, and 

 by the greater success of these organism, in their struggles for ex- 

 istence. 



Many biologists deny the efficiency of consciousness in bringing 

 about the evolution of new species, because they forget that con- 

 sciousness, according to Doctor Minot, has the power to change 

 the form of energy without itself being a form of energy or a state 

 of protoplasm. From the simplest organisms, whether plant or 

 animal, to most complex, consciousness is the directing influence. 

 In organisms along the lines of ascent up to but not including 

 man, with his powers of speech, and in the living protoplasmic 

 cells of all organisms, including those of man's body, needs are 

 felt, and met, not by a course of reasoning requiring language, but 

 by a somewhat blind feeling that the action felt to be best is the 

 one to be taken. 



If consciousness did not have this power with race and individ- 

 ual memory to direct race and individual development, there could 

 be no orthogenetic evolution. The bodies of organisms, however 

 complex, could not be built from the simple fertilized egg cell, and 



