270 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY. 
From the standpoint of the ongoing evolutionary move- 
ment such adapted organisms are degenerate forms. In Professor 
Copr’s words, we have ‘‘catagenesis’’ in place of ‘‘anagenesis.”’ 
Such, Professor Corr thinks, is the history of the entire vege- 
table kingdom. ‘‘From their ability to manufacture protoplasm 
from inorganic substances, plants do not need to move about 
in search for food, so that they require no consciousness of con- 
ditions to guide their movements. They become fixed, and 
their entire organization becomes monopolized by the functions 
of nutrition and reproduction. Movements rarely occur, and 
when present . . . . are mostly rhythmic or rotary, and very 
seldom exhibit the quality of impromptu design.”’' Plants may 
thus be viewed, he thinks, as degenerate descendents of Pro- 
tozoan animal ancestors. There is every reason to believe that 
the ancestors of the present higher types of plants were more 
animal-like than they. Along with the degeneration of certain 
of these Protozoan types, in which, instead of being free-moving 
they become sessile, there has gone the mechanization of the 
process of adjustment to the environment, with the consequent 
subsiding of consciousness. Conscioussness early abandoned 
the vegetable line, or at least is found there only in its most 
rudimental form. ; . 
This is why the evolution of consciousness has taken place 
mainly along the animal line. ‘‘The animal,’’ says Professor 
Cope, ‘‘may have originated in this wise. Some individual 
protists, perhaps accidentally, devoured some of their fellows. 
The easy nutrition which ensued was probably pleasurable, and 
once enjoyed was repeated, and soon became a habit. The 
excess of energy thus saved from the laborious process of mak- 
ing protoplasm was available as the vehicle of consciousness 
and motion. From that day to this, consciousness has aban- 
doned few if any members of the animal kingdom. . . There 
is abundant evidence to show that the permanent and the suc- 
cessful forms have ever been those in which motion and sensi- 
bility have been preserved, and most highly developed.” ‘‘In 
1 Ibid, p. 509. 
