xcvi Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



Hand in hand with physiological-psychological analysis of feeling 

 must go a study of the biological significance of feeling. 



Application of Embryology to Psychology. — The study of the 

 development oi'the human soul is beset with perplexities. The suckling 

 movements of a new born babe are full of purpose. Is this reaching 

 after the mother's breast the resultant of vague knowledge or of reflex 

 action ? Is it simple or complex? These two probabilities confront us at 

 every step. They may be symbolized as follows : Let R= the excita- 

 tion ; c^ sensory nerve centre of first order ; cl = motor nerve centre of 

 same rank ; C= sensory nerve centre of higher order ; Cl ^= motor nerve 

 centre of higher order; m= resultant movement; then will R c cl m sym- 

 bolize reflex action, and R c C Cl cl m, symbolize conscious action. 



Neither the suckling movement nor any other infantine movement 

 solves this difliculty. 



What shall we say about purposeless movements? Most infantine 

 activities are of this class. All we can say is that the child has agreeable 

 or disagreeable feelings and acts accordingly. 



All in all the infant's mind is far too advanced to throw much light 

 upon its origin. Although apparently primitive, the infantine mind has 

 the same physiological basis as the adult mind. If we wish to gain an 

 insight into the origin of the psychical activities of man we must dive 

 deeper than the mind of the human babe. Ves, much deeper. We must 

 pass below the mammals, with their complex nervous systems, to forms 

 with simple nervous systems. 



Here we meet opposition. All do not admit that the lower animals 

 have a soul. Descartes asserts that man is the only creature in the uni- 

 verse endowed with a soul. To him all the lower animals are machines. 

 Aristotle, although recognizing an evolution, says : " Plants vegetate, 

 animals vegetate and move, man vegetates, moves and thinks. This was 

 long ago. To-day it is beginning to be seen that all the psychical activi- 

 ties of man are derived from the psychical activities of the lower ani- 

 mals. 



As has been said, the aim of psychology is to trace psychological ac- 

 tivities from their lowest to their highest manifestations. In the past 

 nothing was done in this direction. Then psychology was partly meta- 

 physical (rational psychology); partly merely descriptive (empirical psy- 

 chology); partly analytic. The last is far superior to the other two. By 

 its means psychical processes were reduced to their elements. This was 



