Carus, The Scat of Consciousness. 189 



The former is apparently the original function, and the latter is 

 auxiliary to the former. Must we expect each of the two func- 

 tions of consciousness to be differentiated in a distinct organ ? 

 Important material, either to refute or corroborate our proposi- 

 tion must be expected, as we believe, not so much from experi- 

 ments as from post-mortem investigations of such diseases as af- 

 fect the function of consciousness and voluntary action. 



Now, whether or not the striate body be the seat of con- 

 sciousness we still maintain that the arguments from which we 

 started remain true. They are : 



(1) The functions of consciousness and intelligence are 

 radically different. 



(2) The great mass of cortical activity, the function of 

 which consists in rational and intelligent reaction, performs its 

 work automatically and in relative independence of conscious 

 interference. 



(3) A small part only of the cortical activity rises into con- 

 scious perception, where it is co-ordinated with the conscious 

 memories of former personal experiences. 



(4) There are unconscious feelings. Isolated feelings nat- 

 urally remain unperceived, and consciousness is a peculiarly 

 complex state of interrelated feelings rendering possible the self 

 awareness of one feeling in contradistinction to other feelings. 



(5) Consciousness, or that range of our soul-life which we 

 call our ego, is the product of a co-ordination of feelings. 



Consciousness when extraordinarily intense and concen- 

 trated is called attention. Attention is only the concentration 

 of thought when about to execute some special motion, and 

 when adjusting it to peculiar and uncommon conditions. Atten- 

 tion is not movement but the temporary suppression of all 

 movement in preparation for a movement of great consequence, 

 perhaps demanding the co-operation of all the various limbs of 

 the body. M. Ribot has excellently illustrated the conditions 

 of this mental state in his memoir on "The Psychology of At- 

 tention." He shows how the higher and so-called artificial 

 attention, as observable in attentive reading or study, or in the 

 observation of scientific experiments, has gradually developed 



