492 The Journal 
“In attempting to find an answer to 
these questions, we are led to contem- 
plate the fact that physical benefit is 
derived from those factors in life, which 
solace and reassure the mind, which 
‘rejuvenate the spirit,’ which dispel 
worry, and which substitute faith and 
tranquillity of mind for turmoil and 
terror. On the principle that 
fear causes the dissipation and faith the 
conservation of potential energy, we can 
understand the far-reaching and abiding 
benefits of religion in all ages, among all 
peoples, throughout the whole human 
race, as far back as we have any record. 
In thus placing faith, hope and 
charity on the same plane with muscular ° 
reflexes, in their power to conserve the 
life of the race, we but give them their 
proper place in evolution as adaptations 
which have arisen coincidently with 
the need for such modifications.” 
THE BRAIN-MECHANISM 
We now return to the fly-trap for 
another lesson. 
“We know that the brain contains the 
mechanism that drives the body; we 
know that environment drives the brain 
and that environmental forces reach 
the brain through the mediation of the 
sense organs. But what is the mechan- 
ism within the brain by means of which 
a given stimulus causes different effects 
in different brains? Why will one man 
run away and another attack on receipt 
of identical stimuli? 
“We postulate that the adaptive 
reactions of the organism are executed 
by mechanisms, each of which, like a 
wireless station, awaits the arrival of 
the specific impulse which is to awaken 
it to specific response.’ In another paper 
he describes the brain as an organ that 
contains “innumerable patterns, each 
representing a mechanism for the per- 
formance of a specific act, and that the 
brain cells supply the energy—electric 
or otherwise—by which the complex 
act is performed, that the energy 
stored in the brain cells is by an un- 
known mechanism released by the force 
that passes over and activates the brain 
pattern; through an unknown property 
of these brain patterns each stimulus 
causes some change in the brain pattern 
of Heredity 
in passing through it so that the next 
stimulus passes with greater facility. 
This property of facilitating a stimulus 
increases with repetition that particular 
mechanism’s reception of the particular 
stimulus. This is the basis of educa- 
tion, of training, of establishment of the 
conventions, conduct, behavior, govern- 
ment—in short, the total behavior of 
the individual.” 
After describing the similarities be- 
tween the reaction of Venus’ Fly-Trap 
and a human reaction, Dr. Crile says: 
“In Venus’ Fly-Trap but one receptor 
and one effector mechanism has been 
evolved for but one adaptive reaction. 
In man many receptor and effector 
echanisms have been evolved for 
numerous reactions in response to 
numberless stimuli. 
MAN A COMPLICATED PLANT 
“If it were necessary for Venus’ 
Fly-Trap to catch its food by running, 
instead of by passive attraction, the 
plant would doubtless have evolved a 
mechanism codrdinating the organism 
for running—in other words, a brain. 
The difference between Venus’ Fly-Trap 
and man is the difference between the 
number of mechanisms possessed by 
each. A multiplication of the single 
action pattern of Venus’ Fly-Trap 
equals the mechanism of man.” 
Thus is man reduced to a complicated 
sort of fly-trap. 
Without going into the genetic and 
philosophical difficulties which this view 
involves, it may be said that as a 
working hypothesis in the field of med- 
ical and surgical research, the mechan- 
istic view is likely to be exceedingly 
fruitful for, as Dr. Crile points out, 
medicine has developed as a sort of 
household necessity, without any very 
broad biological foundation: “lacking 
the resources of assured scientific data 
or the support of codrdinated methods, 
it is no wonder that it is even now ina 
somewhat chaotic state.’’ Dr. Crile’s 
own contributions are noteworthy, and 
this review has unavoidably done him 
an injustice, in passing over masses of 
technical experiments which form the 
most original part of the book, and 
emphasizing biological principles which 
