(123) 



about the part it plays, thougli to the association-physiology the subject 

 appears as a passive, successively perceiving and imaginating subject? 

 A better knowledge of the psychomotor area of the cortex has 

 solved this question fairly satisfactorily. A number of clinical ob- 

 servations have shown that perception and remembrance of a once 

 performed movement of the muscles as well as the movement itself, 

 depend upon the psychomotor area remaining intact. 



A number of physiological experiments have proved, that every 

 modification of a definite centre in this part of the brain — e.g. 

 one caused by an electric current, — flows to a special group of muscles 

 and brings about a special combination of movements. 



If the supposition is admitted that the modification brought about 

 in the cortex of the brain is no other than the one originating 

 un<ler physiological conditions, the latter, whose conscious parallel 

 is known to our self-observation as remembrance of the same com- 

 bination of muscular contraction which is to be performed, will give 

 rise to the error of the subject. The subject sees that on the remem- 

 brance of such a combination of movements, the movements them- 

 selves invariably follow and concludes that the former causes the latter. 



The physiological modification, however, remains the cause of the 

 muscular contraction. Its conscious parallel series, unexplained, 

 perhaps unexplainable, does nothing. The subject, as long as it is 

 taught by self-observation only, fancies that it is active, that it 

 possesses a feeling of effort. 



When we speak of a will to move, we mean the remembrance 

 of a movement of the muscles, which is to be performed, whose 

 physiological parallel series brings about this same movement, while 

 the subject fancies that the remembrance is the cause. 



Ail remembrances of movements of the muscles have this cha- 

 racter of activity in common and it is also found in many com- 

 pound psychical processes. 



When many impressions from sources of light bring about visual 

 perceptions, there is generally but one which we retain, or as 

 Wilhelm Wundt expresses it, of which we have the apperception, 

 compared with the many sensations of which we have the perception. 

 We direct our attention to that one actively, as it seems to us. It 

 has a chance of being distinctly remembered, while the others pass 

 by unnoticed, are forgotten. 



Here too, a feeling of being active. If we did not possess this 

 gift of apperception, if we could not, even in appearance, detain an 

 image actively, our thinking would be a whirl of successive images 

 (recollections), as may perhaps occur in the brain of a maniac. 



