CHAPTER 8. 



CAUSE OF INSTINCTIVE, EMOTIONAL AND REFLEX 

 ACTION. 



Life is both form and action, but the more important 

 part is action. I have not been able to find anyone who 

 has understood the cause of instinctive, emotional and 

 reflex action. The reason for this it seems to me, is be- 

 cause no one has ever been able to comprehend and look 

 upon the cell as an intelligent being. The old phrase- 

 ology and idea that only man can reason and that all ani- 

 mals act from instinct is to blame for it. One side claims 

 that the intelligence back of instinctive acts of animals 

 is God or nature and the other side does not claim to 

 know. Take for instance, the instinctive actions of the 

 young pig. The instant he is born he is able to go to work 

 and obtain nourishment from the mother. Without hav- 

 ing had any previous experience or training he knows 

 how to do those complicated acts as if he had been prac- 

 tising for years. These actions are called instinctive. 

 They are intelligent acts but still according to the old 

 ideas we cannot consider any actions intelligent unless 

 performed by man based upon previous experience and 

 training. There are a great number of actions performed 

 by animals and plants and man that are performed with- 

 out any previous experience and are called instinctive. 

 The instinctive actions are similar to those performed 



