CHAP, ii.] THE BRAIN. 1069 



structure, meaning by structure molecular arrangement and dis- 

 position) be carried out under appropriate circumstances with so 

 little intervention of distinct consciousness that the movements 

 are then often spoken of as involuntary. All the arguments which 

 go to shew that the distinctly conscious voluntary skilled movement 

 is carried out by help of the appropriate motor area, go to shew 

 that the motor area must play its part in these involuntary skilled 

 movements also. So that distinct consciousness is not a necessary 

 adjunct to the activity of a motor area. And it is worthy of notice 

 that some of these, in their origin, purely voluntary skilled move- 

 ments, which by long-continued training have become almost as 

 purely involuntary, are hampered rather than assisted by being 

 "thought about." 



The word 'training' suggests the reflection that the physio- 

 logical interpretation of becoming easy by practice is that new 

 paths are made, or the material of old paths made more mobile 

 by effort and use. We have already urged, 581, that the grey 

 matter of the spinal cord is a network, in which the passage of 

 impulses is determined by physiological conditions rather than 

 anatomical continuity, and the same considerations may with still 

 greater force be applied to the brain. We must suppose that 

 training promotes the growth and molecular mobility of the 

 motor area and of all its connections. There are doubtless 

 limits to the changes which can be effected, but within these 

 limits the will, blundering at first in the maze of the nervous 

 network, gradually establishes easy paths; though even to the 

 end it blunders, in trying to carry out one movement it often 

 accomplishes another. 



Lastly, without attempting to enter into psychological ques- 

 tions, we may at least say that the birth-place of what we call the 

 'will,' is not conterminous with the motor area; the will arises 

 from a complex series of events, some of which take place in other 

 regions of the cortex, and probably in other parts of the brain as 

 well. With these parts the motor area has ties concerned not in 

 the carrying out of volition, but in the generation of the will. 

 So that, looking round on all sides, it is obvious, as we have said, 

 that the motor area is a mere link in a complex chain. It is 

 moreover a link of such a kind, that while the changes which 

 the breaking of it makes in the daily life of a lowly animal, such 

 as the dog, in whom the experience of the individual adds 

 relatively little to the nervous and psychical storehouse trans- 

 mitted from his ancestors, can hardly be appreciated by a 

 bystander, those which the breaking of it makes in the daily life 

 of a man, whose brain at any moment is not only a machine fitted 

 for present and future work but a closely packed record of his 

 past life, are obvious not only to the individual himself, but to 

 his fellows. 



