ARE MENTAL ACTIONS REFLEX? 133 



operates \ and, in connexion with this question, it must be 

 admitted there is much room for speculation. I shall 

 venture to bring under notice the view which, in my opinion, 

 appears, upon the whole, to be most in accordance with 

 facts of observation and experiment. But, in the first 

 place, I propose to refer very briefly to some of the opinions 

 which have been entertained upon this matter, and to the 

 general principles upon which these have been based. 



Every one will admit that the nerve tissue of the brain 

 is the instrument through which alone thought works and 

 mind acts, and I think the facts I have advanced render it 

 impossible for any one to deny that this instrument is formed 

 by, or is the result of, changes taking place in germinal 

 matter; but we are not now inquiring how the material 

 channels which convey the mandates of the will are formed, 

 but rather how these mandates originate, from what they 

 emanate, and what is their nature. 



Are Mental Nervous Actions of the Nature of Reflex 

 Actions ? In all animals which possess nerve organs we 

 find that an external impression is followed by a certain 

 internal change, and we explain this by saying that the 

 physical disturbance is conducted by the afferent nerves to 

 the nerve centre, whence it is reflected by motor nerves 

 distributed to the muscles, which are thus caused to contract, 

 and in many cases the intensity of the contraction varies 

 with the character of the external impression. Such are 

 the so-called physical or reflex nervous actions. In mental 

 nervous actions, however, the impression starts from within, 

 not from without, and although certain of the lower mental 

 operations may perhaps without impropriety be included 



