OUR SUBORDINA TE PERSONALITIES. 1 1 5 



the late frog, does just what the frog did before its 

 head was cut off it tries to get at the place with ita 

 right foot. You now cut off its right foot : the head- 

 less body deliberates, and after a while tries to do 

 with its left foot what it can no longer do with its 

 right. Plain matter-of-fact people will draw their own 

 inference. They will not be seduced from the super- 

 ficial view of the matter. They will say that the 

 headless body can still, to some extent, feel, think, 

 and act, and if so, that it must have a living soul. 



Dr. Carpenter writes as follows : " Now the per- 

 formance of these, as well as of many other movements, 

 that show a most remarkable adaptation to a purpose, 

 might be supposed to indicate that sensations are 

 called up by the impressions, and that the animal can 

 not only/te/, but can voluntarily direct its movements 

 so as to get rid of the irritation which annoys it. 

 But such an inference would be inconsistent with 

 other facts. In the first place, the motions performed 

 under such circumstances are never spontaneous, but 

 are always excited by a stimulus of some kind." 



Here we pause to ask ourselves whether any action 

 of any creature under any circumstances is ever ex- 

 cited without " stimulus of some kind," and unless we 

 can answer this question in the affirmative, it is not 

 easy to see how Dr. Carpenter's objection is valid. 



" Thus," he continues, " a decapitated frog " (here 

 then we have it that the frog's head was actually cut 

 off) " after the first violent convulsive moments occa- 

 sioned by the operation have passed away, remains at 

 rest until it is touched ; and then the leg, or its whole 



