CHAP. XXVL] VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS. 



563 



gradual development of inherited Nervous Mechanisms due to the 

 successive education of many preceding generations. They are 

 clearly not new Movements, acquired afresh by each individual, as 

 would be the case, for instance, with those persons who learn to 

 swim, to dance, or to play upon any musical instrument. In the 

 one set of cases Volitional Efforts are met more than half way by 

 inherited developmental tendencies ; whilst in the other set, and 

 in the case of all new Yolitional Movements acquired by adults, 

 the Volitional Influences are aided only by those natural organic 

 proclivities to the development of new nervous mechanisms, which 

 originally (under the influence of suitable stimuli) led to the pri- 

 mary genesis of Nerve Tissues, and which may safely be deemed 

 to be still operative in all animals, whether high or low. 

 Classification of Movements. 



Movements 



Acquired by the 



Individual. 



Movements 



Inherited by th* 



Individual* 



T. Volitional. 



Secondary 

 Automatic. 

 (Hartley.) 



IIL 



Automatic. 



'a. Where the MoTements them- 



selves are familiar and easy. 

 6. Where the Movements them- 



selves are unfamiliar and 

 L difficult. 



'a. Movements learned by each 



individual for himself which, 



subsequently, after long 



practice become familiar and 



easy of execution. 

 b. Movements which appear to 



need learning by each indi- 



vidual, merely because their 



nervous mechanisms are not 



developed at the time of 



Movements learned by ante- b. J>- 

 cedent generations of ani- 

 mals, now capable of being 

 instinctively performed at 

 birth, owing to inherited 

 mechanisms being at this 

 time sufficiently developed. 



Volitional acts are, therefore, merely Automatic acts in process 

 of formation, first of all for the Individual, and subsequently, it 

 may be, for the Eace. Where such Movements have been acquired 

 or learned for the Eace, unless the inherited correlative Nervous 

 Mechanisms are developed at the time of birth, Volitions may in 

 each Individual again intervene and act as stimuli during the time 

 that such inherited Mechanisms are undergoing their proper degree 

 of development. 



Taking the Spinal and Medullary Motor Mechanisms 

 as being either developed or in process of development, we 



o o 2 



