HOW THE BRAIN THINKS 



fibres. Where these fibres are lacking there will 

 be no stimulation of a wide area, and therefore no 

 consciousness. This is the case of the lower forms 

 of life, and in new-born animals, including babes. 

 In all of these the anatomical demonstration is 

 perfectly clear. To ascribe consciousness, in the 

 ordinary sense, to worms, oysters, or new-born 

 children is manifestly absurd. 



In the case of conscious action becoming au- 

 tomatic and unconscious, as in learning the piano, 

 learning to write, etc., we may infer that constant 

 use (stimulation) tends to establish a direct path, 

 which the nerve-wave will follow exclusively rather 

 than spread out over a wide area, as when the re- 

 sistance of all the paths was more or less equal. 



Be this as it may, the especial thing to note is 

 that the currents, or waves, which stimulate the 

 cells of the brain differ no whit from those which 

 set jumping the dead muscles of the hind legs of a 

 dead frog. In the one case as in the other, it is 

 caused by or, rather, is a variation of electric 

 potential. 



There are some to whom new definitions are 

 distasteful. To define the highest faculties of the 

 human mind in terms of what they contemptu- 

 ously term brute force is, for them, a reprehensible 

 proceeding calling for opprobrious names. 



269 



