Consciousness and Instinct. 129 



results from the co-ordinating influence of these lower 

 nerve-centres. An automatic act, then, is one which is 

 performed without the immediate and effective intervention 

 of those organic processes in the cerebral cortex or else- 

 where which are accompanied by consciousness. 



The higher brain-centres, therefore, are those the 

 functional activity of which is alone, so far as we know 

 or may safely conjecture, accompanied by effective con- 

 sciousness, in the sense in which we are using the term. 

 They are the centres of guidance and control ; or, to speak 

 more accurately, if somewhat pedantically, they are the 

 centres in which occur those organic processes which 

 exercise an influence on the lower centres, and which have 

 conscious accompaniments. They are called into play, 

 directly or indirectly, by the incoming currents of the 

 afferent nerves; and they exercise their influence on the 

 lower automatic centres, either (1) by increasing their 

 activity, or (2) by checking it, or (3) by increasing here 

 and checking there, and thus modifying the activity in 

 accordance with the effects of incoming currents. 



So much technical description seems to be necessary 

 as a preliminary to a consideration of the question, What 

 is the relation of consciousness to the performance of 

 instinctive activities ? This question may be put in 

 another form : What is the relation of automatism, as we 

 have denned it, to the performance of these instinctive 

 activities ? Let us leave generalities, and take a particular 

 case, fixing our attention on the very first occasion on 

 which a chick pecks instinctively at a grain of food or 

 other such object at suitable distance. The logical 

 possibilities are as follows : 



1. The action may be completely automatic. 



2. The action may not be completely automatic, but in 

 some degree guided by consciousness. 



E 



