104 THE GLANDS REGULATING PERSONALITY 



That an animal is a vast concourse of cells is one of the ac- 

 cepted fundamentals of biology. What is not so generally taken 

 into consideration is that the assemblage is formed by the 

 agglutinations of millions of years, and that it is hence composed 

 of parts of different ages and pedigrees, some exceedingly ancient 

 and hoary, some middle-aged, and some relatively new and recent. 

 In the invertebrates, who date further back in the history of 

 the planet than any vertebrate, the nervous system consists of 

 discrete patches of nerve cells, the ganglions composing the 

 ganglionic system of which the vegetative or autonomic nervous 

 system of man is the direct descendant and representative. The 

 brain and central nervous system are definitely later acquisitions, 

 imposed upon the original stratum of the check and drive 

 machine. 



The primitive chassis of the mechanism, so to speak, is the so- 

 called vegetative nervous system. Grouped with that system 

 are the primeval breathing, feeding and reproducing inventions, 

 the viscera boxed up in the chest and abdomen. The third 

 partner is the glands of internal secretion, which act upon the 

 viscera both directly and indirectly through the check and drive 

 effect upon the vegetative nerves. The glands are like tuning 

 keys, by which certain strings in the instrument may be tight- 

 ened, so that its vibratory activity is increased, or they may 

 be loosened, the vibrations decreased, the activity lessened. 

 Tuning up the motors is a constant process in the organism. 

 Finally, there are the large nerve masses at the base of the 

 brain known as the basal ganglia, which contain the nerve 

 centers for the co-ordination of the other three. All these to- 

 gether constitute the oldest family of the corporate organism. 

 Beside them, the brain and the face and the prehensile organs 

 are mere parvenus. 



The Oldest Part of the Mind 



Granted, then, that this vegetative apparatus is the most 

 deeply rooted core of our being. What warrant is there for the 

 grandiloquence of the phrase: the Oldest part of the Mind? 

 There is, indeed, room for rhetoric, even poetry, here. For all 

 the evidence points to it as the rightful occupant of the throne 

 upon which Shelley placed his Brownie as the Soul of the Soul. 

 Or to put it in another way, we think and feel primarily with 

 the vegetative apparatus, with our muscles, especially the invol- 



