174 THE GLANDS REGULATING PERSONALITY 



wishes become possible until at length the inscrutable complexi- 

 ties of the behaviour of civilized man are evolved. We have to 

 thank Von Bechterew, the greatest of Russian physiologists, for 

 e fundamental principles, so important for the un ling 



of the control of human life and conduct. 



The associated reflex, aboriginal ancestor of the involved train 

 of associations that constitute the highest thought, conduct and 

 character, is the unit of the system. Recall the classic example 

 cited. If a piece of meat is shown to a dog, his mouth waters. 

 If now you proceed to ring a bell before offering the meat, his 

 mouth will water only when he sees or smells the meat. If, how- 

 ever, the ringing of the bell precedes the meat a sufficient number 

 of reactions, a time comes when merely the sound of the bell will 



m salivation, without the presence of the meat. So it is with 

 the associated reactions of the internal secretions. A stimulus 

 originally indifferent to the endocrines may, by association, the 

 laws of which are many, come to act like a spark to the endocrine- 

 instinct mechanism. Hence we can account for the subtle play 

 of instinct throughout all thinking. 



Even objects resembling the specific excitant of an instinct 

 only remotely, or in some one quality, may start its mechani>m 

 and a host of associations bound up with it. Thus the maternal 

 instinct may be excited by the sight of a baby. But because a 

 baby is small and delicate, anything small and fine, a tiny book, 

 a toy, a miniature, may arouse it. The object is then said to be 



••• -aling. The doctrine of association of instinctive and so of 

 endocr in e reactions enables us to understand the feeling — tone 

 t at any moment pervades consciousness as well as its i 



Choices, the psychology of selection of food, color, fr; 

 mates, amusements also become explicable rationally. i 



licts among the different components of the veg sys- 



tem are continuous and inevitable. If the pi ithin a 



viscus has 1» ghtened, and pereiste, thai is, ifl not disturbed 



her associated factor or instinct, oondui 



to wli.it it was before the instigator of 



tension 1. But if another in fcher 



associated factor c< '<> play, another fa 



-sure within the vegetative system is created, with another 

 stream of energy Bowing to tlfe ending an out 



iat of instincts, i 

 vegetative system competing for the possession of the brain, is a 



