THE ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 43 



fusion due to the lack of a specific term to indicate the merely 

 neural part of the reaction: the discharge over the arc, exclusive 

 of the effector activity in which it terminates. It seems proper 

 therefore at this point to introduce the term transit (or neural 

 transit) to designate that part of the reaction which includes the 

 discharges of the successive neurons in the chain including the 

 receptors and leading up to, but not including, the ultimate ef- 

 fector activity. Reaction will be used as usual, to include both 

 the transit and the terminal activity, muscular or glandular. 



It is assumed moreover, that consciousness is dependent, not 

 on reactions or neural transits merely, but on the integration of 

 the nervous system; the higher (more vivid or more attentive) 

 degrees of consciousness depending on the more complete inte- 

 grations. This assumption is not indispensable for the exposition 

 of the main hypothesis, but makes much clearer the bearings of 

 the further suggestions made below. 



Two illustrations of the serial connection of reactions may be 

 offered: learning to waltz; and learning, or " memorizing" a list 

 of words. In the first case, an action-habit is being formed : in 

 the second, a thought-habit is ultimately established. In learn- 

 ing to waltz, a series of reactions are to be connected so that they 

 follow mechanically in the proper sequence: in learning a series 

 of words, the process long known as the " association of ideas" is 

 exemplified. Neither process is really simple, as it starts from a 

 complex of habits already formed, and the stimulations which 

 operate in the formation of the habit are also complicated: but 

 we may legitimately conclude that the habits already in existence 

 were formed in the same way as that in which those under con- 

 sideration. An attempt to start from conditions really simpler, 

 that is, conditions in infancy, is fallacious because we can use- 

 fully interpret the learning of the infant only on the basis of the 

 examination of better known conditions. 



The first reaction in waltzing, 9 for the man, concludes in draw- 

 ing the left foot straight back: the second, in drawing the right 



9 The details given are for the old or ' 'standard" waltz, not the at present more 

 popular "skip" waltz, in which, as in the "two-step" (which of course is really 

 a three-step) the feet are brought together by the second step, and separated on 

 the third. 



