194 Habit and Instinct. 



have all the appearance of being organic and automatic 

 responses to the requisite stimuli under appropriate condi- 

 tions, external and internal; and the general conclusion 

 we have reached is that, so far as they are concerned, 

 what is unquestionably inherited is motor co-ordination. 

 On the other hand, there seems to be no inherited know- 

 ledge of what is good to eat, and what is not ; of what is 

 harmful, like a bee, and what is harmless, like a moth ; 

 of a natural enemy, such as a cat or hawk, and a harmless 

 creature, such as a sheep or goose. All this experience is 

 a matter of individually acquired association. Let us put 

 the matter from the physiological and organic point of 

 view. All instinctive activity involves the due ordering 

 and co-ordination of outgoing nerve impulses, starting from 

 the central nervous system, probably the lower brain- 

 centres. This is inherited. The growth of experience 

 involves the bringing into relation, probably in the higher 

 brain-centres, of the effects of incoming impulses ; those, 

 for example, from the eye, and from the organs of taste. 

 This correlation of sensory data is seemingly not inherited ; 

 association-links have to be forged by each individual 

 through acquisition. Now, apart from all the more special 

 arguments in favour of motor impressions being due to 

 incoming impulses (and not to a consciousness of outgoing 

 impulses from the brain), there is this general consideration 

 to which due weight should be given. These impressions 

 are indubitably correlated with impressions of sight, taste, 

 touch, hearing, and so forth, and take their place in the 

 development of experience, alongside those of the special 

 senses. And it will certainly be a gain to physiological 

 interpretation if motor impressions (that is, the elements 

 in consciousness due to movements of our own limbs and 

 bodies) be proved by the joint labours of physiologists 

 and psychologists to be of like nature to the impressions 



