CHAPTER XIX 



AUTOMATIC ACTION 



All "inborn" characters are in reality acquirements All automatic 

 actions are voluntary They result from " diffused " not concentrated 

 attention. 



409. IN the first chapter of this work we defined an 

 acquired character as a modification of an inborn character 

 which results from the action of forces from the environment 

 on that inborn character. As a fact, however, all the inborn 

 characters of the individual develop from the germ-cell in re- 

 sponse to stimuli applied to the germ from the environment 

 fit and sufficient nutriment, a right degree of heat, moisture, 

 conjugation with another germ-cell, and so forth. In reality, 

 therefore, only the structures of the germ-cell and the 

 tendencies resident within them structures and tendencies 

 which are passed, unchanged by stimuli (except conjugation), 

 by each germ-cell to its successors are inborn. All the 

 characters of the individual which arise from them are 

 acquired. But this has not been generally recognized, and in 

 practice the term " acquirement " is restricted to characters 

 which arise in response to forces (stimuli or not) other than 

 those we have mentioned above for example, the characters 

 which result from use and those which result from injury. 



410. The acquirements which result from use occur only 

 in the higher animals. At any rate, they occur to the 

 greatest extent only in the highest animals. There is every 

 reason to believe, therefore, that the power of making them 

 is a late product of evolution, and that it has undergone 

 more or less rapid increase through Natural Selection, for 

 example in certain insects (e.g. ants) and mammals (e. g. man). 1 



1 In precisely the same way the tendency in the germ-cells to 

 develop the so-called inborn characters is a product of evolution. 

 Unicellular organisms, as we know, tend under the influence of fit 

 stimuli to grow, and divide, and so multiply these hereditary 



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