Sensation 89 



/ 

 be attributed the changes that are commonly 



attributed to disuse. Not in disuse, however, 

 will we find the source of changes that cut 

 down organs. Useless organs might remain 

 indefinitely if the emotions did not affect them 

 disadvantageously. But when cut down by 

 nervous shocks, they do not grow again to 

 their full size, if other parts absorb the nutri- 

 ment on which growth depends. If this be 

 true, the apparent effects of disuse are easily 

 accounted for without assuming that acquired 

 characters have any effect on the descendants 

 of those who acquire them. The play of the 

 emotions is sufficient to account for the reduc- 

 tion and disappearance of organs. 



SUMMARY 



The original germ cell has a capacity for consciousness, 

 but no content. For a content structure is necessary, through 

 which will and memory are evoked. Sensation is not, there- 

 fore, an elementary function of consciousness, but an im- 

 posed condition, and presupposes the existence of nerves, 

 which, in turn, are the complex resultant of several condi- 

 tions. Growth creates folds and they become incipient 

 ovaries, the sex products of which are nerve cells. These 

 cells are enclosed germ cells so differentiated and united 



