176 THE PATH OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



penetrated to psychology and sociology. In 1868 

 Hughlings Jackson, in the study of certain maladies 

 of the nervous system, had arrived at the conclusion 

 that, "In the degeneration of this system the higher 

 functions, those more complex, specialized and volun- 

 tary, disappear more quickly than the lower, simpler, 

 less specialized and more automatic functions." l 



Starting from this point, and expressing it in 

 terms of physiology, Eibot formulates as follows 

 the law of degeneration of will and memory : 

 " The dissolution of the will occurs in a retro- 

 grade fashion, from the more voluntary and com- 

 plex to the less voluntary and simpler that is to 

 say, towards automatism." 2 



So also in progressive loss of memory, the 

 degeneration proceeds from the less stable to the 

 more stable. " It begins with recent acquisitions 

 not firmly rooted in the brain, rarely repeated, and 

 so not firmly associated with others, in fact with 

 the least organized parts of memory. It ends 

 with sensory memory which is instinctive, and is 

 deeply rooted in the organism, or is indeed a 

 part of the organism itself." 3 



These retrograde transformations of the nervous 

 centres have their echoes in the modes in which 

 ideas and feelings are expressed. Paul Heger, in 



1 Ribot, Maladies de la Memoir e, p. 29. Dallemagne (Degeneres 

 et Desequilibres), p. 430. 



2 Maladies de la Volonte, p. 150. Paris, F. Alcan. 



3 Maladies de la M&noire, p. 94. 



