INHIBITION AND CARDIAC VAGUS 95 



intestine. In saying so it has not been forgotten that 

 inhibition is admitted by most to be no more than a 

 covering word for various observations. Such a covering 

 word, however, tends to obtain illegitimate sanctions by 

 continued use, and if it is asked to shelter not only mere 

 physiological stoppage of action, as when a muscle is thrown 

 out of gear, but also a pathological process in which the 

 subject may die of cardiac failure, a better one must 

 surely be sought. 



In the first place, it may be asked whether inhibition, 

 in any case, is a safe word to employ, even if the facts 

 observed are found to support the general notion. Nothing 

 is clearer than that the use of a word, which is, as it were, 

 sanctified by special employment in other connections 

 than those of science, needs the closest examination. The 

 connotation of the term as commonly employed is purely 

 "psychological," that is to say, it is a "portmanteau" 

 word for the interruptions of functions by " forbiddance," 

 or obvious and useful shorthand for a complex of con- 

 ditioned reflexes which, on being excited, repress certain 

 actions by turning energy in other directions. For we 

 cannot suppose that an "inhibited" clergyman does not 

 in some way employ his energy on paths previously little 

 used or not used at all. Just as spoken words are sound 

 signals which excite reflex action, so the bishop's written 

 words of inhibition, when they stop a certain function, 

 set others in action, whether it be over emotional tracts 

 of indignation, surprise, or anger, or over carefully con- 

 sidered remonstrance worked out by " volition " over the 

 pyramidal tract in motor reactions which produce an answer 

 and demand investigation. Yet using the common verbal 

 shorthand, we say the clergyman has been "inhibited" by 

 the bishop, as if some direct influence, not to be analysed 



