LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS 109 



the organ permitting choice, in any circumstances, 

 of that particular complex action which is appro- 

 priate. The brain is the organ of choice. 



Now, according as we descend in the animal 

 scale, we see that the functions of the brain and 

 those of the spinal cord become less differ- 

 entiated, as if a part at least of the faculty of 

 choosing, which in us is attached to the brain, had 

 descended to the spinal cord. In this latter, 

 then, we see that the mechanical attachments are 

 fewer, and probably also constructed with less 

 precision. Finally, it seems indeed as if the two 

 functions, the one an absolutely precise auto- 

 matism, the other an absolute faculty of choice, 

 become mingled, and blend with each other so 

 thoroughly that when we arrive at organisms in 

 which there are only a few heaps of nerve-cells 

 scattered here and there, and even more so when 

 we come to organisms where there are no longer 

 differentiated nerve-cells, we are faced by a 

 living substance such that external stimulus pro- 

 vokes from it a reaction both undecided, though 

 not altogether chosen (there comes in the element 

 of choice), and ill-defined although aiming at a 

 certain precision (there comes in the element of 

 automatism). Such is probably the condition of 

 an amoeba of one of those tiny lumps of proto- 

 plasmic jelly you can see with the microscope in 

 a drop of water. When anything that can be 

 turned into food floats by, the amoeba throws out 

 in various directions protoplasmic filaments 



