The Will. 749 



as then constituted, passes down the efferent nerves and is distributed 

 toward the same muscles that would have been affected if the same 

 stimulus had gone directly from the sensory ganglia to the muscles 

 without first going to the cerebrum. In but few cases, however, would 

 the stimulus returning from the cerebrum be as simple, or in any way 

 quite similar to the elements which compose it, although they all came 

 from the environment originally. No doubt all our vocalization, includ- 

 ing language, is the reflection through our organs, of sounds projected 

 upon us from the environment. The howling of dogs when a bell rings, 

 is an indication of the original tendency of sound to produce vocaliza- 

 tion. ( See on Language. ) 



Muscle moving is to be attributed to the external stimuli, therefore, 

 whether directly by reflex action or indirectly through the cerebrum, 

 the will constituting merely one term of the series in the indirect stimu- 

 lation. The apparatus through which the so-called voluntary actions 

 are performed, are precisely those through which the automatic actions 

 are performed, the only difference between the two being not in the ac- 

 tion itself, but in the origin of its exciting cause. In the automatic ac- 

 tions the movement may be immediate, and result directly from the simple, 

 efficient, incoming stimulus. In the voluntary actions, the movement is 

 not immediate, but is the result of the incoming stimuli after time has 

 been consumed by them in mutual limitations and modifications. 



Some actions that are ordinarily automatic may be performed volun- 

 tarily ; for example, coughing, winking, breathing, and the like. We 

 may do these things under the stimulus of will, but when we do, they 

 are performed by the same automatic machinery as when they are per- 

 formed irn'olimtarily. The will in the case of voluntary coughing, for 

 example, is the stimulating agent in the place of the local irritation in 

 the throat, which ordinarily starts the automatic action. There is an- 

 other class of stimuli which come also from the cerebrum but which are 

 not voluntary. These are the ideo-motor stimuli, or the stimulation by 

 ideas. The paroxysms in hydrophobia are brought on by the sight of 

 water, but they may also be excited merely by mentioning water by 

 name; the name exciting the idea. So vomiting has been excited by the 

 remembrance of a nauseous object which has provoked it before, and 

 yawning by seeing a picture of yawners. Carpenter mentions a case of 

 sea-sickness brought on by the sighf of a vessel tossed about at sea, 

 which recalled a former experience of sea-sickness in the subject. 



On the other hand, there are many actions which beginning as volun- 

 tary become, through habit, automatic. The greater part of our mus- 

 cular movements come under this head. In infancy, these are learned 

 slowly and with care and attention, but after awhile they become easy, 

 and finally they do themselves. In walking we simply will to start, 



