I 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 15 



with consciousness, and in this respect is like 

 other deep-seated reflexes such as those by 

 which the food is moved through the digestive 

 tube. Operations of this kind constitute, per- 

 haps, the most primitive class of reflex move- 

 ments with which we are acquainted. Al- 

 though they may be absolutely unassociated 

 with consciousness, they exhibit a nicety of 

 adjustment that is most baffling when explan- 

 ation is attempted, for they show every appear- 

 ance of intelligent control. They, therefore, 

 afford evidence for that conception of the or- 

 ganism which has recently been so vigorously 

 advanced by the neovitalists, namely, that 

 the organism continually exhibits conditions 

 which, when we attempt to explain them, seem 

 to necessitate the assumption of an element of 

 intelligence. 



The class of reflexes just mentioned, that 

 is, those unassociated with consciousness, make 

 up in all probability the large part if not the 

 whole of the nervous life of many of the lower 

 animals. While such a statement can be at best 

 only a judgment without the possibility of 

 final proof, it seems more probable that the 

 nervous life of sea anemones, jelly fishes, and 

 other lowly organized forms is made up of sim- 



