CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE WILL 69 



made him run," if we want to talk about the material 

 facts; or, "the feeling of chill produced the form of 

 subconsciousness which coexists with the motion of 

 legs," if we want to talk about the mental facts. 



This seems a fair statement of the parallelism 

 theory which has had so wide an acceptance. To me 

 it appears as an entirely unsatisfactory, character- 

 less hypothesis which contents itself to evade the 

 real issue by word juggling. It seems to me an 

 essentially unproductive theory, just because it 

 seeks to evade the issue. The issue is an old one : 

 Does brain activity account for consciousness and 

 the powers that depend upon consciousness? I 

 think it not difficult to show w T hy the simplicity of 

 this issue has been overcast and befogged by meta- 

 physical considerations which frequently reach the 

 point of absurdity. Some illustrations from well- 

 known physiological processes will help us in this 

 endeavor. 



If we stimulate the nerve called the chorda 

 tympani, there is a quick and striking response. The 

 saliva begins to flow abundantly. Accompanying 

 this salivary flow is a greatly increased flow of blood 

 through the salivary gland. What is the relation of 

 the saliva secreted to the salivary gland itself? 

 The relation is a comparatively simple one. Under 

 the influence of the nerve stimulus the various con- 

 stituents of the saliva are made from substances 

 already present in the gland or from the blood which 

 flows through it. Nobody doubts that the forma- 



