ii] HABITS OF CONVOLUTA 49 



stimulus, are recorded in the "mneme" or unconscious 

 memory of an organism as integral parts of the 

 nervous operation initiated by the stimulus and con- 

 summated by the reaction which it calls forth ; then 

 it may well follow, as it follows in organisms endowed 

 with conscious memory, that these environmental 

 conditions acting alone and in the absence of the 

 stimulus, may suffice to set in action the nervous 

 apparatus in the same manner as the stimulus itself 

 originally set that apparatus in action. Hence the 

 attendant environmental conditions may produce the 

 reaction originally called forth by the stimulus. 



An example borrowed from Sernon's work (loc. cit.) 

 may make the idea clearer. A boy throws a stone 

 at a puppy. The dog is hit and hurt, whimpers and 

 runs away. The next time the puppy grown older 

 and wiser sees a boy stoop, as though to pick 

 up a stone, it whimpers and runs away. Linked in 

 the memory are the hurt, the stone, and the stooping 

 boy. The hurt supplied the stimulus for whimpering 

 and flight ; but memory, the constable of the body, 

 charges the stooping boy with being an accessory to 

 the act. Henceforth it will advise the avoidance of 

 stooping boys. Experience consists in the discovery 

 of short cuts to safety. 



So, assuming with Samuel Butler and Hering, 

 an unconscious memory, or mneme, Semon suggests 

 that the lower organisms may react to the attendant 



K. 4 



