FREEWILL AND PREDESTINATION 



III 

 FREEWILL AND PREDESTINATION 



A year or two before the war a learned German Professor, 

 Herr Ludwig Edinger, contributed to the Field an article 

 entitled, " Fish and Freewill," in which he sought to prove 

 that it was by an involuntary reflex action that the trout 

 took the fly. " The trout," said he in effect, " is a creature 

 of very little brain." In the higher vertebrates a special 

 portion of the brain — the cortex of the cerebral hemisphere 

 — has alone the function of combining different sensations 

 and of drawing conclusions from them. If deprived of 

 their cortex they exercise no choice, and have no power 

 of deliberation, but react in a definite way to each definite 

 change in their surroundings. " A study of the anatomical 

 and microscopical structure " — I quote his exact words — 

 " of the brain of fish shows that there is no structure 

 corresponding to the cortex in the more highly developed 

 forms." Hence he declared that fish have no power of 

 combining their sensations, and that they cannot exercise 

 choice. So that the action of the trout in taking the fly 

 is purely reflex, depending on two factors — viz., upon the 

 stimulus being adequate and upon the degree of excitability 

 of the nerve centres — and the Professor went on to develop 

 his argument in some detail. 



The fly so cunningly cast by the Professor evoked 

 several rises. More than one angler rushed into print 

 with facts confirmatory of the Professor's theory. 



I suspect Professor Ludwig Edinger of being a humorist 

 of the most cynical and heartless type. Who that was 

 not could so wrap up a platitude in learned language 

 and spring it upon innocent anglers in such a way as to 

 lead them to think that they were trembling on the verge 



