

CHAPTER III 



ORGANIC ADAPTABILITY AND THE VITAL PROCESSES 



i. To determine the part played by Mind in behaviour 

 we must begin, as the preceding discussion will have 

 suggested, with its opposite. We must seek to determine 

 the scope and measure the achievement of the mechanical 

 factor in the life of organised beings. For this purpose 

 we naturally turn to those processes which in ourselves 

 go on without the aid of conscious mind. We may begin 

 with the ordinary vital functions of nutrition, respira- 

 tion, secretion, and the like which are common to all 

 organisms. These functions exhibit a measure of adapt- 

 ability which is the common character of all living organic 

 matter. We find it in plants no less than in animals, in 

 Protozoa no less than in Mammals. This adaptability, 

 however, is commonly referred by physiologists to 

 mechanical causes. The prevailing view is that the 

 white blood-corpuscle which makes its way through the 

 blood to the bacteria which it is about to devour is as 

 certainly moved by mechanical forces, if we could only 

 detect them, as the red corpuscle which is carried along 

 passively in the blood-stream. The waving of the cilia, 

 or delicate threads which proceed from the lining of the 

 windpipe, and by a constant upward swish sweep away 

 any chance foreign body from the approaches to the lungs, 

 is held no more spontaneous than the alternate bending and 

 recovery of the long grass in the wind. We can tell what 

 it is that bends the grass. We do not at present know 

 what moves the cilia. It is no massive outer force ; it is 



