DE. HILL, PROM REFLEX ACTION TO VOLITION. 47 



is manifest. All that is or ever can be known about it must 

 be deduced from introspection. It is impossible to suppose 

 (and this is really the consideration which removes it altogether 

 from the sphere of the phenomena which we have been 

 studying) that any of the force received by a sense-organ from 

 the outer world, and which travels up sensory nerves into the 

 nerve network, is used up in its production. It is impossible 

 to imagine a balance sheet of force which shall include on the 

 debit side the forces which act upon our bodies from without 

 plus the force generated by metabolism within the body and 

 on the credit side: — to the production of consciousness somuch! 

 The anatomist must let consciousness alone. 



But just as movement presupposes sensation so conscious- 

 ness predicates choice. 



It is necessary to be. very modest in asserting of a given 

 action that it is a voluntary one. All actions may be per- 

 formed in the absence of volition, but when there is conscious- 

 ness of sensation there is also a power of selecting sensations, 

 and therefore of determining the combination of nerve-currents 

 which shall flow out in action. [Considerable applause fol- 

 lowed the conclusion of the paper.] 



The President (Sir George G. Stokes, Bart., M.P., V.P.R.S.).— 

 You have already anticipated me in returning yonr thanks, by 

 your applanse, to Dr. Hill for this very interesting- and suggestive 

 paper on a most difficult and mysterious subject. I will now 

 invite remarks especially from those who have given particular 

 attention to this subject or to subjects allied to it. Perhaps Sir 

 Joseph Fayrer will open the discussion. 



Sir Joseph Fayrer, K.C.S.I., M.D., F.R.S.— I think, sir, that 

 there may be others present who would be better able to speak 

 upon this subject than I am ; but as yon have called upon me I 

 will make one or two remarks — not in the way of criticism, for 

 there is nothing to criticise. 



First, I wish to express my admiration of the paper. Dr. Hill 

 has brought before us an exceedingly difficult, and, as you have 

 said, mysterious question, and has done so with judgment and 



