DR. HILL, PEOM KEFLEX ACTION TO VOLITION. 51 



the weight of his authority, the enormous power of habits, and the 

 great value of training children in all parts of their character by 

 the definite formation of habits. Dr. Hill does not go so far as to 

 say that these impulses or habits actually form in the brain con- 

 necting fibres between cell and cell. I believe that is not demon- 

 strated. I do not know whether he would say it is possible, if not 

 probable. Then, further, with regard to impulses, Dr. Hill spoke 

 of the lengthened or higher arcs : — " The grey matter presents 

 therefore a variety of routes, through which sensory impulses may 

 flow over into motor paths, each sensori-motor path constituting 

 an arc." Is sensation the only origin he recognises for impulses? 

 Is he bound by the statement in his paper, that movement pre- 

 supposes sensation, or does he admit the idea of the presence of 

 cells specially in the frontal regions, which can absolutely start 

 motion in the body apart from all ascertained and demonstrable 

 sensations received from any part of the body ? Does he look 

 upon the mind as simply contixdling these lengthened arcs, or does 

 he look on the higher nerve centres themselves as having power to 

 initiate action ? I would also ask him whether he considers, with 

 regard to volition, that reflex or automatic action comes first in the 

 history of development ? He has began with the jelly fish, but I 

 would ask him if he regards the action of such individual separate 

 cells as compose some of the amoeba? and others as purely reflex, or 

 being, as far as he can judge, automatic ? What one wants to get 

 at is whether action, in its first initiation, is really thoroughly 

 ascertained to be reflex in these elementary creatures, which are 

 far lower in the scale than the jelly fish ; and whether what we see 

 under the microscope are reflex or automatic movements. 



Lastly, as to fixing a locality for the different actions of the 

 brain. Are we to understand that the brain acts as a whole, or 

 that certain regions of it (not of course in any way resembling the 

 " bumps " of phrenologists) are devoted to certain ideas and 

 classes of thought, and may be actively engaged, other parts being 

 at the time at rest ? I am afraid my questions are rather crude, 

 but I have great interest in the matter, and I should be glad to 

 have them answered. 



Rev. A. I. McCaul, M.A.— I should like to make one remark as 

 to faculties having no location, for it is a point of some interest, and 

 brings to my mind a passage in Aristotle, which I daresay is familiar 

 to the author of the paper, in which he seems to urge that there are 



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