178 University of California Publications in Zoology. [Vol. 4 



prevented from righting itself in accordance with this impulse 

 there does not appear at once a completely harmonious new im- 

 pulse. On the contrary, the starfish for a long time rights itself 

 in awkward ways, certain rays playing a pai't (as a result of their 

 former history) that tends to impede rather than assist the 

 progress of the reaction ; such, for example, is the action of the 

 ray e in the history of the starfish A (p. 161). 



Imperfect U)tity. — The fact that there are thus at times, in 

 the process of righting, certain actions that do not lead toward 

 the general result, but actually impede it, is worthy of thought. 

 In many cases the accuracy and harmony of the righting impulse 

 is striking, as we have set forth above. But the existence of 

 imperfect impulses, with certain of the actions uncoordinated, is 

 certainly significant. It will be well to cite certain cases from 

 my notes. 



Thus, in the preliminary experiments to determine the usual 

 method of righting in the starfish B, I noted that "there is a pro- 

 nounced tendency for a — c to do the main part of the work," and 

 that "d commonly gets hold and pulls also, but really delays oper- 

 ations considerably." The turning would have taken place much 

 more neatly and quickly if (/ had refrained from interfering. 

 Again, in testing the starfish C, 1 noted that '^d gets hold, begins 

 to turn the starfish, unaided, toward the ray c : now the ray e gets 

 hold on the other side and delays the process." In many cases, 

 where it is necessary for certain rays to detach themselves in 

 order that the turning may take place, they continue for a con- 

 siderable time to hold, complicating and delaying the process. 

 At times the impulse appears quite unified and harmonious, save 

 that a single ray appears to be excluded from it ; this ray holds 

 with its suckers and resists the action of the other rays. In a 

 few cases I have seen such a ray actually pulled by main force 

 from its attachment l)y the activity of the other rays. 



Thus at times the impulse is not a perfect thing ; the action is 

 discordant. I do not mean to represent this as the usual case, for 

 it is not, but the existence of these inharmonious activities nuist 

 be remembered in forming a theory of the matter. It would ap- 

 pear to be difficult to account for these cases on the view that an 

 entelechv controls the movement in the interest of the organism. 



