18 



SCIENCE 



[X. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 78 



possible from that naive materialism which 

 would postulate a single series of objects 

 as the ultimate realities with more or less 

 adventitious functions pertaining to them 

 as epiphenomena. The analysis here at- 

 tempted is merely pragmatic and proxi- 

 mate, not ultimate, and it leaves quite to 

 one side and untouched the metaphysical 

 problem of the ultimate nature of the 

 phenomenal series, whether it is material- 

 istic or idealistic or both or neither. 



Looking back now over the field which 

 we have traversed, in our analysis of the 

 behavior of animals and its mechanisms we 

 start with the tropism and the reflex. This 

 type of response is in some of its simpler 

 phases indistinguishable from the reactions 

 of dead machines to the forces which actu- 

 ■ate them. But the more complex reflexes, 

 on the other hand, grade over into those 

 behavior types which we call intelligent. 

 No one has yet succeeded in formulating 

 a clear-cut definition of the limits of the 

 reflex at either its lower or its higher ex- 

 toeme, and perhaps no one ever will; for 

 the whole list of behavior types from ma- 

 chines to men probably forms a closely 

 graded series. 



Even the simpler reflexes exhibit a meas- 

 urable refractory phase, or pause, in the 

 ■center where the afferent impulse is made 

 over into the efferent. When reflexes are 

 compounded, there is another factor which 

 may tend to modify or delay the response. 

 This is the dilemma which arises when two 

 or more reflex centers are so related that a 

 given afferent impulse coming to one of 

 them may take any one of several final 

 common paths to the organs of response. 

 The reflex response which actually emerges 

 in such a ease will generally be the adap- 

 tive one, i. e., the one which is best for the 

 organism. The selection of the adaptive 

 response in such a case may be termed 

 physiological choice, and it always involves 



a lengthening of the refractory phase." In 

 the neural tensions of the refractory phase 

 of physiological choice we find the germs 

 of the complex anticipatory reactions 

 which in turn have nurtured the awaken- 

 ing intelligence. 



I have atempted to illustrate the thesis 

 that the comparative study of animal be- 

 havior in the broadest sense of the term is 

 as essential as other branches of physiol- 

 ogy to the comprehension of animal struc- 

 tures and that the enlargement of our 

 knowledge of scientific fact in this field 

 will contribute greatly to the more perfect 

 integration of the three great branches of 

 biology — anatomy, physiology and psy- 

 chology—and the correlation of the whole 

 with other departments of knowledge. 

 Our philosophy of nature is sound just in 

 proportion as we succeed in effecting these 

 correlations of experience. 



C. JuDSON Herrick 



THE ALASKAN FUR-SEALS^ 

 When, on January 1, 1909, the management 

 of the Alaskan fur-seal fisheries was trans- 

 ferred to the United States Bureau of Fisher- 

 ies, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor 

 designated Dr. David Starr Jordan, Dr. 

 Leonhard Stejneger, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 

 Dr. Frederic A. Lucas, Dr. Chas. H. Town- 

 send, Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock and Hon. 

 Edwin W. Sims, to act as an advisory board 

 to recommend measures designated to con- 

 serve this valuable animal life now being ex- 

 terminated through sea-killing of breeders. 

 On November 23, last, this board met at the 

 Bureau of Fisheries in Washington and 

 adopted the following recommendations, which 



'^ Physiological choice, in fact, is not dependent 

 upon a nervous system at all, but has been dem- 

 onstrated in rudimentary form even among Pro- 

 tozoa, though it remains on a very low plane in 

 these organisms. 



' Published by permdssion of Hon. Geo. M. • 

 Bowers, U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries. 



