6 ORGANIC BEHAVIOUR 
repelled ; to slightly acid drops they are attracted, unless the 
acidity be too pungent. Heat and cold are alike repellent, 
and even a drop of pure distilled water forms an area into 
which the Paramecia do not enter. 
With such facts before him, the incautious observer may 
be led to the conclusion that Paramecia are not only conscious, 
but endowed with intelligence and volition. Even M. Binet,* 
who occupies a position which should lead him to exercise 
more caution, tells us that there is not a single infusorian 
which cannot be frightened, and does not manifest its fear by 
rapid flight; he speaks of some of these unicellular animals 
as “endowed with memory and volition,” and possessed of 
“instinct of great precision ;” and he describes the following 
stages :— 
“(1) The perception of an external object ; 
‘“*(2) The choice made between a number of objects ; 
(3) The perception of their position in space ; 
(4) Movements calculated either to approach the body 
and seize it, or to flee from it.” ; 
But when we seem to have grasped his point of view, 
when we have catalogued the memory, fear, instinct, per- 
ception, choice and volition, the whole intelligent edifice 
crumbles ; for we are told that ‘we are not in a position to 
determine whether these various acts are accompanied by 
consciousness, or whether they follow as simple physiological 
processes.” ‘To most of us fear, memory, choice, volition, 
imply something more than simple physiological processes ; 
they imply not only consciousness, but highly elaborated 
consciousness. 
Dr. Jennings’s researches show that no such implication 
can be accepted unless we are prepared to cast aside the 
trammels of reasonable caution. In the first place, the whole 
matter of feeding appears to be referable to simple organic 
behaviour not necessarily involving consciousness. The cilia 
in the mouth-groove and funnel constantly wave in such a 
manner as to drive a current of water, together with any 
* «The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms,” 1889, p. 61, 
