462 On Archcesthetism. [June, 



tribution of its contents. The structure of the Ccelenterata offers 

 the structural conditions of such, a process. A want of propulsive 

 power in a stomach or body sac occupied with its own functions, 

 would lead to a painful clogging of the flow of its products, and 

 the ' voluntary ' contractility of the body or tube wall being thus 

 stimulated, would at some point originate the pulsation necessary 

 to relieve the tension. Thus might have originated the 'con- 

 tractile vesicle ' of some protozoa, or contractile tube of some 

 higher animals; its ultimate product being the mammalian heart. 

 So with reproduction. Perhaps an excels of assimilation in well- 

 fed individuals of the first animals, led to the discovery that self- 

 division constituted a relief from the oppression of too great 

 bulk. With the increasing specialization of form, this process 

 would become necessarily localized in the body, and growth 

 would repeat such resulting structure in descent, as readily ; 



of the other 



-..tructur 



ar%e< 



:uliarities. No 



function bears 



the n 



urk 







more than this one 



, as consciousness is 





one of the c 



:ondition 



sof i 



ts performance 



. While less c 



omplc 



tely 



"voluntary' 



' tlnn m 



uscular action, it is 1 



nore dependen 



t on s' 



ti [li- 



ulus for its i 



initial m< 





jnts, and does 1 



lot in these d 



i splay 



the 



unconscious 



automa 



tism 



characteristic of the muscul. 





many other functions." 



It was not proposed in the preceding paragraph that the con- 

 tractility of living protoplasm should be regarded as due to con- 

 sciousness, but that the location in a particular place of a contrac- 

 tility already existing, might be due to that cause. 



The preceding hypotheses bring us to a general theory of the 

 evolution of organic structures or species. It is that they are the 

 result of movements long continued and inherited, and that the 

 character of these movements was originally determined by con- 

 sciousness or sensibility. It remains then to consider the nature 

 of consciousness. 



It may be mentioned that it is here left open whether there be 

 any form of force which may be especially designated as " vital. 

 Many of the animal functions are known to be physical and 

 chemical, and if there be any one which appears to be less expli- 

 cable by reference to these forces than the others, it is that of 

 nutrition. Probably in this instance force has been so metamor- 

 phosed through the influence of the originative or conscious force 

 in evolution, that it is a distinct species in the category of forces. 

 Assuming it to be such, I have given it the name of Bathmism 

 (Method of Creation, 1871, p. 26). Perhaps the contractility 

 generally regarded as an attribute of living protoplasm may be a 

 mechanical phenomenon dependent of course on nutrition ; or 1 



