PSYCHOLOGY. 



Prof. Mark Baldwin on Preformation and Epigenesis. 

 — In the last number of the Naturalist was republished from Science, 

 Prof. Baldwin's observations on my presentation of the contrasted hy- 

 potheses of the development of mind. 1 One of these theories was sup- 

 posed to be in accordance with the evolutionary doctrine of preforma- 

 tion, the other was thought to bear the same relation to that of epigene- 

 sis. Prof. Baldwin asks why the three theses arranged under epigenesis 

 may not with equal or greater propriety be arranged in the preforma- 

 tion column. He believes that consciousness has had an influence in 

 directing the course of evolution in accordance with the "general law 

 now recognized by Psychologists under the name of Dynamogenesis— 

 i. e., that the thought of a movement tends to discharge motor energy 

 into the channels as near as may be to those necessary for that move- 

 ment." He also says, " I do not suppose that any naturalist would 

 hold to an injection of energy in any form into the natural processes 

 by consciousness. The psychologists are, as Mr. Cattell remarks, about 

 done with a view like that." Prof. Baldwin also remarks that " Prof. 

 Cope can say whether such a construction ia true in his case." He adds 

 that " it is only the physical basis of memory in the brain that has a 

 causal relation to the other organic processes of the animal." 



To reply to the last question first. The facts seem to show that con- 

 scious states do have " a causal relation to the other organic processes 

 of the animal." I have gone into this subject briefly, but more fully 

 than can be done here, in Chap. X of my book on the " Primary Fac- 

 tors of Organic Evolution " (1896). The evolution of the brain, the 

 organ of consciousness, would indicate this, as well as the evidence for 

 Kinetogenesis or evolution by motion. This would follow, if the doc- 

 trine of Dynamogenesis referred to by Prof. Baldwin be true, at the 

 psychic end of the process, and if acquired characters be inherited, as 

 required by the doctrine of epigenesis If then consciousness has such a 

 function, the question arises as to its immediate mode of action. Prof. 

 Baldwin says "only the physical basis of memory has a causal rela- 

 tion," etc. This proposition I can accept, and it is true whether that 

 physical basis be due to a conscious state called a sense-impression, or 

 not. But the directions of the acts (motions) which flow from that 

 physical basis are very various in organic beings, having adaptations 

 1 See Primary Factors of Organic Evolution, 1896, p. 14. 



