1896.] Psychology. 429 



entiated into discrete muscular and other bodies. In other words it is 

 possible to contract that part of the homogeneous protoplasm which is 

 necessary for the production of a certain movement, and leave that 

 part of the protoplasm which is not necessary to produce the movement 

 uncontracted. And this is exactly what undifferentiated animals (Pro- 

 tozoa) do, and it is what is done at all stages of differentiation of the 

 muscular system, so far as the differentiation which that muscular system 

 has attained, will permit. It is the sentence which I have quoted above 

 from Prof. Baldwin which induced me to say that he admits the Lam- 

 arkiau factor. For there is no doubt that it has been this habitual 

 contraction of certain parts of undifferentiated protoplasm which has 

 produced muscular bands, sheets, etc., as distinguished from other his- 

 tological elements of the organism. If this be true, there is no necessity 

 for the hypothesis of " overproduced movements " as the source of new 

 habits, since those habits may be produced by the direct effect of the 

 selective power of the animal over its own protoplasm. It is not in- 

 tended by this expression to claim anything more than simple sensation 

 for simple forms of life, or that anything higher than hunger, reproduc- 

 tion temperature, etc., constitute their pleasures and pains. 



The theory of natural selection from " overproduced movements " as 

 a source of new movements stands on the same basis as all the other 

 theories of natural selection as explanations of the origin of anything 

 new. They are impossible in practice, and inaccurate in logic, since 

 in my opinion, following that of Mr. Darwin, they demand of Natural 

 Selection a function of which it is by its definition incapable. That 

 natural selection regulates the survival of movements after they have 

 originated, goes without saying. It is evideut that "overproduced 

 movements " must on Prof. Baldwin's " Organic Selection " theory, 

 include the adaptive one which is destined to survive. The question 

 then is as to the origin of this particular " overproduced " and adaptive 

 movement. The explanation has been given above ; i. e. that it is a 

 direct response to the stimulus supplied. The location in the organism 

 of the responsive movement depends on the location of the stimulus, a 

 fact testified to by the close local connection of motor with sensory 

 nerves of general sensation. In the case of responses to special sensa- 

 tion, we may suppose that the responses only became exact as to locality 

 after a period of trial and error, the new movement always having a 

 local relation to the point of stimulus. The beast bites his wound, 

 before he has traced the pain to his enemy. As already pointed out, this 

 process would result in a perfected mechanism which would be inherited. 

 No one can yet explain the mechanism of the control of a mental state 



