36 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS' ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
stimulate the peripheral extremity of the sensory nerves distributed 
through the body, and pour an intense volume of excitement into the 
brain, as is witnessed by the fact that on the psychic side feelings par- 
take of the massive and turbulent nature of sensation, rather than of the 
faintness and vagueness of ideas; for the psychic feeling is either a part 
or an accompaniment of these imposing bodily happenings. In the case 
of hate, the process seems to be this: The hated object is seen, recog- 
nized, and at once awakens the idea of and the tendency to attack. But 
simultaneously the whole mass of bodily commotion is under way, cre- 
ating much brain excitement, and thus powerfully reinforcing the ten- 
dency. Corresponding to ideas, there is little brain excitement, but 
corresponding to emotions the excitement is very great, and, by the 
association of the two, the idea gains motor force and the feeling intel- 
ligent direction. 
And now the efficiency of effort can, at least in part, be understood. 
Just as the sight of the hated object arouses the feeling of hate, just so, 
situations in which mutually antagonistic desires are battling for su- 
premacy excite bodily happenings that are felt as effort, and that, by 
associating themselves with one of the desires, tend to give it the 
victory. The central position of effort thus depends on its office as 
arbiter of disputes between well matched opponents, and the ideas that 
can count on its support have gained a most important ally. As to 
what bodily commotions condition it, the concluding paragraph must 
offer a conjecture, admittedly only such, but advanced because, if true, 
it will assist in giving unity to the conception of man’s evolution from 
louver forms. 
In describing the process of humanization after Darwin, it will be re- 
membered that it was declared to be conditioned, on the bodily side, “by 
changes in the structure and use of the hand, the jaw, and the spinal 
column.” And now it is pertinent to range alongside of that fact the 
fact that to popular conception — and, I believe, to careful observation — 
effort is largely a feeling of movements and changes resident in and 
about the hand, the jaw, and the spine. This is suggested by such 
phrases descriptive of will pov T er or its absence, as “holding firmly in 
hand,” “losing one’s grip,” “a firm jaw,” or “setting one’s jaw,” 
“having backbone,” and others that will readily occur. A nerveless 
hand, a weak jaw, and a cartilaginous backbone are synonomous of de- 
ficient will. Looking back to man’s ape-like ancestors, we conjecture 
that skillful hand-movements came to be more and more effective, and 
thus not only w r ere increasingly resorted to, but also came to be re- 
sorted to in all cases of difficulty; further, that, as the hand came to 
perform the actions of offense, defense, and skill that had previously 
fallen to the jaw, the powerful muscles of the shrinking jaw lost their 
