CONSCIOUS DETERMINATION
Conscious determination, or, effort induced by conscious volition, is
the basic mental operation upon which is reared that complex psychical
structure which is to be found in the higher animals, and especially in
man--the highest product of evolutionary development.
By conscious volition is not meant that consciousness which appertains
to the child of two or three years, who, at that age, recognizes the
_ego_. Ego-knowledge, while undoubtedly present in some of the higher
animals, such as the dog, monkey, horse, cat, etc., is not a factor in
the psychical make-up of any of the lower animals (insects, crustaceans,
mollusks, etc.). But consciousness, so far as volition or choice is
concerned, enters into the _psychos_ of animals exceedingly low in the
scale of animal life.
We have seen in the chapter on the senses in the lower animals, that
animals possess one or all of the five senses--touch, taste, smell,
sight, and hearing; we will see in a later chapter that some of them
likewise possess certain other senses which man has lost in the process
of evolution.
Now, let us very briefly discuss the _modus operandi_ through which and
by which conscious determination and other psychical manifestations
arise from the physical basis--the senses.[23] I have asserted, and, as
I believe, I have demonstrated elsewhere, the interdependence and
correlation of physiology and psychology. Furthermore, I wish to be
plainly understood as also asserting the physical basis and origin of
all psychical operations whatever they may be.
[23] "Sensorial impression is at the bottom of all our ideas, all our
conceptions, though it may at first conceal itself in the form of a
binary, ternary, quaternary compound; and, on our methodically
pursuing the inquiry, it is easily recognizable--just as a simple
substance in organic chemistry may be always summoned to appear, if we
sit down with the resolution to disengage it from all the artificial
combinations which hold it imprisoned."--LUYS, _The Brain and its
Functions_, p. 252.
Mind is always associated, according to our experience and knowledge
(and this question must be studied objectively) with a peculiar tissue
which is only to be found in animal organisms. This tissue is called
nerve, and is made up of cells and, broadly speaking, prolongations of
cells which are called nerve-fibres.
Certain accumulations of nerve-cells called ganglions (ganglia) are to
be found scattered throughout the structure of animals. Experiment and
observation teach that these ganglia subserve a governing influence
over nerve-action; hence, they are called nerve-centres.
Nerve-tissue is found in all animals above and including Hydrozoa,
according to Romanes;[24] I am inclined to believe, however, that it is
present in animals even lower than Hydrozoa, for I have been able, on more
than one occasion, to verify Professor Clark's observations in regard to
the protozoan, _Stentor polymorphus_, which, as he asserts,[25] has a
well-developed nervous system. Moreover, I have seen, in my opinion,
unquestionable acts of conscious determination enacted by this little
creature, as I will point out further along in this chapter.
[24] Romanes, _Mental Evolution in Animals_, p. 24.
[25] Clark, _Mind in Nature_, p. 64 _et seq._
Nerve-tissue has the peculiar faculty of transmitting impressions made
upon it by stimuli. When a nerve is acted on by a stimulus, the
impression wave is transmitted along the in-going nerve to the ganglion;
here, the stimulus is transferred to the out-going nerve, which, going
to the muscle, causes it to contract.
This form of nerve-action is called reflex action, and reflex action is,
in the beginning, the germ from which spring volition (choice) and all
of the higher psychical attributes.
Again, it is to be observed, as animals become more highly organized,
that nerves have the power of discriminating between stimuli, and "it is
this power of discriminating between stimuli," as Romanes puts it,
"_irrespective of their relative mechanical intensities_, that
constitutes the physiological aspect of choice" (volition). It is also
through the faculty of discrimination that the special senses, upon
which the entire psychical structure depends, have been evolved.
The fact of this power of discrimination has been so clearly and so
beautifully demonstrated by Romanes, that I present his experiment and
observations, as detailed by him in his magnificent work, _Mental
Evolution in Animals_:--
"I have observed that if a sea-anemone is placed in an aquarium tank,
and allowed to fasten on one side of the tank near the surface of the
water, and if a jet of sea-water is made to play continuously and
forcibly upon the anemone from above, the result of course is that the
animal becomes surrounded with a turmoil of water and air-bubbles. Yet,
after a short time, it becomes so accustomed to this turmoil that it
will expand its tentacles in search of food, just as it does when placed
in calm water. If now one of the expanded tentacles is gently touched
with a solid body, all the others close around that body, in just the
same way as they would were they expanded in calm water. That is to say,
the tentacles are able to discriminate between the stimulus which is
applied by the turmoil of the water and that which is supplied by their
contact with the solid body, and they respond to the latter stimulus
notwithstanding that it is of incomparably less intensity than the
former."[26]
[26] Romanes, _Mental Evolution in Animals_, pp. 48, 49.
When a stimulus passes over a nerve to a ganglion, it leaves upon it an
impression which remains for a shorter or longer time as the stimulus is
great or small. Now, when a stimulus is again applied to the nerve, the
impression wave follows in the footsteps, as it were, of the first
impression wave, and the ganglion reflects or transfers it just as
before, thus showing that nerve has another peculiar quality--that of
_memory_.
Again, when two or more reflexes are excited by the same stimulus or
stimuli, the ganglion learns to associate one with the other, thus
showing that it possesses another quality--that of the association of
ideas (stimuli and reflexes).
All of these operations are, in their beginnings, exceedingly simple;
yet, as organisms increase in complexity, these simple beginnings become
more complex and more highly developed.
Heretofore, the operations described have been entirely ganglionic
(reflex) and utterly without that which we call consciousness. Now, since
consciousness, as I understand it, is simply a knowledge of existence, and
since this knowledge of existence is only to be had through sensual
perceptions, and, since sensual perceptions are excited undoubtedly by
coördinated stimuli, then, "there cannot be coördination of many stimuli
without some ganglion through which they are all brought into relation.
In the process of bringing these into relation, this ganglion must be
subject to the influence of each--must undergo many changes. And the quick
succession of changes in a ganglion, implying as it does perpetual
experiences of differences and likenesses, constitute the raw material of
consciousness."[27]
[27] Spencer, _Principles of Psychology_, Vol. I. p. 435.
However quick this succession of changes may be, there must be an
interval of time between the application of the stimulus and the
response to that stimulus, hence, the element of time enters into all
psychical operations that are not distinctly reflex. Even in the
reflexes there is a time element, but it is distinctly shorter than the
time interval that enters into the make-up of a conscious psychical
operation. This can easily be demonstrated, as has been done, time and
again, by actual experiment.
"With this gradual dawn of consciousness as revealed to subjective
analysis, we should expect some facts of physiology, or of objective
analysis, to correspond; and this we do find. For in our own organisms we
know that reflex actions are not accompanied by consciousness, although
the complexity of the nerve-muscular systems concerned in these actions
may be very considerable. Clearly, therefore, it is not mere complexity of
ganglionic action that determines consciousness. What, then, is the
difference between the mode of operation of the cerebral hemispheres and
that of the lower ganglia, which may be taken to correspond with the great
subjective distinction between the consciousness which may attend the
former and the no-consciousness which is invariably characteristic of the
latter? I think that the only difference that can be pointed to is a
difference of rate of time."[28]
[28] Romanes, _Mental Evolution in Animals_, pp. 72, 73.
The gradual cultivation of the senses (evolution), during which the
special adaptations of their motor reactions are gradually developed, is a
necessary prerequisite to the formation and elaboration of conscious
volition.[29] In the foregoing pages I have very briefly discussed this
cultivation of the senses and the development of their motor reactions. I
have likewise outlined the origin of volition from sensual perceptions; it
now becomes necessary in this discussion of mind, in the lower animals, to
study those organisms in which volition (choice) first makes its
appearance in the shape of conscious determination.
[29] Maudsley, _Physiology of Mind_, p. 247.
_Stentor polymorphus_ is exceedingly interesting on more than one
account. Its queer, trumpet-like shape, with its flaring, bell-like,
open mouth (if I may use such a term to indicate its entire cephalic
extremity), surmounted by rows of vibratile cilia, its pulsating
contractile vesicle, its ability to move from place to place by
swimming, are all interesting features; but, when it is ascertained to
be the first creature in the entire Animal Kingdom in which a true
nervous system is to be found, then it becomes doubly interesting.
This protozoan has been a favorite subject for study with microscopists,
but Professor Clark of Harvard was the first observer to note and call
attention to its nerve-supply. Says he in his note calling attention to
this discovery:--
"The digestive and circulatory systems are the only parts of the
organization essential to life that are known to investigators; but
recently I have been led to believe that I have discovered the _nervous
system_, or at least a part of it, and that too in the very region of
the body where there is the most activity, and therefore more likely
than elsewhere to have this system most strongly developed. Immediately
within the edge of the disk (_bell_) there runs all around a narrow
faint band, which lies so close to the surface that it is difficult to
determine precisely that it is not actually superficial. From this band
there arise, at nearly equal distances all round, about a dozen
excessively faint thin stripes, which converge in a general direction
toward the mouth."[30]
[30] Clark, _Mind in Nature_, pp. 64, 65.
This band Professor Clark very correctly, as I believe, assumes to be a
part of Stentor's nervous system; for, with a medium high-power lens
(×500) I have been able to make out ganglionic enlargements both in the
circular band and in the stripes. These ganglia are the brain of this
infusorian. When the animalcule is stained with eosin, the nervous
system can very readily be made out and followed throughout all of its
ramifications.
On one occasion, while I was studying the contractile vesicle (heart) of
one of these animalcules, I saw it evince what seemed to me to be
unquestionable evidences of conscious determination.
Just above the creature, which was resting in its tube (it builds a
gelatinous tube into which it shrinks when alarmed or disturbed in any
way), there was a bit of alga, from which ripened spores were being given
off. Some of these spores were ruptured (probably by my manipulations) and
starch grains were escaping therefrom.
The Stentor, from its location below the alga, could not reach the
starch grains without altering its position. I saw it elevate itself in
its tube until it touched the starch grains with its cilia. With these
it swept a grain into its mouth, and then sank down in its tube. I
thought, at first, that this was the result of accident, but when the
creature again elevated itself, and again captured a starch grain, I was
compelled to admit design!
By some sense, it had discovered the presence of starch, which it
recognized to be food; it could not get at this food without making a
change in its position, which, therefore, it immediately proceeded to
do!
Here was an act which required, so it seemed to me, correlative
ideation, and which was doubly surprising, because occurring in an
animal of such extremely simple organization. This observation was
substantiated, however, by the testimony of Professor Carter, an English
biologist, which came to my notice a week or so thereafter. This
investigator witnessed a similar act in an animalcule belonging, it is
true, to another family, but which is almost, if not quite, as simple in
its organization as Stentor. He does not designate the particular
rhizopods that he had under observation, yet from his language, we are
able to classify them approximately. His account is so very interesting
that I take the liberty of quoting him in full.
"On one occasion, while investigating the nature of some large,
transparent, spore-like elliptical cells (fungal?) whose protoplasm was
rotating, while it was at the same time charged with triangular grains
of starch, I observed some actinophorous rhizopods creeping about them,
which had similar shaped grains of starch in their interior; and having
determined the nature of these grains by the addition of iodine, I
cleansed the glasses, and placed under the microscope a new portion of
the sediment from the basin containing these cells and actinophryans for
further examination, when I observed one of the spore-like cells had
become ruptured, and that a portion of its protoplasm, charged with the
triangular starch grains, was slightly protruding through the crevice.
It then struck me that the actinophryans had obtained their starch
grains from this source; and while looking at the ruptured cell, an
_actinophrys_ made its appearance, and creeping round the cell, at last
arrived at the crevice, from which it extricated one of the grains of
starch mentioned, and then crept off to a good distance. Presently,
however, it returned to the same cell; and although there were now no
more starch grains protruding, the _actinophrys_ managed again to
extract one from the interior through the crevice. All this was repeated
several times, showing that the _actinophrys_ instinctively knew that
those were nutritious grains, that they were contained in this cell, and
that, although each time after incepting a grain it went away to some
distance, it knew how to find its way back to the cell again which
furnished this nutriment.
"On another occasion I saw an _actinophrys_ station itself close to a
ripe spore-cell of _pythium_, which was situated on a filament of
_Spirogyra crassa_; and as the young ciliated monadic germs issued forth
one after another from the dehiscent spore-cell, the _actinophrys_
remained by it and caught every one of them, even to the last, when it
retired to another part of the field, as if instinctively conscious that
there was nothing more to be got at the old place.
"But by far the greatest feat of this kind that ever presented itself to
me was the catching of a young _acineta_ by an old sluggish _amoeba_,
as the former left its parent; this took place as follows:
"In the evening of the 2d of June, 1858, in Bombay, while looking
through a microscope at some _Euglenæ_, etc., which had been placed
aside for examination in a watch-glass, my eye fell upon a stalked and
triangular _acineta_ (_A. mystacina?_), around which an _amoeba_ was
creeping and lingering, as they do when they are in quest of food. But
knowing the antipathy that the _amoeba_, like almost every other
infusorian, has to the tentacles of the _acineta_, I concluded that the
_amoeba_ was not encouraging an appetite for its whiskered companion,
when I was surprised to find that it crept up the stem of the _acineta_,
and wound itself round its body.
"This mark of affection, too much like that frequently evinced at the
other end of the scale, even where there is mind for its control, did
not long remain without interpretation. There was a young _acineta_,
tender and without poisonous tentacles (for they are not developed at
birth), just ready to make its exit from its parent, an exit which takes
place so quickly, and is followed by such rapid bounding movements of
the non-ciliated _acineta_, that who would venture to say, _a priori_,
that a dull, heavy, sluggish _amoeba_ could catch such an agile little
thing? But the _amoebæ_ are as unerring and unrelaxing in their grasp
as they are unrelenting in their cruel inceptions of the living and the
dead, when they serve them for nutrition; and thus the _amoeba_,
placing itself around the ovarian aperture of the _acineta_, received
the young one, nurse-like, in its fatal lap, incepted it, descended from
the parent, and crept off. Being unable to conceive at the time that
this was such an act of atrocity on the part of the _amoeba_ as the
sequel disclosed, and thinking that the young _acineta_ might yet
escape, or pass into some other form in the body of its host, I watched
the _amoeba_ for some time afterwards, until the tale ended by the
young _acineta_ becoming divided into two parts, and thus in their
respective digestive spaces ultimately becoming broken down and
digested."[31]
[31] Carter, _Annals of Natural History_, 3d Series, 1863, pp. 45, 46;
quoted also by Romanes, _Animal Intelligence_, pp. 20, 21.
In the discussion of conscious and unconscious mind, I called attention
to the marginal bodies of the nectocalyx of the jelly-fish. These bodies
in the "covered-eyed" species are protected by hoods of gelatinous
tissue; in the naked-eyed species the hoods are absent. The marginal
bodies in both species are practically identical as far as general
make-up is concerned, being composed of an accumulation of
brightly-colored pigment-cells, embedded in which are several minute
clear crystals. Nerve-fibres connect these bodies with the sensorium
("nerve-ring").
Jelly-fish seek the light, and they can be made to follow a bright light
from one side of the aquarium to the other by manipulating the light in
the proper manner. Even where a slight current is set up in the water,
they will swim against it in their efforts to reach the light.
When two or more of the marginal bodies are excised, no effect seems to
follow such excision, but as soon as the last of these bodies is cut
out, the creature falls to the bottom of the tank without motion.
When a point in the nectocalyx is irritated with a point of a needle or
by a vegetable or mineral irritant, the tip of the manubrium will turn
toward, and endeavor to touch, the spot irritated. It does not turn at
once, as it would were its movements the result of reflex action; it
moves deliberately as though actuated by volition.
The above experiments and observation seem to indicate the presence of
conscious determination in the medusa; in fact, there seems to be a
distinct element of choice in these psychical manifestations.
While engaged in watching a water-louse, I saw it swim to a hydra, tear
off one of its buds, and then swim some distance away to a small bit of
mud, behind which it hid until it devoured its tender morsel. Again it
swam back to the hydra and plucked from it one of its young; again it
swam back to the little mud heap, behind which it once more ensconced
itself until it was through with its meal. When we remember that this
little creature was among entirely new surroundings (for I dipped it
from a pond in a tablespoon full of water which I had poured into a
saucer), we will appreciate the fact that the water-louse evinced
conscious determination and no little memory. It probably discovered the
hydra accidentally; it then, as soon as it had secured its prey, swam
away, seeking some spot where it could eat its food without molestation.
But when it sought the hydra again and swam back to its sheltering mud
heap, it showed that it remembered the route to and from its source of
food supply and its temporary hiding-place.
At the base of a large terminal ganglion in the neuro-cephalic system of
the common garden snail, lying immediately below and between its two
"horns," will be found, I am satisfied, the centre governing its sense
of direction. For, when this portion of this ganglion is destroyed, the
snail loses its ability of returning to its home when carried only a
short distance away; otherwise, it can find its way back to its domicile
when taken what must be to it a very great distance away, indeed.
Beneath the stone coping of a brick wall surrounding the front of my
lawn, and which, on the side toward my residence, is almost flush with
the ground, many garden snails find a cool, moist, and congenial home.
Last summer I took six of these snails, and, after marking them with a
paint of zinc oxide and gum arabic, set them free on the lawn. In time,
four of these marked snails returned to their home beneath the stone
coping; two of them were probably destroyed by enemies. Again, the same
number of snails were marked, after the base of the above-mentioned
ganglion had been destroyed, and likewise set free. Although they lived
and were to be observed now and then on the trees and bushes of the
lawn, none of them ever returned to the place from which they were taken
beneath the stone coping. I have performed this experiment repeatedly,
always with like results.
These experiments show that the snail is capable of conscious effort;
furthermore, they indicate that this little animal is the possessor of a
special sense which many of the higher animals have lost in the process
of evolution. I refer to the sense of direction, or "homing instinct,"
so-called, which will be treated at length in the chapter on Auxiliary
Senses.
Darwin has very beautifully demonstrated the senses of touch, taste, and
smell in the angle-worm; provisionally he denies it, however, the senses
of sight and hearing.[32] I think he is in error as to these last two
senses.
[32] Darwin, _Formation of Vegetable Mould_.
Angle-worms are nocturnal in their habits, hence, we should expect, from
the very nature of things, to find them able to differentiate between
light and darkness. And experiments show, very conclusively, that they
are very sensitive to light. My vermicularium is made of glass,
consequently, when one of its inmates happens to be next to the glass
sides, which very frequently occurs, it is easy to experiment on it with
pencils of strong light. If a ray of light is directed upon an
angle-worm, it at once begins to show discomfort, and, in a very few
moments, it will crawl away from the source of annoyance, and hide in
some tunnel deep in the earth of the vermicularium. Again, when the
worms are out of their tunnels at night, a strong light shining on them
will at once cause them to seek their holes.
If the back of an earthworm be examined with a high-power lens (×500),
small points of pigment will be seen here and there in its dorsal
integument; these, I believe, are primitive eyes (ocelli). I think that
the worm is enabled to tell the difference between light and darkness
through the agency of these minute dark spots, which serve to arrest the
rays of light, thus conveying a stimulus to nerve-fibrils, which, in
turn, carry it to the sensorium.
Any country schoolboy will tell you that worms can hear. He points to
his simple experiment (pounding on the earth with a club) in proof of
his assertion. For, as soon as he begins to pound the ground in a
favorable neighborhood, the worms will come to the surface "to see what
makes the noise." Darwin assumes that the worms feel the vibrations,
which are disagreeable to them, and come to the surface in order to
escape them. I do not deny the possibility or the probability of this
assumption; I do deny, however, that it proves that worms are deaf.
If the third anal segment (abdominal aspect) of a worm be examined, two
round, disk-like organs incorporated in the integument will be found;
these organs are supplied with special nerves which lead to the central
nerve-cord. Experiments lead me to believe that these are organs of
audition.
When I tap the earth of my vermicularium with a pencil, the unmutilated
worms will come to the surface; but, when the organs described above are
removed, the worms so mutilated will not respond to the tapping, but
will remain in their tunnel. The worms are not appreciably impaired by
such mutilation; on the contrary, they seem to thrive as well as those
to which the knife has not been applied.
In creatures which possess, in all probability, the senses of touch,
taste, smell, sight, and hearing, we would naturally expect to find some
evidences of conscious determination; and we do.
Certain leaves are the favorite food of earth-worms, while certain other
leaves are eaten by them, but not with avidity. When these two kinds of
leaves are given to worms, they will carefully select the favorite food
and will ignore the other, thus unmistakably evincing conscious choice.
Their avoidance of light is probably the result of conscious
determination, and not reflex, as some observers maintain.
Oysters taken from a bank never uncovered by the sea, open their shells,
lose the water within, and soon die; but oysters kept in a reservoir and
occasionally uncovered learn to keep their shells closed, and live much
longer when taken out of the water. This is an act of intelligence due
directly to experience without even the factor of heredity.[33] It is an
instance of almost immediate adaptation to surrounding circumstances.
[33] Dicquemase, _Journal de Physique_, Vol. XXVIII. p. 244; quoted
also by Darwin, MS.; by Bingley, _Animal Biography_, Vol. III. p. 454;
and by Romanes, _Animal Intelligence_, p. 25.
A gentleman fixed a land-snail, with the mouth of the shell upward, in a
chink of a rock. The animal protruded its foot to the utmost extent,
and, attaching it above, tried to pull the shell vertically in a
straight line. Then it stretched its body to the right side, pulled, and
failed to move the shell. It then stretched its foot to the left side,
pulled with all of its strength, and released the shell. There were
intervals of rest between these several attempts, during which the snail
remained quiescent.[34] Thus we see that it exerted force in three
directions, never twice in the same direction, which fact shows
conscious determination and no slight degree of intelligence.
[34] Consult Romanes, _Animal Intelligence_, p. 26.
A ground wasp once built a nest beneath the brick pavement in front of
my door. The entrance of the nest was situated in the little sulcus, or
ditch, between two bricks. While the wasp was absent, I stopped the
entrance with a pellet of paper, and, when the little housekeeper
returned, she was nonplussed for a moment or two, when she discovered
that her doorway had been closed. The wasp, after examining the pellet
of paper, seized it with her jaws and tried to pull it away; but, since
she stood on the brick and pulled backwards (toward herself), the edge
of the brick interposed, and she could not dislodge the obstacle.
Finally, she got down into the little gully between the two bricks, and
pulled the pellet away from the opening of the nest without any further
trouble. Three times I performed the experiment, the wasp going through
like performances each time. At the fourth time, however, she went at
once into the little space between the bricks, and then removed the wad
of paper without difficulty. I stopped the hole five or six times after
this, but she had learned a lesson; she always got into the sulcus
between the bricks before attempting to remove the paper. She had
discovered the fact that she could not remove it when she stood upon the
surfaces of the bricks, owing to the interposition of their sides, and
that she could drag it away if she got down into the little ditch and
pulled the paper in a direction where nothing opposed. In this instance
there was not only conscious determination, but also a distinct
exhibition of memory. It took the wasp some time to learn that she had
to pull in a certain direction before she could remove the pellet of
paper; but when she had once learned this fact, she remembered it. And
this brings us to another quality of mind--memory--which will be
discussed in the next chapter.