This is proved by many physiological experiments which cannot here be
detailed; but outside of the laboratory we constantly apply the law of
summation in our practical appeals. If a car-horse balks, the final way
of starting him is by applying a number of customary incitements at
once. If the driver uses reins and voice, if one bystander pulls at his
head, another lashes his hind-quarters, the conductor rings the bell,
and the dismounted passengers shove the car, all at the same moment, his
obstinacy generally yields, and he goes on his way rejoicing. If we are
striving to remember a lost name or fact, we think of as many 'cues' as
possible, so that by their joint action they may recall what no one of
them can recall alone. The sight of a dead prey will often not stimulate
a beast to pursuit, but if the sight of movement be added to that of
form, pursuit occurs. "Brücke noted that his brainless hen which made no
attempt to peck at the grain under her very eyes, began pecking if the
grain were thrown on the ground with force, so as to produce a rattling
sound." "Dr. Allen Thomson hatched out some chickens on a carpet, where
he kept them for several days. They showed no inclination to scrape, ...
but when Dr. Thomson sprinkled a little gravel on the carpet, ... the
chickens immediately began their scraping movements." A strange person,
and darkness, are both of them stimuli to fear and mistrust in dogs (and
for the matter of that, in men). Neither circumstance alone may awaken
outward manifestations, but together, i.e. when the strange man is met
in the dark, the dog will be excited to violent defiance. Street hawkers
well know the efficacy of summation, for they arrange themselves in a
line on the sidewalk, and the passer often buys from the last one of
them, through the effect of the reiterated solicitation, what he refused
to buy from the first in the row.
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--Sphygmographic pulse-tracing. _A_, during
intellectual repose; _B_, during intellectual activity. (Mosso.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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