Science and Culture, and Other EssaysHuxley, Thomas Henry
Philosophy
Science and Culture, and Other Essays
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Now the frog behaves just as the man did. The legs are utterly
paralysed, so far as voluntary movement is concerned; but they are
vigorously drawn up to the body when any irritant is applied to the
foot. But let us study our frog a little farther. Touch the skin of
the side of the body with a little acetic acid, which gives rise to
all the signs of great pain in an uninjured frog. In this case, there
can be no pain, because the application is made to a part of the skin
supplied with nerves which come off from the cord below the point of
section; nevertheless, the frog lifts up the limb of the same side,
and applies the foot to rub off the acetic acid; and, what is still
more remarkable, if the limb be held so that the frog cannot use it, it
will, by-and-by, move the limb of the other side, turn it across the
body, and use it for the same rubbing process. It is impossible that
the frog, if it were in its entirety and could reason, should perform
actions more purposive than these: and yet we have most complete
assurance that, in this case, the frog is not acting from purpose, has
no consciousness, and is a mere insensible machine.
But now suppose that, instead of making a section of the cord in the
middle of the body, it had been made in such a manner as to separate
the hindermost division of the brain from the rest of the organ, and
suppose the foremost two-thirds of the brain entirely taken away. The
frog is then absolutely devoid of any spontaneity; it sits upright in
the attitude which a frog habitually assumes; and it will not stir
unless it is touched; but it differs from the frog which I have just
described in this, that, if it be thrown into the water, it begins to
swim, and swims just as well as the perfect frog does. But swimming
requires the combination and successive co-ordination of a great number
of muscular actions. And we are forced to conclude, that the impression
made upon the sensory nerves of the skin of the frog by the contact
with the water into which it is thrown, causes the transmission to the
central nervous apparatus of an impulse, which sets going a certain
machinery by which all the muscles of swimming are brought into play
in due co-ordination. If the frog be stimulated by some irritating
body, it jumps or walks as well as the complete frog can do. The simple
sensory impression, acting through the machinery of the cord, gives
rise to these complex combined movements.
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