Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) - Samuel Butler (digital e reader TXT) 📗

Most Closely To The Comprehension Of The Physicist,  The Same

Power Of Reproduction Which We Encountered When We Were Dealing With

Nerve Substance,  But Under Such Far More Complicated Conditions.  And

What Is Known Thus Certainly From Muscle Substance Holds Good With

Greater Or Less Plainness For All Our Organs.  More Especially May We

Note The Fact,  That After Increased Use,  Alternated With Times Of

Repose,  There Accrues To The Organ In All Animal Economy An Increased

Power Of Execution With An Increased Power Of Assimilation And A Gain

In Size.

 

This Gain In Size Consists Not Only In The Enlargement Of The

Individual Cells Or Fibres Of Which The Organ Is Composed,  But In The

Chapter 6 Pg 75

Multiplication Of Their Number; For When Cells Have Grown To A

Certain Size They Give Rise To Others,  Which Inherit More Or Less

Completely The Qualities Of Those From Which They Came,  And Therefore

Appear To Be Repetitions Of The Same Cell.  This Growth,  And

Multiplication Of Cells Is Only A Special Phase Of Those Manifold

Functions Which Characterise Organised Matter,  And Which Consist Not

Only In What Goes On Within The Cell Substance As Alterations Or

Undulatory Movement Of The Molecular Disposition,  But Also In That

Which Becomes Visible Outside The Cells As Change Of Shape,

Enlargement,  Or Subdivision.  Reproduction Of Performance,  Therefore,

Manifests Itself To Us As Reproduction Of The Cells Themselves,  As

May Be Seen Most Plainly In The Case Of Plants,  Whose Chief Work

Consists In Growth,  Whereas With Animal Organism Other Faculties

Greatly Preponderate.

 

Let Us Now Take A Brief Survey Of A Class Of Facts In The Case Of

Which We May Most Abundantly Observe The Power Of Memory In Organised

Matter.  We Have Ample Evidence Of The Fact That Characteristics Of

An Organism May Descend To Offspring Which The Organism Did Not

Inherit,  But Which It Acquired Owing To The Special Circumstances

Under Which It Lived; And That,  In Consequence,  Every Organism

Imparts To The Germ That Issues From It A Small Heritage Of

Acquisitions Which It Has Added During Its Own Lifetime To The Gross

Inheritance Of Its Race.

 

When We Reflect That We Are Dealing With The Heredity Of Acquired

Qualities Which Came To Development In The Most Diverse Parts Of The

Parent Organism,  It Must Seem In A High Degree Mysterious How Those

Parts Can Have Any Kind Of Influence Upon A Germ Which Develops

Itself In An Entirely Different Place.  Many Mystical Theories Have

Been Propounded For The Elucidation Of This Question,  But The

Following Reflections May Serve To Bring The Cause Nearer To The

Comprehension Of The Physiologist.

 

The Nerve Substance,  In Spite Of Its Thousandfold Subdivision As

Cells And Fibres,  Forms,  Nevertheless,  A United Whole,  Which Is

Present Directly In All Organs--Nay,  As More Recent Histology

Conjectures,  In Each Cell Of The More Important Organs--Or Is At

Least In Ready Communication With Them By Means Of The Living,

Irritable,  And Therefore Highly Conductive Substance Of Other Cells.

Through The Connection Thus Established All Organs Find Themselves In

Such A Condition Of More Or Less Mutual Interdependence Upon One

Another,  That Events Which Happen To One Are Repeated In Others,  And

A Notification,  However Slight,  Of A Vibration Set Up {77} In One

Quarter Is At Once Conveyed Even To The Farthest Parts Of The Body.

With This Easy And Rapid Intercourse Between All Parts Is Associated

The More Difficult Communication That Goes On By Way Of The

Circulation Of Sap Or Blood.

 

We See,  Further,  That The Process Of The Development Of All Germs

That Are Marked Out For Independent Existence Causes A Powerful

Reaction,  Even From The Very Beginning Of That Existence,  On Both The

Conscious And Unconscious Life Of The Whole Organism.  We May See

This From The Fact That The Organ Of Reproduction Stands In Closer

Chapter 6 Pg 76

And More Important Relation To The Remaining Parts,  And Especially To

The Nervous System,  Than Do The Other Organs; And,  Inversely,  That

Both The Perceived And Unperceived Events Affecting The Whole

Organism Find A More Marked Response In The Reproductive System Than

Elsewhere.

 

We Can Now See With Sufficient Plainness In What The Material

Connection Is Established Between The Acquired Peculiarities Of An

Organism,  And The Proclivity On The Part Of The Germ In Virtue Of

Which It Develops The Special Characteristics Of Its Parent.

 

The Microscope Teaches Us That No Difference Can Be Perceived Between

One Germ And Another; It Cannot,  However,  Be Objected On This Account

That The Determining Cause Of Its Ulterior Development Must Be

Something Immaterial,  Rather Than The Specific Kind Of Its Material

Constitution.

 

The Curves And Surfaces Which The Mathematician Conceives,  Or Finds

Conceivable,  Are More Varied And Infinite Than The Forms Of Animal

Life.  Let Us Suppose An Infinitely Small Segment To Be Taken From

Every Possible Curve; Each One Of These Will Appear As Like Every

Other As One Germ Is To Another,  Yet The Whole Of Every Curve Lies

Dormant,  As It Were,  In Each Of Them,  And If The Mathematician

Chooses To Develop It,  It Will Take The Path Indicated By The

Elements Of Each Segment.

 

It Is An Error,  Therefore,  To Suppose That Such Fine Distinctions As

Physiology Must Assume Lie Beyond The Limits Of What Is Conceivable

By The Human Mind.  An Infinitely Small Change Of Position On The

Part Of A Point,  Or In The Relations Of The Parts Of A Segment Of A

Curve To One Another,  Suffices To Alter The Law Of Its Whole Path,

And So In Like Manner An Infinitely Small Influence Exercised By The

Parent Organism On The Molecular Disposition Of The Germ {78} May

Suffice To Produce A Determining Effect Upon Its Whole Farther

Development.

 

What Is The Descent Of Special Peculiarities But A Reproduction On

The Part Of Organised Matter Of Processes In Which It Once Took Part

As A Germ In The Germ-Containing Organs Of Its Parent,  And Of Which

It Seems Still To Retain A Recollection That Reappears When Time And

The Occasion Serve,  Inasmuch As It Responds To The Same Or Like

Stimuli In A Like Way To That In Which The Parent Organism Responded,

Of Which It Was Once Part,  And In The Events Of Whose History It Was

Itself Also An Accomplice? {79}  When An Action Through Long Habit Or

Continual Practice Has Become So Much A Second Nature To Any

Organisation That Its Effects Will Penetrate,  Though Ever So Faintly,

Into The Germ That Lies Within It,  And When This Last Comes To Find

Itself In A New Sphere,  To Extend Itself,  And Develop Into A New

Creature--(The Individual Parts Of Which Are Still Always The

Creature Itself And Flesh Of Its Flesh,  So That What Is Reproduced Is

The Same Being As That In Company With Which The Germ Once Lived,  And

Of Which It Was Once Actually A Part)--All This Is As Wonderful As

When A Grey-Haired Man Remembers The Events Of His Own Childhood; But

It Is Not More So.  Whether We Say That The Same Organised Substance

Chapter 6 Pg 77

Is Again Reproducing Its Past Experience,  Or Whether We Prefer To

Hold That An Offshoot Or Part Of The Original Substance Has Waxed And

Developed Itself Since Separation From The Parent Stock,  It Is Plain

That This Will Constitute A Difference Of Degree,  Not Kind.

 

When We Reflect Upon The Fact That Unimportant Acquired

Characteristics Can Be Reproduced In Offspring,  We Are Apt To Forget

That Offspring Is Only A Full-Sized Reproduction Of The Parent--A

Reproduction,  Moreover,  That Goes As Far As Possible Into Detail.  We

Are So Accustomed To Consider Family Resemblance A Matter Of Course,

That We Are Sometimes Surprised When A Child Is In Some Respect

Unlike Its Parent; Surely,  However,  The Infinite Number Of Points In

Respect Of Which Parents And Children Resemble One Another Is A More

Reasonable Ground For Our Surprise.

 

But If The Substance Of The Germ Can Reproduce Characteristics

Acquired By The Parent During Its Single Life,  How Much More Will It

Not Be Able To Reproduce Those That Were Congenital To The Parent,

And Which Have Happened Through Countless Generations To The

Organised Matter Of Which The Germ Of To-Day Is A Fragment?  We

Cannot Wonder That Action Already Taken On Innumerable Past Occasions

By Organised Matter Is More Deeply Impressed Upon The Recollection Of

The Germ To Which It Gives Rise Than Action Taken Once Only During A

Single Lifetime. {80a}

 

We Must Bear In Mind That Every Organised Being Now In Existence

Represents The Last Link Of An Inconceivably Long Series Of

Organisms,  Which Come Down In A Direct Line Of Descent,  And Of Which

Each Has Inherited A Part Of The Acquired Characteristics Of Its

Predecessor.  Everything,  Furthermore,  Points In The Direction Of Our

Believing That At The Beginning Of This Chain There Existed An

Organism Of The Very Simplest Kind,  Something,  In Fact,  Like Those

Which We Call Organised Germs.  The Chain Of Living Beings Thus

Appears To Be The Magnificent Achievement Of The Reproductive Power

Of The Original Organic Structure From Which They Have All Descended.

As This Subdivided Itself And Transmitted Its Characteristics {80b}

To Its Descendants,  These Acquired New Ones,  And In Their Turn

Transmitted Them--All New Germs Transmitting The Chief Part Of What

Had Happened To Their Predecessors,  While The Remaining Part Lapsed

Out Of Their Memory,  Circumstances Not Stimulating It To Reproduce

Itself.

 

An Organised Being,  Therefore,  Stands Before Us A Product Of The

Unconscious Memory Of Organised Matter,  Which,  Ever Increasing And

Ever Dividing Itself,  Ever Assimilating New Matter And Returning It

In Changed Shape To The Inorganic World,  Ever Receiving Some New

Thing Into Its Memory,  And Transmitting Its Acquisitions By The Way

Of Reproduction,  Grows Continually Richer And Richer The Longer It

Lives.

 

Thus Regarded,  The Development Of One Of The More Highly Organised

Animals Represents A Continuous Series Of Organised Recollections

Concerning The Past Development Of The Great Chain Of Living Forms,

The Last Link Of Which Stands Before Us In The Particular Animal We

Chapter 6 Pg 78