Conduct and its disorders : biologically considered / by Charles Arthur Mercier.

  • Mercier, Charles Arthur, 1852-1919
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Conduct and its disorders : biologically considered / by Charles Arthur Mercier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/412 (page 4)
    motion that changes from a molecular motion, which we cannot perceive, to a molar motion that is per¬ ceptible to our senses. The aimless jerkings and sprawlings and cryings of the new-born infant, are due, or need be due, to no irritation or stimulus from without, but to libera¬ tion of pent-up motion from within. That stimulus is not needed to provoke movement, is shown by the fact, known to every mother, that movement is antenatal. Such movements fall short of acts, it is true. They can scarcely be called purposive ; and yet, in a sense, they are purposive. They serve the purpose of getting rid of some of the stored motion which is accumulated in excess. In the more de¬ veloped and adult human being, the opening of the eyes on spontaneous waking in the morning, the throwing off the clothes and getting out of bed, are due to no stimulus from without, but to the liberation of motion from within. To the vigorous body comes a time when retention of stillness becomes irksome— becomes impracticable. The writer, after several hours at his desk, the traveller, after several hours in the train, must rise and stretch his limbs; must get out and pace the platform; not because he is incited or attracted to do so by any external allure¬ ment ; not because he is compelled by any external disturbance; but because motion has accumulated within him to a point of tension that overcomes the resistance opposed to it. When a man starts off for his game of golf, or his cricket, or his tennis, he does so, not—certainly not solely—because he is solicited by his fellow-player to do so, but because he feels the