Professor Huxley on Tuesday delivered a lecture before the British
Association on biological science. His subject was Descartes' theory that animals were automata, who only ap- peared to feel pleasure or suffer pain, a theory which, he said, modern science could not deny. There could be no limit to the possibility of reflex action. He did not, however, himself believe animals to be mere machines, holding rather -that they were conscious machines, however rudimentary or imperfect the consciousness might be. If they were totally devoid of it, then there would be a break in the continuity of consciousness, which, to judge from analogy, was exceedingly improbable. The consciousness, however, was limited, and the popular idea that animals were possessed of instinct, and not of reason, was probably a close approximation to the truth. Mr. Huxley of course affirmed that this automatic character extended to man, and apparently held, with Descartes, that the mental pro- cesses had "no influence, directly or indirectly, upon the essen- tially reflex, automatic, or mechanical actions of the body." The report is not a good one, but is the Professor asserting that man cannot control any automatic action?
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