The recent researches of Jennings seem
to establish the view that reactions of the lower organisms to
stimulation are less mechanical than has been assumed by this school.
The current theory holds that "the action of the stimulus is directly
on the motor organs of that part of the organism upon which the
stimulus impinges, thus giving rise to changes in the state of
contraction, which produce orientation." Jennings finds that "the
responses to stimuli are usually reactions of the organisms as
wholes, brought about by some physiological change produced by the
stimulus.... The organism reacts as a unit, not as the sum of a number
of independently reacting organs." H.S. Jennings, "The Theory of
Tropisms," _Contributions to the Study of the Behavior of the Lower
Organisms_ (Publications of the Carnegie Institution, 1904), pp. 106,
107.]
[Footnote 160: Cf. J.R. Angell and Helen B. Thompson, "A Study of the
Relations between Certain Organic Processes and Consciousness," _The
University of Chicago Contributions to Philosophy_, Vol. II, No. 2.]
[Footnote 161: Cf. John Fiske, _Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy_, Vol.
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