These are actions that have all the appearance of being guided
by intelligence and instigated by will in an animal, the recognized
organ of whose intelligence and will has been removed."[10]
[9] Prof. Huxley remarks (`Elementary Physiology,'
5th edit. p. 305) that reflex actions proper to the spinal cord
are NATURAL; but, by the help of the brain, that is through habit,
an infinity of ARTIFICIAL reflex actions may be acquired.
Virchow admits (`Sammlung wissenschaft. Vortrage,' &c., "Ueber
das Ruckeninark," 1871, ss. 24, 31) that some reflex actions
can hardly be distinguished from instincts; and, of the latter,
it may be added, some cannot be distinguished from inherited habits.
We see the difference between reflex and voluntary movements in
very young children not being able to perform, as I am informed by
Sir Henry Holland, certain acts somewhat analogous to those of sneezing
and coughing, namely, in their not being able to blow their noses (i. e.
to compress the nose and blow violently through the passage),
and in their not being able to clear their throats of phlegm.
They have to learn to perform these acts, yet they are performed
by us, when a little older, almost as easily as reflex actions.
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