Myelinogeny as Applied to the Study of Behavior

There is an increasing number of those who earnestly believe with Stewart Paton¹⁷that "the mists of superstition and ignorance are lifting and reveal to us the extent and importance of this new field of inquiry—the study of human behavior." Although the general contents of this study may be easily perceived, it is perhaps advantageous to have some tentative definition of the field which it covers. Human behavior, according to a preeminent exponent of behaviorism, Professor J. B. Watson,²²is the composite stream of reactions arising from the combination of vocal (laryngeal) organization, manual (somatic muscular) organization and visceral organization in man. Genetically, it comprises reactions of at least two varieties; unlearned reactions, more usually referred to as instinctive, and learned reactions conditioned by the individual's experience and development. The attempt to investigate either of these two varieties of reaction in the adult is fraught with many difficulties.