Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/69

 ANTAGONISTIC REACTIONS. 55 practically no trace of it till the fifteenth reaction was made : then we have the reaction indicated at a, Figure 2, which is followed by five others of the same kind almost equally dis- tinct. In another subject it appears only once on the first day : next day it is clearer and more frequent ; an example is given at b. In a third instance there is no appearance of it until the eleventh reaction is reached : this is repro- duced under c. I have appended in each case, below the antagonistic reaction, an example from the same individual of the ordinary form : certain minor differences in the curves are due to the fact they were not taken with the same apparatus. The qualitative experiments were arranged with the view of ascertaining not merely the presence or absence of antagon- istic reaction, but also the part played by various factors in its production. The first point to which attention was directed was the possibility that the appearance of the FIG. 2. These curves are to be read from right to left. In each case an example of the antagonistic form of reaction is given above, of the ordi- nary form below. phenomenon might be modified by the direction of the attention towards the sensorial or muscular processes. From the many experiments bearing on this point it is clear that this difference in the adjustment of attention has no marked influence on the mode of reaction. One subject was inclined to believe that the antagonism was more frequent in the muscular | reaction, but the curves do not show any decided difference. The effect of fatigue has been observed in two cases. In one there appeared to be no change : on the other, towards the end of a prolonged series of experiments, the ordinary reactions tended to become more numerous. This return to the ordinary form may perhaps be interpreted as meaning that the reaction movement was made in a less energetic way. Since in one or two instances where an ordinary reaction appeared during a series of antagonistic reactions the subject