Psychology : normal and morbid / by Charles A. Mercier.

  • Mercier, Charles Arthur, 1852-1919.
Date:
[1901]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Psychology : normal and morbid / by Charles A. Mercier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    fications in its course will facilitate the passage of subsequent waves along the same path, will increase their tendency to receive similar modifications at the same points. At the same time, there will occur, or rather, as a part of the same change there must occur, an increasing immunity of the same wave of motion from disturbance by increments of motion that are extraneous to the mechanism in course of formation. It is evident that if the wave of motion tends more and more to pursue a given course and to undergo given modifications, it tends less and less to be disturbed from that course and to undergo modifications that are incompatible with the given modifications. So that by the repeated passage of motion along a given course, the structure of that part of the nervous system through which it passes becomes so modi- fied that the course becomes more and more determinate, less and less subject to modification. But a structure such that motion in passing through it pursues a determinate course is a mechanism. So that nervous mechanisms are formed, we find, by the repeated passage of motion along a certain course. In other words, when an adjustment to circumstances has once been effected, its repetition is more easily eflfected than its original formation; and with every subsequent repeti- tion facility is increased until a maximum is reached which indicates the formation of a mechanism for its accomplishment. The mechan- ism once completed, no further increase in the facility of the adjustment can occur. Thus we find that when an adjustment is frequently re- peated, a certain degree of facility is rapidly attained, but that the facility does not increase indefinitely. The rate of increase soon slackens, and at length a standard is reached, beyond which no increase takes place. This series of events is familiar to everyone. Everyone attains to a certain facility of equilibration, although very few attain to that perfection which is evidenced in gracefulness of gait; and beyond that degree of facility peculiar to himself, no amount of practice in walking will take him. Everyone attains to a certain fluency and distinction of articulation, which is great in some and less in others; but for each one there is a standard, beyond which no amount of practice will carry him. So that the old saying, Practice makes perfect, expresses, as do most current sayings, an approximation to the truth, but not the exact truth. Practice does of necessity bring im- provement, and sufficient practice will ensure improvement up to the maximum capacity of the practiser, but it will not ensure perfection except in the exceptionally endowed.