ABSTRACT
The law of original behavior, or the law of instinct, is then that to any situation an animal will, apart from learning, respond by virtue of the inherited nature of its reception-, connection-and action-systems. Upon examination it appears that the pernicious states of affairs which an animal welcomes are not pernicious at the time, to the neurones. The connections formed between situation and response are represented by connections between neurones and neurones, whereby the disturbance or neural current arising in the former is conducted to the latter across their synapses. The strength or weakness of the connection is a condition of the synapse. What condition of the synapse it is remains a matter for hypothesis. A neurone modifies the intimacy of its synapses so as to keep intimate those by whose intimacy its other life processes are favored and to weaken the intimacy of those whereby its other life processes are hindered.
