Mental development and education . are automatic. The voice becomes shaky, and controlover the tongue and lips is gradually lost. The drunkard returnsover the route he went up in the acquisition of speech, passingthrough in reverse order the stages of incoordination which heoutgrew in childhood. If the tremors descend to the limbs,they first invade the fingers (not the thumbs), spreading abroadtill the whole hand shakes, and creeping up the arms. The lowerlimbs grow tremulous last of all, their movements being largelyautomatic. Mercier thus describes the process of generalundoing under the inf
Mental development and education . are automatic. The voice becomes shaky, and controlover the tongue and lips is gradually lost. The drunkard returnsover the route he went up in the acquisition of speech, passingthrough in reverse order the stages of incoordination which heoutgrew in childhood. If the tremors descend to the limbs,they first invade the fingers (not the thumbs), spreading abroadtill the whole hand shakes, and creeping up the arms. The lowerlimbs grow tremulous last of all, their movements being largelyautomatic. Mercier thus describes the process of generalundoing under the influence of alcohol. Ribot, too, has em-phasized this law of decay in will, whatever may be the cause,from the highest and most complex to the lowest and simplest;from the unstable and most organized to the stable and leastorganized. Degeneration pursues a course directly the reverseof development; it is a continuous retrogression from the highlyto the relatively slightly coordinated movements. 13^ MKXIAL DFAELOPMENT AND c to 3 oCT K THE DEXELOPMEN r OF COORDINATION 139 In senescent dissolution the liner and more complex activitiesare the earliest to become affected. The first evidence of amotor character of the oncoming of senescence is seen in a lackof precise control of the lingers. The old man becomes shakyin his writing. Then his articulation becomes less as age proceeds the coordination of all the accessory mem-bers is gradually lost. But the vital functions may keep theirvigor unabated. When the old man is wholly unable to carefor himself he may still eat vigorously and enjoy his food. Hehas indeed returned to his second childhood. Again, in deathfrom lack of nutrition of a person of any age dissolution proceedsfrom the extremities inward. One can observe cases of this sortwhere he can see a reversal step by step of the developmentalprocesses, until the individual is brought back to the startingpoint, where all is gone but certain reflexes, as when
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