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SECOND EDITION
Introduction to
TEXTURE
ANALYSIS
Macrotexture, Microtexture,
and Orientation Mapping
SECOND EDITION
Introduction to
TEXTURE
ANALYSIS
Macrotexture, Microtexture,
and Orientation Mapping

OLAF ENGLER
VALERIE RANDLE

Boca Raton London New York

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Engler, Olaf.
Introduction to texture analysis : macrotexture, microtexture, and orientation
mapping / Olaf Engler and Valerie Randle. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Randle’s name appears first on the earlier edition.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4200-6365-3 (alk. paper)
1. Materials--Texture. 2. Materials--Analysis. I. Randle, V. (Valerie) II. Title.

TA418.5.R36 2010
620.1’1292--dc22 2009013699

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Contents

Preface ................................................................................................................... xiii

Authors ...................................................................................................................xv

Part I Fundamental Issues

1. Introduction .....................................................................................................3
1.1 The Classical Approach to Texture ..................................................... 3
1.2 The Modern Approach to Texture: Microtexture ............................. 7
1.2.1 Applications of Microtexture.................................................. 8
1.2.2 Electron Backscatter Diffraction .......................................... 11
1.2.3 Orientation Microscopy and Orientation Mapping .......... 12
1.3 A Guide to the Book ........................................................................... 13

2. Descriptors of Orientation.......................................................................... 15
2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 15
2.2 Crystal Structures and Crystal Symmetries ................................... 16
2.3 Transformation between Coordinate Systems:
The Rotation Matrix ........................................................................... 20
2.3.1 Coordinate Systems ............................................................... 20
2.3.2 The Rotation (Orientation) Matrix ....................................... 24
2.3.3 Crystallographically Related Solutions .............................. 25
2.4 The “Ideal Orientation” (Miller or
Miller–Bravais Indices) Notation ...................................................... 27
2.5 The Reference Sphere, Pole Figure,
and Inverse Pole Figure......................................................................30
2.5.1 The Pole Figure .......................................................................30
2.5.2 The Inverse Pole Figure ......................................................... 33
2.6 The Euler Angles and Euler Space ................................................... 33
2.6.1 The Euler Angles ....................................................................34
2.6.2 The Euler Space ...................................................................... 36
2.7 The Angle/Axis of Rotation
and Cylindrical Angle/Axis Space ................................................... 39
2.7.1 Angle/Axis of Rotation .......................................................... 40
2.7.2 Angle/Axis Description of Misorientation .........................42
2.7.3 The Cylindrical Angle/Axis Space.......................................43

v
vi Contents

2.8 The Rodrigues Vector and Rodrigues Space .................................. 46

2.8.1 The Rodrigues Vector ............................................................ 46
2.8.2 The Fundamental Zone ......................................................... 47
2.8.3 Properties of Rodrigues Space ............................................. 49
2.9 Summation ........................................................................................... 50

3. Application of Diffraction to Texture Analysis ..................................... 51

3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 51
3.2 Diffraction of Radiation and Bragg’s Law ....................................... 52
3.3 Structure Factor ................................................................................... 59
3.4 Laue and Debye–Scherrer Methods ................................................. 61
3.5 Absorption and Depth of Penetration .............................................64
3.6 Characteristics of Radiations Used
for Texture Analysis ........................................................................... 66
3.6.1 X-Rays....................................................................................... 66
3.6.2 Neutrons .................................................................................. 68
3.6.3 Electrons .................................................................................. 69
3.7 Summation ........................................................................................... 71

Part II Macrotexture Analysis

4. Macrotexture Measurements ..................................................................... 75

4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 75
4.2 Principle of Pole Figure Measurement............................................. 75
4.3 X-Ray Diffraction Methods................................................................ 79
4.3.1 Generation of X-Rays .............................................................80
4.3.2 Pole Figure Diffractometry in the
Texture Goniometer ............................................................... 86
4.3.3 Principles of Pole Figure Scanning...................................... 90
4.3.4 X-Ray Detectors ...................................................................... 92
4.3.5 Energy-Dispersive Diffractometry ..................................... 98
4.3.6 Correction and Normalization
of Pole Figure Data............................................................... 101
4.3.7 Inverse Pole Figures ............................................................. 105
4.4 Neutron Diffraction Methods ......................................................... 107
4.4.1 Pole Figure Measurement by
Neutron Diffraction ............................................................. 107
4.4.2 Time-of-Flight Measurements ............................................ 109
4.5 Texture Measurements in Low-Symmetry
and Multiphase Materials ................................................................ 112
4.5.1 Peak Separation .................................................................... 113
4.5.2 Multiphase Materials ........................................................... 115
4.6 Sample Preparation........................................................................... 117
4.7 Summation ......................................................................................... 121
Contents vii

5. Evaluation and Representation of Macrotexture Data ....................... 123

5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 123
5.2 Pole Figure and Inverse Pole Figure............................................... 124
5.2.1 Normalization and Contouring of Pole Figures .............. 124
5.2.2 Representation of Orientations
in the Inverse Pole Figure ................................................... 126
5.3 Determination of the Orientation Distribution
Function from Pole Figure Data ..................................................... 126
5.3.1 The Orientation Distribution Function ............................. 126
5.3.2 The Series Expansion Method............................................ 129
5.3.3 Direct Methods ..................................................................... 137
5.3.4 Comparison of Series Expansion and
Direct Methods..................................................................... 140
5.4 Representation and Display of Texture in Euler Space ............... 141
5.4.1 Properties of Euler Space..................................................... 142
5.4.2 Representation and Display of Textures ........................... 143
5.5 Examples of Typical Textures in Metals ........................................ 147
5.5.1 Deformation Textures of fcc Metals................................... 147
5.5.2 Deformation Textures of bcc Metals ................................. 153
5.5.3 Deformation Textures of Hexagonal Metals .................... 157
5.5.4 Recrystallization Textures of fcc Metals ........................... 161
5.5.5 Recrystallization Textures of bcc Metals .......................... 166
5.5.6 Recrystallization Textures of
Hexagonal Metals ................................................................ 170
5.6 Summation ......................................................................................... 171

Part III Microtexture Analysis

6. The Kikuchi Diffraction Pattern ............................................................. 175

6.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 175
6.2 The Kikuchi Diffraction Pattern ..................................................... 176
6.2.1 Formation of Kikuchi Patterns ........................................... 176
6.2.2 Comparison between Kikuchi Patterns
Arising from Different Techniques ................................... 180
6.2.3 Projection of the Kikuchi Pattern ...................................... 181
6.2.4 Qualitative Evaluation of the Kikuchi Pattern ................ 182
6.3 Quantitative Evaluation of the Kikuchi Pattern ........................... 183
6.3.1 Principles of Orientation Determination .......................... 185
6.3.2 Automation of Pattern Indexing and
Orientation Determination by Electron
Backscatter Diffraction ........................................................ 188
6.3.3 Automated Evaluation of Electron
Backscatter Diffraction Patterns ........................................ 191
viii Contents

6.3.4 Automated Evaluation of Transmission

Electron Microscopy Kikuchi Patterns ............................. 195
6.3.4.1 Dynamic Range ..................................................... 196
6.3.4.2 Bright and Dark Kikuchi Lines ........................... 197
6.3.4.3 Unambiguous Indexing ....................................... 197
6.3.5 Automated Evaluation of Selected Area
Channeling Patterns ............................................................ 198
6.4 Pattern Quality .................................................................................. 198
6.5 Summation ......................................................................................... 201

7. Scanning Electron Microscopy–Based Techniques............................. 203

7.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 203
7.2 Micro-Kossel Technique ................................................................... 203
7.3 Electron Channeling Diffraction and
Selected-Area Channeling ............................................................... 205
7.4 Evolution of Electron Backscatter Diffraction ............................... 208
7.5 EBSD Specimen Preparation ............................................................ 213
7.6 Experimental Considerations for EBSD ......................................... 217
7.6.1 Hardware ............................................................................... 217
7.6.2 Data Collection Efficiency ................................................... 220
7.6.3 Experiment Design Philosophy.......................................... 221
7.6.4 Phase Identification .............................................................. 223
7.6.5 Resolution and Operational Parameters ........................... 224
7.6.5.1 Microscope Parameters.........................................225
7.6.5.2 Material ...................................................................225
7.6.5.3 Specimen/Microscope Geometry .......................225
7.6.5.4 Accelerating Voltage.............................................. 226
7.6.5.5 Probe Current......................................................... 227
7.6.5.6 Pattern Clarity ........................................................ 228
7.6.6 Diffraction Pattern Enhancement ...................................... 229
7.7 Calibration of an EBSD System........................................................ 231
7.7.1 Calibration Principles........................................................... 231
7.7.2 Calibration Procedures ........................................................ 233
7.7.2.1 Shadow Casting ..................................................... 233
7.7.2.2 Known Crystal Orientation..................................234
7.7.2.3 Pattern Magnification............................................ 236
7.7.2.4 Iterative Pattern Fitting ......................................... 237
7.8 Operation of an EBSD System and
Primary Data Output ........................................................................ 238
7.9 Summation ......................................................................................... 240

8. Transmission Electron Microscopy–Based Techniques ..................... 241

8.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 241
8.2 High-Resolution Electron Microscopy........................................... 242
Contents ix

8.3 Selected Area Diffraction................................................................. 243

8.3.1 Selected Area Diffraction Patterns .................................... 243
8.3.2 Selected Area Diffraction Pole Figures ............................. 247
8.3.3 Small Convergence Beam Electron Diffraction ............... 250
8.4 Kikuchi Patterns, Microdiffraction, and
Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction ......................................... 251
8.5 Summation ......................................................................................... 256

9. Evaluation and Representation of Microtexture Data ........................ 257

9.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 257
9.1.1 Statistical Distribution of Orientation and
Misorientation Data .............................................................. 258
9.1.2 Orientation and Misorientation Data Related
to the Microstructure ........................................................... 259
9.2 Representation of Orientations in a Pole Figure
or Inverse Pole Figure....................................................................... 260
9.2.1 Individual Orientations ....................................................... 262
9.2.2 Density Distributions .......................................................... 262
9.3 Representation of Orientations in Euler Space ............................. 265
9.3.1 Individual Orientations ....................................................... 266
9.3.2 Continuous Distributions ................................................... 266
9.3.3 Statistical Relevance of Single-Grain
Orientation Measurements ................................................. 270
9.4 Representation of Orientations in Rodrigues Space .................... 275
9.5 General Representation of Misorientation Data ........................... 280
9.5.1 Representations Based on the
Angle/Axis Descriptor ......................................................... 281
9.5.2 Intragrain Misorientations .................................................. 285
9.6 Representation of Misorientations in
Three-Dimensional Spaces .............................................................. 286
9.6.1 Representation of Misorientations in Euler Space ........... 286
9.6.2 Representation of Misorientations in the
Cylindrical Angle/Axis Space ............................................ 289
9.6.3 Representation of Misorientations
in Rodrigues Space .............................................................. 290
9.7 Normalization and Evaluation of the Misorientation
Distribution Function ....................................................................... 292
9.8 Extraction of Quantified Data ......................................................... 298
9.9 Summation .........................................................................................300

10. Orientation Microscopy and Orientation Mapping ............................ 303

10.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 303
10.2 Historical Evolution ........................................................................304
10.3 Orientation Microscopy .................................................................305
x Contents

10.3.1 Mechanisms to Locate Sampling Points .......................305

10.3.2 Sampling Schedule ........................................................... 306
10.3.3 Data Storage and Output ................................................. 307
10.4 Orientation Mapping and Its Applications .................................308
10.4.1 Spatial Distribution of Microtexture
Components ......................................................................309
10.4.2 Misorientations and Interfaces ....................................... 313
10.4.3 True Grain Size/Shape Distributions ............................ 314
10.4.4 Pattern Quality Maps ....................................................... 315
10.4.5 Phase Maps ........................................................................ 317
10.5 Orientation Microscopy in the TEM............................................. 318
10.6 Summation ....................................................................................... 321

11. Crystallographic Analysis of Interfaces,

Surfaces, and Connectivity ....................................................................... 323
11.1 Introduction...................................................................................... 323
11.2 Crystallographic Analysis of Grain Boundaries......................... 324
11.2.1 The Coincidence Site Lattice ........................................... 324
11.2.2 The Interface–Plane Scheme ........................................... 326
11.2.2.1 Tilt Boundaries ................................................. 327
11.2.2.2 Twist Boundaries ............................................. 328
11.3 Crystallographic Analysis of Surfaces ......................................... 328
11.3.1 Sectioning Technique Principles .................................... 329
11.3.1.1 Two-Surface Sectioning ................................... 331
11.3.1.2 Calibrated Serial Sectioning ........................... 331
11.3.1.3 Thin Sections: TEM Methods ......................... 332
11.3.2 Photogrammetric Techniques......................................... 333
11.3.3 “Five-Parameter” Analysis and
Stereological Techniques .................................................334
11.3.4 Three-Dimensional EBSD................................................340
11.4 Orientation Connectivity and Spatial Distribution ....................344
11.5 Orientation Relationships between Phases ................................. 347
11.6 Summation ....................................................................................... 350

12. Synchrotron Radiation, Nondiffraction

Techniques, and Comparisons between Methods............................... 351
12.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 351
12.2 Texture Analysis by Synchrotron Radiation............................... 352
12.2.1 Individual Orientations from Laue Patterns ................ 353
Contents xi

12.2.2 Local Textures from Debye–Scherrer

Patterns in Polycrystalline Regions ............................... 356
12.3 Texture Analysis by Nondiffraction Techniques ....................... 361
12.3.1 Ultrasonic Velocity ........................................................... 362
12.3.2 Optical Methods ............................................................... 363
12.4 Summation: Comparison and Assessment of the
Experimental Methods for Texture Analysis ............................. 368
Appendices .......................................................................................................... 375
Glossary ............................................................................................................... 403
References ........................................................................................................... 411
General Bibliography ........................................................................................ 431
Index ..................................................................................................................... 435
Preface

Most solid-state materials, including metals, ceramics, and minerals, have a

polycrystalline structure in that they are composed of a multitude of indi-
vidual crystallites or “grains.” This book is concerned with a specific aspect
of such materials—the crystallographic orientation of its components or
the crystallographic texture, or simply texture, of the polycrystalline com-
pound. The significance of texture lies in the anisotropy of many material
properties; that is, the value of this property depends on the crystallographic
direction in which it is measured. In most cases grain orientations in poly-
crystals, whether naturally occurring or technologically fabricated, are not
randomly distributed and the preference of certain orientations may indeed
affect material properties by as much as 20%–50% of the property value.
Therefore, the determination and interpretation of texture are of fundamen-
tal importance in materials technology. Furthermore, analysis of the texture
changes during the thermomechanical treatment of materials yields valu-
able information about the underlying mechanisms, including deforma-
tion, recrystallization, or phase transformations. In geology, texture analysis
can provide insight into the geological processes that led to rock formations
millions of years ago.
Nowadays there is a selection of techniques available to analyze the texture
of materials. The well-established methods of x-ray or neutron diffraction,
known as macrotexture techniques, are now supplemented by methods
whereby individual orientations are measured in transmission or scanning
electron microscopes and directly related to the microstructure, which has
given rise to the term microtexture. Microtexture practice has grown prin-
cipally through the application of electron backscatter diffraction, and it is
now possible to measure orientations automatically from predetermined
coordinates in the microstructure, which is known generically as orientation
mapping. From the full range of texture techniques now available, insights can
be gained into material processing, corrosion, cracking, fatigue, grain bound-
ary properties, and other phenomena with a crystallographic component.
Over the past 70 years, a large number of publications on texture analysis
have appeared in the literature. However, there are only a few mono-
graphs on the subject, many of which are highly specialized with a strong
focus on the mathematical aspects of texture. We have written the second
edition of Introduction to Texture Analysis to provide comprehensive coverage
of the range of concepts, practices, and applications of the techniques for
determining and representing texture. The mathematics of the subject has
been kept to the minimum necessary to understand the scientific principles.
For a more complete treatment, a comprehensive bibliography directs the
reader to more specialized texts. The text is inclined toward microtexture

xiii
xiv Preface

analysis, reflecting both the growing emphasis on this modern approach to

texture analysis and the greater requirement for detailed explanation of the
philosophy, practice, and analysis associated with microtexture. The book is
intended for materials scientists, physicists, and geologists—both nonspe-
cialists, including students, and those with more experience—who wish to
learn about the approaches to orientation measurement and interpretation,
or to understand the fundamental principles on which measurements are
based to gain a working understanding of the practice and applications of
texture.
The sequence of the book is as follows. Part I, Fundamental Issues, add-
resses the descriptors and terminology associated with orientations and
texture and their representation in general. This part concludes with an
introduction to the diffraction of radiation, since this phenomenon forms
the basis of almost all texture analysis. Part II, Macrotexture Analysis, cov-
ers both data acquisition and representation. Part III, Microtexture Analysis,
provides experimental details of the transmission or scanning electron
microscope-based techniques for microtexture analysis, followed by a
description of how microtexture data are evaluated and represented. The
innovative topics of orientation microscopy and orientation mapping are
introduced, and more advanced issues concerning crystallographic aspects
of interfaces and connectivity are treated.
We are indebted to a large number of colleagues from whom we have
learned, with whom we have discussed and interacted, or who have provided
thoughtful comments on parts of this book. In particular, we would like to
acknowledge Michael Dahms, Austin Day, Günter Gottstein, Jürgen Hirsch,
Martin Hölscher, Dorte Juul Jensen, Jerzy Jura, Fred Kocks, Ingo Lischewski,
Kurt Lücke, Jan Pospiech, Dierk Raabe, Robert Schwarzer, Steve Vale, Hasso
Weiland, Rudy Wenk, and Stefan Zaefferer.
Olaf Engler
Valerie Randle
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 THE

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BEING THE SECOND SERIES

OF

PROBLEMS OF LIFE AND MIND.

BY

GEORGE HENRY LEWES.

 BOSTON AND NEW YORK:
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 PREFACE.
The title indicates that this volume is restricted to the group of
material conditions which constitute the organism in relation to the
physical world—a group which furnishes the data for one half of the
psychologist’s quest; the other half being furnished by historical and
social conditions.
The Human Mind, so far as it is accessible to scientific inquiry, has
a twofold root, man being not only an animal organism but an unit
in the social organism; and hence the complete theory of its
functions and faculties must be sought in this twofold direction. This
conception (which has been declared “to amount to a revolution in
Psychology”), although slowly prepared by the growing conviction
that Man could not be isolated from Humanity, was first expounded
in the opening volume of these Problems of Life and Mind; at least, I
am not aware that any predecessor had seen how the specially
human faculties of Intellect and Conscience were products of social
factors co-operating with the animal factors.
In considering the Physical Basis a large place must be assigned
to the mechanical and chemical relations which are involved in
organic functions; yet we have to recognize that this procedure of
Analysis is artificial and preparatory, that none of its results are final,
none represent the synthetic reality of vital facts. Hence one leading
object of the following pages has been everywhere to substitute the
biological point of view for the metaphysical and mechanical points
of view which too often obstruct research—the one finding its
expression in spiritualist theories, the other in materialist theories;
both disregarding the plain principle that the first requisite in a
theory of biological phenomena must be to view them in the light of
biological conditions: in other words, to fix our gaze upon what
passes in the organism, and not on what may pass in the laboratory,
where the conditions are different. Analysis is a potent instrument,
but is too often relied on in forgetfulness of what constitutes its real
aid, and thus leads to a disregard of all those conditions which it has
artificially set aside. We see this in the tendency of anatomists and
physiologists to assign to one element, in a complex cluster of co-
operants, the significance which properly belongs to that cluster: as
when the property of a tissue is placed exclusively in a single
element of that tissue, the function of an organ assigned to its chief
tissue, and a function of the organism to a single organ.
Another object has been to furnish the reader uninstructed in
physiology with such a general outline of the structure and functions
of the organism, and such details respecting the sentient
mechanism, as may awaken an interest in the study, and enable him
to understand the application of Physiology to Psychology. If he
comes upon details which can only interest specially educated
students, or perhaps only by them be really understood, he can pass
over these details, for their omission will not seriously affect the
bearing of the general principles. I have given the best I had to give;
and must leave each reader to find in it whatever may interest him.
The uses of books are first to stimulate inquiry by awakening an
interest; secondly, to clarify and classify the knowledge already
gained from direct contemplation of the phenomena. They are
stimuli and aids to observation and thought. They should never be
allowed to see for us, nor to think for us.
The volume contains four essays. The first, on the Nature of Life,
deals with the speciality of organic phenomena, as distinguished
from the inorganic. It sets forth the physiological principles which
Psychology must incessantly invoke. In the course of the exposition I
have incorporated several passages from four articles on Mr.
Darwin’s hypotheses, contributed to the Fortnightly Review during
the year 1868. I have also suggested a modification of the
hypothesis of Natural Selection, by extending to the tissues and
organs that principle of competition which Mr. Darwin has so
luminously applied to organisms. Should this generalization of the
“struggle for existence” be accepted, it will answer many of the
hitherto unanswerable objections.
The second essay is on the Nervous Mechanism, setting forth
what is known and what is inferred respecting the structure and
properties of that all-important system. If the sceptical and
revolutionary attitude, in presence of opinions currently held to be
established truths, surprises or pains the reader unprepared for such
doubts, I can only ask him to submit my statements to a similar
scepticism, and confront them with the ascertained evidence. After
many years of laborious investigation and meditation, the conclusion
has slowly forced itself upon me, that on this subject there is a “false
persuasion of knowledge” very fatal in its influence, because
unhesitatingly adopted as the ground of speculation both in
Pathology and Psychology. This persuasion is sustained because few
are aware how much of what passes for observation is in reality
sheer hypothesis. I have had to point out the great extent to which
Imaginary Anatomy has been unsuspectingly accepted; and hope to
have done something towards raising a rational misgiving in the
student’s mind respecting “the superstition of the nerve-cell”—a
superstition which I freely confess to have shared in for many years.
The third essay treats of Animal Automatism. Here the constant
insistance on the biological point of view, while it causes a rejection
of the mechanical theory, admits the fullest recognition of all the
mechanical relations involved in animal movements, and thus
endeavors to reconcile the contending schools. In this essay I have
also attempted a psychological solution of that much-debated
question—the relation between Body and Mind. This solution
explains why physical and mental phenomena must necessarily
present to our apprehension such profoundly diverse characters; and
shows that Materialism, in attempting to deduce the mental from the
physical, puts into the conclusion what the very terms have excluded
from the premises; whereas, on the hypothesis of a physical process
being only the objective aspect of a mental process, the attempt to
interpret the one by the other is as legitimate as the solution of a
geometrical problem by algebra.
In the final essay the Reflex Theory is discussed; and here once
more the biological point of view rectifies the error of an analysis
which has led to the denial of Sensibility in reflex actions, because
that analysis has overlooked the necessary presence of the
conditions which determine Sensibility. In these chapters are
reproduced several passages from the Physiology of Common Life.
According to my original intention, this volume was to have
included an exposition of the part I conceive the brain to play in
physiological and psychological processes, but that must be
postponed until it can be accompanied by a survey of psychological
processes which would render the exposition more intelligible.

The Priory, March, 1877.

 CONTENTS.

PROBLEM I. THE NATURE OF LIFE.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Problem stated 3
(The Position of Biology) 4
(Organisms) 8
(Vital Force) 14
(Vital Force controlling Physical and
Chemical Forces) 16

CHAPTER II.
Definitions of Life 24

CHAPTER III.
Organism, Organization, and Organic Substance 37
(Organism and Medium) 45
(The Hypothesis of Germinal Matter) 57
(Organisms and Machines) 67
 CHAPTER IV.
The Properties and Functions 70
(Does the Function determine the Organ?) 78

CHAPTER V.
Evolution 89
(Natural Selection and Organic Affinity) 115
(Recapitulation) 152

PROBLEM II. THE NERVOUS

MECHANISM.

CHAPTER I.
Survey of the System, 157
(The Early Forms of Nerve-Centres), 168
(The Peripheral System), 171
(Ganglia and Centres), 172

CHAPTER II.
The Functional Relations of the Nervous System, 176

CHAPTER III.
Neurility, 189
 (Origins of Nerve-Force), 201
(The Hypothesis of Specific Energies), 207

CHAPTER IV.
Sensibility, 211

CHAPTER V.
Action without Nerve-Centres, 227

CHAPTER VI.
What is taught by Embryology?, 237

CHAPTER VII.
The Elementary Structure of the Nervous System, 251
(Difficulties of the Investigation), 252
(The Nerve-Cell), 258
(The Nerves), 270
(The Neuroglia), 273
(The Relations of the Organites), 278
(Recapitulation), 299

CHAPTER VIII.
The Laws of Nervous Activity 310
(The Energy of Neurility) 311
(The Propagation of Excitation) 314
(Stimuli) 321
 (Stimulation) 324
(The Law of Discharge) 326
(The Law of Arrest) 333
(The Hypothesis of Inhibitory Centres) 336
(Anatomical Interpretations of the Laws) 339

PROBLEM III. ANIMAL AUTOMATISM.

CHAPTER I.
The Course of Modern Thought 345

CHAPTER II.
The Vital Mechanism 363

CHAPTER III.
The Relation of Body and Mind 376

CHAPTER IV.
Consciousness and Unconsciousness 399

CHAPTER V.
Voluntary and Involuntary Actions 415
 CHAPTER VI.
The Problem stated 431

CHAPTER VII.
Is Feeling an Agent? 440

PROBLEM IV. THE REFLEX THEORY.

CHAPTER I.
The Problem stated 467

CHAPTER II.
Deductions from General Laws 490

CHAPTER III.
Inductions from Particular Observations 509
(Cerebral Reflexes) 511
(Discrimination) 520
(Memory) 522
(Instinct) 522
(The Acquisition of Instinct) 536
(Acquisition) 546
 CHAPTER IV.
Negative Inductions 550
 PROBLEM I.

THE NATURE OF LIFE.

“La Physiologie a pour but d’exposer les phénomènes de la vie humaine
et les conditions d’où ils dépendant. Pour y arriver d’une manière sûre, il
faut nécessairement avant tout déterminer quels sont les phénomènes
qu’on désigne sous le nom de vie en général. C’est pourquoi la première
chose à faire est d’étudier les propriétés générales du corps qu’on appelle
organiques ou vivans.”—Tiedemann, Traité de Physiologie de l’Homme, I. 2.
“Some weak and inexperienced persons vainly seek by dialectics and
far-fetched arguments either to upset or establish things that are only to
be founded on anatomical demonstration and believed on the evidence of
the senses. He who truly desires to be informed of the question in hand
must be held bound either to look for himself, or to take on trust the
conclusions to which they who have looked have come.”—Harvey, Second
Dissertation to Riolan.
THE NATURE OF LIFE.
 CHAPTER I.

THE PROBLEM STATED.

1. Although for convenience we use the terms Life and Mind as

representing distinct orders of phenomena, the one objective and
the other subjective, and although for centuries they have
designated distinct entities, or forces having different substrata, we
may now consider it sufficiently acknowledged among scientific
thinkers that every problem of Mind is necessarily a problem of Life,
referring to one special group of vital activities. It is enough that
Mind is never manifested except in a living organism to make us
seek in an analysis of organic phenomena for the material conditions
of every mental fact. Mental phenomena when observed in others,
although interpretable by our consciousness of what is passing in
ourselves, can only be objective phenomena of the vital organism.
2. On this ground, if on this alone, an acquaintance with the
general principles of structure and function is indispensable to the
psychologist; although only of late years has this been fully
recognized, so that men profoundly ignorant of the organism have
had no hesitation in theorizing on its highest functions. In saying
that such knowledge is indispensable, I do not mean that in the
absence of such knowledge a man is debarred from understanding
much of the results reached by investigators, nor that he may not
himself make useful observations and classifications of psychological
facts. It is possible to read books on Natural History with intelligence
and profit, and even to make good observations, without a scientific
groundwork of biological instruction; and it is possible to arrive at
empirical facts of hygiene and medical treatment without any
physiological instruction. But in all three cases the absence of a
scientific basis will render the knowledge fragmentary and
incomplete; and this ought to deter every one from offering an
opinion on debatable questions which pass beyond the limit of
subjective observations. The psychologist who has not prepared
himself by a study of the organism has no more right to be heard on
the genesis of the psychical states, or of the relations between body
and mind, than one of the laity has a right to be heard on a question
of medical treatment.

THE POSITION OF BIOLOGY.

3. Science is the systematic classification of Experience. It
postulates unity of Existence with great varieties in the Modes of
Existence; assuming that there is one Matter everywhere the same,
under great diversities in the complications of its elements. The
distinction of Modes is not less indispensable than the identification
of the elements. These Modes range themselves under three
supreme heads: Force, Life, Mind. Under the first, range the general
properties exhibited by all substances; under the second, the general
properties exhibited by organized substances; under the third, the
general properties exhibited by organized animal substances. The
first class is subdivided into Physics, celestial and terrestrial, and
Chemistry. Physics treats of substances which move as masses, or
which vibrate and rotate as molecules, without undergoing any
appreciable change of structural integrity; they show changes of
position and state, without corresponding changes in their elements.
Chemistry treats of substances which undergo molecular changes of
composition destructive of their integrity. Thus the blow which
simply moves one body, or makes it vibrate, explodes another. The
friction which alters the temperature and electrical state of a bit of
glass, ignites a bit of phosphorus, and so destroys its integrity of
structure, converting phosphorus into phosphoric acid.
 4. The second class, while exhibiting both physical and chemical
properties, is markedly distinguished by the addition of properties
called vital. Their peculiarity consists in this: they undergo molecular
changes of composition and decomposition which are simultaneous,
and by this simultaneity preserve their integrity of structure. They
change their state, and their elements, yet preserve their unity, and
even when differentiating continue specific. Unlike all other bodies,
the organized are born, grow, develop, and decay, through a
prescribed series of graduated evolutions, each stage being the
indispensable condition of its successor, no stage ever appearing
except in its serial order.
5. The third class, while exhibiting all the characteristics of the
two preceding classes, is specialized by the addition of a totally new
property, called Sensibility, which subjectively is Feeling. Here
organized substance has become animal substance, and Vegetality
has been developed into Animality by the addition of new factors,—
new complexities of the elementary forces. Many, if not most,
philosophers postulate an entirely new Existence, and not simply a
new Mode, to account for the manifestations of Mind; they refuse to
acknowledge it to be a vital manifestation, they demand that to Life
be added a separate substratum, the Soul. This is not a point to be
discussed here. We may be content with the assertion that however
great the phenomenal difference between Humanity and Animality (a
difference we shall hereafter see to be the expression of a new
factor, namely, the social factor), nevertheless the distinctive
attribute of Sensibility, out of which rise Emotion and Cognition,
marks the inseparable kinship of mental with vital phenomena.
Thus all the various Modes of Existence may, at least in their
objective aspect, be ranged under the two divisions of Inorganic and
Organic,—Non-living and Living,—and these are respectively the
objects of the cosmological and the biological sciences.
6. The various sciences in their serial development develop the
whole art of Method. Mathematics develops abstraction, deduction,
and definition; Astronomy abstraction, deduction, and observation;
Physics adds experiment; Chemistry adds nomenclature; Biology
adds classification, and for the first time brings into prominence the
important notion of conditions of existence, and the variation of
phenomena under varying conditions: so that the relation of the
organism to its medium is one never to be left out of sight. In
Biology also clearly emerges for the first time what I regard as the
true notion of causality, namely, the procession of causes,—the
combination of factors in the product, and not an ab extra
determination of the product. In Vitality and Sensibility we are made
aware that the causes are in and not outside the organism; that the
organic effect is the organic cause in operation; that there is
autonomy but no autocracy; the effect issues as a resultant of the
co-operating conditions. In Sociology, finally, we see brought into
prominence the historical conditions of existence. From the due
appreciation of the conditions of existence, material and historical,
we seize the true significance of the principle of Relativity.
7. Having thus indicated the series of the abstract sciences we
have now to consider more closely the character of Biology. The
term was proposed independently yet simultaneously in Germany
and France, in the year 1802, by Treviranus and Lamarck, to express
“the study of the forms and phenomena of Life, the conditions and
laws by which these exist, and the causes which produce them.” Yet
only of late years has it gained general acceptance in France and
England. The term Cosmology, for what are usually called the
Physical Sciences, has not yet come into general use, although its
appropriateness must eventually secure its recognition.
Biology,—the abstract science of Life,—embracing the whole
organic world, includes Vegetality, Animality, and Humanity; the
biological sciences are Phytology, Zoölogy, and Anthropology. Each of
the sciences has its cardinal divisions, statical and dynamical,
namely, Morphology—the science of form,—and Physiology—the
science of function.
Morphology embraces—1°, Anatomy, i. e. the description of the
parts then and there present in the organism; and these parts, or
organs, are further described by the enumeration of their constituent
tissues and elements; and of these again the proximate principles,
so far as they can be isolated without chemical decomposition. 2°,
Organogeny, i. e. the history of the evolution of organs and tissues.
Physiology embraces the properties and functions of the tissues
and organs—the primary conditions of Growth and Development out
of which rise the higher functions bringing the organism into active
relation with the surrounding medium. The first group of properties
and functions are called those of vegetal, or organic life; the second
those of animal, or relative life.

ORGANISMS.
8. It will be needful to fix with precision the terms, Organism,
Life, Property, and Function.
An organism, although usually signifying a more or less complex
unity of organs, because the structures which first attracted scientific
attention were all thus markedly distinguished from inorganic bodies,
has by the gradual extensions of research been necessarily
generalized, till it now stands for any organized substance capable of
independent vitality: in other words, any substance having the
specific combination of elements which manifests the serial
phenomena of growth, development, and decay. There are
organisms that have no differentiated organs. Thus a microscopic
formless lump of semifluid jelly-like substance (Protoplasm) is called
an organism, because it feeds itself, and reproduces itself. There are
advantages and disadvantages in such extensions of terms. These
are notable in the parallel extension of the term Life, which originally
expressing only the complex activities of complex organisms, has
come to express the simplest activities of protoplasm. Thus a Monad
is an organism; a Cell is an organism; a Plant is an organism; a Man
is an organism. And each of these organisms is said to have its Life,
because
 “Through all the mighty commonwealth of things
1
Up from the creeping worm to sovereign man”

there is one fundamental group of conditions, one organized

substance, one vitality.
Obviously this unity is an abstraction. In reality, the life
manifested in the Man is not the life manifested in the Monad: he
has Functions and Faculties which the Monad has no trace of; and if
the two organisms have certain vital characteristics in common, this
unity is only recognized in an ideal construction which lets drop all
concrete differences. The Life is different when the organism is
different. Hence any definition of Life would be manifestly
insufficient which while it expressed the activities of the Monad left
unexpressed the conspicuous and important activities of higher
organisms. A sundial and a repeater will each record the successive
positions of the sun in the heavens; but although both are
instruments for marking time, the sundial will not do the work of the
repeater; the complexity and delicacy of the watch mechanism are
necessary for its more varied and delicate uses. A semifluid bit of
protoplasm will feed itself; but it will not feed and sustain a complex
animal; nor will it feel and think.
9. Neglect of this point has caused frequent confusion in the
attempts to give satisfactory definitions. Biologists ought to have
been warned by the fact that some of the most widely accepted
definitions exclude the most conspicuous phenomena of Life, and
are only applicable to the vegetable world, or to the vegetal
processes in the animal world. A definition, however abstract, should
not exclude essential characters. The general consent of mankind
has made Life synonymous with Mode of Existence. By the life of an
animal is meant the existence of that animal; when dead the animal
no longer exists; the substances of which the organism was
composed exist, but under another mode; their connexus is altered,
and the organism vanishes in the alteration. It is a serious mistake
to call the corpse an organism; for that special combination which
constituted the organism is not present in the corpse. This
misconception misleads some speculative minds into assigning life to
the universe. The universe assuredly exists, but it does not live; its
existence can only be identified with life, such as we observe in
organisms, by a complete obliteration of the speciality which the
term Life is meant to designate. Yet many have not only pleased
themselves with such a conception, but have conceived the universe
to be an organism fashioned, directed, and sustained by a soul like
that of man—the anima mundi. This is to violate all scientific canons.
The life of a plant-organism is not the same as the life of an animal-
organism; the life of an animal-organism is not the same as the life
of a human-organism; nor can the life of a human-organism be the
same as the life of the world-organism. The unity of Existences does
not obliterate the variety of Modes; yet it is the speciality of each
Mode which Science investigates; to some of these Modes the term
Life is consistently applied, to others not; and if we merge them all
in a common term, we must then invent a new term to designate
the Modes now included under Life.
10. In resisting this unwarrantable extension of the term I am not
only pointing to a speculative error, but also to a serious biological
error common in both spiritualist and materialist schools, namely
that of assigning Life to other than organic agencies. Instead of
recognizing the speciality of this Mode of Existence as dependent on
a speciality of the organic conditions, the spiritualist assigns Life to
some extra-organic Vital Principle, the materialist assigns it to some
inorganic agent—physical or chemical. Waiving for the present all
discussion of Vitalism, let us consider in what sense we must
separate organic from all inorganic phenomena.
11. There is a distinction between inorganic and organic which
may fitly be called radical: it lies at the root of the phenomena, and
must be accepted as an ultimate fact, although the synthesis on
which it depends is analytically reducible to a complication of more
primitive conditions. It has been already indicated in § 5. All
organisms above the very simplest are syntheses Of three terms:
Structure, Aliment, and Instrument. Crystals, like all other
anorganisms have structure, and in a certain sense they may be said
to grow (Mineralia crescunt), though the growth is by increase and
2
not by modification: the motherlye, which is the food of the crystal,
is never brought to the crystal, nor prepared for it, by any
instrumental agency of the crystal. Organisms are exclusively
instrumental; the organ is an instrument. The structural integrity of
an organism is thus preserved through an alimentation which is
effected through special instruments. Nothing like this is visible in
anorganisms.
The increase of a crystal is further distinguishable from the
growth of an organism, in the fact Of its being simple accretion
without development; and the structure of the crystal is
distinguishable from that of an organism in the fact that its integrity
is preserved by the exclusion of all molecular change, and not by the
simultaneous changes of molecular decomposition and
recomposition. Inorganic substances are sometimes as unstable as
organic, sometimes even more unstable; but their instability is the
source of their structural destruction—they change into other
species; whereas the instability of organized substances (not of
organic) is the source of their structural integrity: the tissue is
renovated, and its renovation is a consequence of its waste.
12. But while the distinction is thus radical, when we view the
organism from the real—that is, from the synthetic point of view—
we must also urge the validity of the analytical point of view, which
seizes on the conditions here complicated in a special group, and
declares these conditions to be severally recognizable equally in
anorganisms and in organisms. All the fundamental properties of
Matter are recognizable in organized Matter. The elementary
substances and forces familiar to physicists and chemists are the
materials of the biologist; nor has there been found a single organic
substance, however special, that is not reducible to inorganic
elements. We see, then, that organized Matter is only a special
combination of that which in other combinations presents chemical
and physical phenomena; and we are prepared to find Chemistry
and Physics indispensable aids in our analysis of organic
phenomena. Aids, but only aids; indispensable, but insufficient.
13. There is therefore an ambiguity in the common statement
that organized matter is not ordinary matter. Indisputable in one
sense, this is eminently disputable when it is interpreted as evidence
of a peculiar Vital Force “wholly unallied with the primary energy of
Motion.” If by “ordinary matter” be meant earths, crystals, gases,
vapors, then assuredly organized matter is not ordinary. “Between
the living state of matter and its non-living state,” says Dr. Beale,
“there is an absolute and irreconcilable difference; so far from our
being able to demonstrate that the non-living passes by gradations
into or gradually assumes the scale or condition of the living, the
transition is sudden and abrupt, and matter already in the living
state may pass into the non-living condition in the same sudden and
3
complete manner.” The ambiguity here is sensible in the parallel
case of the difference between crystallizable and coagulable matter,
or between one crystal and another. If we can decompose the
organic into the inorganic, this shows that the elements of the one
are elements of the other; and if we are not yet able to recompose
the inorganic elements into organic matter (not at least in its more
complex forms), may this not be due to the fact that we are ignorant
of the proximate synthesis, ignorant of the precise way in which the
elements are combined? I may have every individual part of a
machine before me, but unless I know the proper position of each, I
cannot with the parts reconstruct the machine. Indeed the very
common argument on which so much stress is laid in favor of some
mysterious Principle as the source of organic phenomena, namely,
that human skill is hopelessly baffled in the attempt to make organic
substances, still more a living cell, is futile. Men can make machines,
it is said, but not organisms, ergo organisms must have a spiritual
origin. But the fact is that no man can make a machine, unless he
take advantage of the immense traditions of our race, and apply the
skill of millions who have worked and thought before him, slowly and
tentatively discovering the necessary means of mechanical effect.
The greatest thinker, or the deepest scholar, who did not place
himself in the line of the tradition, and learn the principles of
mechanism, and the properties of the materials, would be as
incapable of making a watch, as the physiologist now is of making a
cell. But the skill of man has already succeeded in making many
organic substances, and will perhaps eventually succeed in making a
cell, certainly will, if ever the special synthesis which binds the
elements together should be discovered. Not that such a discovery
would alter the position of Biology in relation to Chemistry. The
making of albumen, nay, the construction of an organism in the
laboratory, would not in the least affect the foundation of Biology,
would not obliterate the radical difference between organisms and
anorganisms. It is the speciality of organic phenomena which gives
them a special place, although the speciality may only be due to a
complication of general agencies.

VITAL FORCE.
14. A similar ambiguity to that of the phrase “ordinary matter” lies
in the equally common phrase “Vital Force,” which is used to
designate a special group of agencies, and is then made to
designate an agent which has no kinship with the general group;
that is to say, instead of being employed in its real signification—that
which alone represents our knowledge—as the abstract statical
expression of the complex conditions necessary to the manifestation
of vital phenomena, or as the abstract dynamical expression of the
phenomena themselves, it is employed as an expression of their
unknown Cause, which, because unknown, is dissociated from the
known conditions, and erected into a mysterious Principle, having no
kinship with Matter. In the first sense the term is a shorthand symbol
of what is known and inferred. The known conditions are the
relations of an organism and its medium, the organism being the
union of various substances all of which have their peculiar
properties when isolated; properties that disappear in the union, and
are replaced by others, which result from the combination—as the
properties of chlorine and sodium all disappear in the sea-salt which
results from their union; or as the properties of oxygen and the
properties of hydrogen disappear and are replaced by the properties
of water. When therefore Vital Force is said to be exalted or
depressed, the phrase has rational interpretation in the alteration
which has taken place in one or more of the conditions, internal and
external: a change in the tissues, the plasma, or the environment,
exalts or depresses the energy of the vital manifestations; and to
suppose that this is effected through the agency of some extra-
organic Principle is a purely gratuitous fiction.
15. That we are ignorant of one or more of the indispensable
conditions symbolized in the abstract term Vitality or Vital Force, is
no reason for quitting the secure though difficult path of
Observation, and rushing into the facile but delusive path of Fiction,
which proposes metempirical Agents (in the shape of Vital and
Psychical Principles) to solve the problems of Life and Mind. We may
employ the term Vital Force to label our observations, together with
all that still remains unobserved; and we are bound to recognize the
line which separates observation from inference, what is proved from
what is inferred; but while marking the limits of the known, we are
not to displace the known in favor of the unknown. It is said that
because of our ignorance we must assume these causes of Life and
Mind to be unallied with known material causes, and belonging to a
different order of existences. This is to convert ignorance into a
proof; and not only so, but to allow what we do not know to displace
what we do know. The organicist is ready to admit that much has
still to be discovered; the vitalist, taking his stand upon this
unknown, denies that what has been discovered is really important,
and declares that the real agent is wholly unallied to it. How can he
know this?
He does not know it; he assumes it; and the chief evidence he
adduces is that the ordinary laws of inorganic matter are incapable
of explaining the phenomena of organized matter; and that physical
and chemical forces are controlled by vital force. I accept both these
positions, stripping them, however, of their ambiguities. The laws of
ordinary matter are clearly incompetent in the case of matter which
is not ordinary, but specialized in organisms; and when we come to
treat of Materialism we shall see how unscientific have been the
hypotheses which disregard the distinction. The question of control
is too interesting and important to be passed over here.

VITAL FORCE CONTROLLING PHYSICAL AND

CHEMICAL FORCES.
16. The facts relied on by the vitalists are facts which every
organicist will emphasize, though he will interpret them differently.
When, for example, it is said that “Life resists the effect of
mechanical friction,” and the proof adduced is the fact that the
friction which will thin and wear away a dead body is actually the
cause of the thickening of a living—the skin of a laborer’s hand being
thickened by his labor; the explanation is not that Life, an extra-
organic agent, “resists mechanical friction”—for the mechanical
effect is not resisted (the skin is rubbed off the rower’s hand sooner
than the wood is rubbed off the oar)—but that Life, i. e. organic
activity repairs the waste of tissue.
17. Again, although many of the physical and chemical processes
which invariably take place under the influences to which the
substances are subjected out of the organism, will not take place at
all, or will take place in different degrees, when the substances are
in the organism, this is important as an argument against the notion
of vital phenomena being deducible from physical and chemical laws,
but is valueless as evidence in favor of an extra-organic agent. Let
us glance at one or two striking examples.
18. No experimental inquirer can have failed to observe the often
contradictory results which seemingly unimportant variations in the
conditions bring about; no one can have failed to observe what are
called chemical affinities wholly frustrated by vital conditions. Even
the ordinary laws of Diffusion are not always followed in the
organism. The Amœba, though semifluid, resists diffusion when
alive; but when it dies it swells and bursts by osmosis. The exchange
of gases does not take place in the tissues, precisely as in our
retorts. The living muscle respires, that is, takes up oxygen and
gives out carbonic acid, not on the principle of simple diffusion, but
by two separable physiological processes. The carbonic acid is given
out, even when there is no oxygen whatever present in the
atmosphere, and its place may then be supplied by hydrogen; and
this physiological process is so different from the physical process
which goes on in the dead muscle (the result of putrefaction), that it
has been proved by Ranke to go on when the temperature is so low
4
that all putrefaction is arrested. The same experimenter finds that
whereas living nerve will take up, by imbibition, 10 per cent of
potash salts, it will not take up 1 per cent of soda salts, presented in
equal concentration; and he points to the general fact that the
absorption of inorganic substances does not take place according to
the simple laws of diffusion, but that living tissues have special laws,
the nerve, for instance, having a greater affinity for neutral potash
salts than for neutral soda salts. Let me add, by way of anticipating
the probable argument that may urge this in favor of Vital Principle
which is lightly credited with the prescience of final causes, that so
far from this “elective affinity” of the tissues being intelligent and
always favorable, Ranke’s experiments unequivocally show that it is
more active towards destructive, poisonous substances, than
towards the reparative, alimentary substances; which is indeed
consistent with the familiar experience that poisons are more readily
absorbed than foods, when both are brought to the tissues. Thus it
is well known that of all the salts the sulphate of copper is that
which plants most readily absorb—and it kills them. The special
affinities disappear as the vitality disappears, and dying plants
absorb all salts equally.
19. The more the organism is studied, the more evident it will
become that the simple laws of diffusion, as presented in
anorganisms rarely if ever take effect in tissues; in other words,
what is called Imbibition in Physics is the somewhat different process
5
of Absorption in Physiology. The difference is notable in this capital
fact, that whereas the physical diffusion of liquids and gases is
determined by differences of density, the physiological absorption of
liquids and gases is determined by the molecular organization of the
tissue, which is perfectly indifferent to, and resists the entrance of,
all substances incapable of entering into organic combination, either
as aliment or poison. A curious example of the indifference of
organized substances to some external influences and their reaction
upon others, is the impossibility of provoking ciliary movement in an
epithelial cell, during repose, by any electrical, mechanical, or
chemical stimuli except potash and soda. Virchow discovered that a
minute quantity of either of these, added to the water in which the
cell floated, at once called forth the ciliary movements.
20. The true meaning of the resistance of Vitality to ordinary
chemical affinity is, that the conditions involved in the phenomena of
Vitality are not the conditions involved in the phenomena of
Chemistry; in other words, that in the living organism the substances
are placed under conditions different from those in which we
observe these substances when their chemical affinities are
displayed in anorganisms. But we need not go beyond the laboratory
to see abundant examples of this so-called resistance to chemical
affinity, when the conditions are altered. The decomposition of
carbonates by tartaric acid is a chemical process which is wholly
resisted if alcohol instead of water be the solvent employed. The
union of sulphur with lead is said to be due to the affinity of the one
for the other; but no one supposes this affinity to be irrespective of
conditions, or that the union will take place when any one of these
conditions is absent. If we fuse a compound of lead and iron in a
crucible containing sulphur, we find it is the iron, and not the lead,
which unites with the sulphur; yet we do not conclude that there is a
Crucible Principle which frustrates chemical affinity and resists the
union of sulphur and lead; we simply conclude that the presence of
the iron is a condition which prevents the combination of the sulphur
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