s the three characteristics of purposive behavior
that seemed so {74} difficult to fit into the scheme of stimulus and
response are all here in a rudimentary form.

But notice this fact also: the inner condition of _muscular fatigue is
itself a response_ to external stimuli. It is part and parcel of the
total muscular response to a stimulus. The total response includes an
internal change of condition, which, persisting for a time, is a
factor in determining how the muscle shall respond to later stimuli.
These facts afford, in a simple form, the solution of our problem.

Before leaving the muscle, let us take note of one further fact. If
you examine the "fatigue curve" closely, you will see that a perfectly
fresh muscle _gains_ in strength from its first few responses. It is
said to "warm up" through exercise; and the inner nature of this
warming up has been found to consist in a moderate accumulation of the
same products which, in greater accumulation, produce fatigue. The
warmed-up condition is then another instance of an "organic state".

There will be more to say of "organic states" when we come to the
emotions. For the present, do not the facts already cited compel us to
enlarge somewhat the conception of a reaction as we left it in the
preceding chapters? Besides the external response, there is often an
internal response to a stimulus, a changed organic state that persists
for a time and has an influence on behavior. The motor response to a
given stimulus is determined partly by that stimulus, and partly by
the organic state left behind by just preceding stimuli. You cannot
predict what response will be made to a given stimulus, unless you
know the organic state present when the stimulus arrives.

Preparation for Action

At the second level, the inner state that partly governs the response
is more neural than chemical, and is directed {75} specifically
towards a certain end-result. As good an instance as any is afforded
by the "simple reaction", described in an earlier chapter. If the
subject in that experiment is to raise his finger promptly from the
telegraph key on hearing a given sound, he must be _prepared_, for there
is no permanent reflex connection between this particular stimulus and
this particular response. You tell your subject to be ready, whereupon
he places his finger on the key, and gets all ready for this
particular stimulus and response. The response is determined as much
by his inner state