96 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



But enough of such hypothetic discussions : the cerebral 

 physiology of the adult certainly does reveal specificities in 

 the brain which are not liable to regulation. 



TJie " Centre " in General 



This is the right place to say a few words on that very 

 ambiguous word, " brain-centre." At first the " centre " was 

 conceived purely anatomically as a so-called ganglion, but 

 this view has been abandoned, especially under the influence 

 of Loeb and Bethe. Loeb 1 then regarded the centre as 

 nothing more than a typical locality of typical intracerebral 

 connexions. It seems to me that this view is a little too 

 restricted. As we have said, there may be specific functions 

 in the brain, related to sensation, and these functions might 

 be specifically localised, at least in the adult. Of course, 

 the word " centre " would be a very suitable name for these 

 localities. 



The Brain and the Psychoid in General 



But, most important of all, the very factor that determines 

 the specificity of any cerebral or rather motor reaction is not 

 a " centre " in any sense ; we have proved that this factor 

 is not physico-chemical in character at all. So we may 

 say, there is something more concerned in reactions starting 

 from the brain or passing through the brain than mere 

 localities of connexion, and something more also than 



my Seele, p. 42 ; also Brans, Anat. Anz. 26, 1905. The transplantation 

 experiments performed on the earthworm, by Korschelt, Joest, and Ruttloff, 

 seem only to prove the possibility of nervous conduction going on in a 

 direction opposite to the normal (Arch. Entw. Mech. 25, 1908). 

 1 Comparative Physiology of the Brain, New York, 1900. 



