ORGANIC MOVEMENTS 105 



of life-autonomy in general : it shows that the " psychoid " is 

 not only related to the cerebrum, but may also use the 

 lower parts of the brain. One might say that a higher sort 

 of psychoid governs the main brain, a lower one the thala- 

 mus options, the cerebellum, the medulla, and so on, and 

 this would correspond, in some way, with the discrimination 

 between consciousness and " subconsciousness " that is made 

 by some modern psychologists or rather pseudo-psychologists. 

 But it may well be true, in spite of our statement, that all 

 motor entelechy is one and the same in one individual, and 

 that it is only on account of the primitive state of their 

 organisation that it can do less with the lower parts of 

 the brain than with the hemispheres. In any case there 

 must remain an open question. 



Eegulability in a vicarious sense l among the parts of 

 the lower brain themselves is beautifully shown by some 

 experiments of Luciani carried out on the cerebellum, whose 

 function it is to maintain the equilibrium of the body during 

 movement. All disturbances of its functions caused by 

 partial extirpation were regulated after a short time. Even 

 the extirpation of a whole half was followed by ataxy only 

 for a while, and then regulation set in, and swimming and 

 walking went on as well and symmetrically as before. 2 



1 Compare our analysis of the "potencies " of the hemispheres. 



2 Recent discoveries of Giardina's (Arch. Entiv.-mech. 23, 1907) seem to 

 belong here also. Pieces of the tail of tadpoles, if taken from very young 

 animals, move in co-ordination, but if they are taken from animals of a certain 

 age co-ordination is established only after a while. In the latter case the 

 lumbar spinal cord had already exercised a certain influence in the sense of 

 a general governing, and the co-ordination "centres" had to be established 

 secondarily in the nervous system of the tail, Avhilst they were arranged db 

 originemihe very young pieces. So-called "shock" was excluded experi- 

 mentally. All this is directed in the first place against Loeb's so-called 

 "segmental theory" of nervous physiology, and is, in fact, well able to 



