26 IRRITABILITY 



ually, and we must accept for the present, especially in the com- 

 plex biological processes, that a whole complexity of members 

 appear conditioned, and that a complex aggregate is a con- 

 dition of the whole process. We are not yet in the position to 

 define the special components of the constituent processes. It 

 is only step by step that we are able to differentiate the necessary 

 from the accessory parts in these complexes. However, we are 

 here only concerned for the present with a purely theoretical 

 question and we may be permitted to say: If we maintain that 

 the conception of condition has as an integral part the element 

 of necessity and of relation to a special thing, then there are no 

 substituting conditions. For then every condition for a state or 

 process is of equal value. There is no justification to give more 

 prominence to one condition and place it in the position of being 

 the "cause." 







If the cause is elevated, then it is done from some superficial 

 motive. This is confirmed by a glance at the practical use of the 

 term cause. The cases in which the cause is always at once 

 clearly recognized and named without doubt or hesitation are 

 those where a new factor is added to an already existing system 

 of conditions, which bring about a process. When such a process 

 is produced, the last added condition is considered as "cause." 

 A shock acts on an explosive body, the body explodes : the shock 

 is considered the cause. An induction shock acts on a muscle, the 

 muscle contracts ; the induction shock is looked upon as the cause 

 of the muscle contraction. To regard only the last added con- 

 dition as being of especial importance to the taking place and the 

 explanation for a process is, however, a standpoint which could 

 satisfy only the most superficial of observers. 



In a scientific investigation such methods should play no role. 

 For to every careful observer it must appear quite clear from the 

 beginning, that the previously existing conditions have as great 

 a value for the taking place of the process and its explanation as 

 that last added. 



The induction shock would not have produced the charac- 

 teristic effect had not the other conditions been already previously 

 combined, had not certain special atoms in the molecule of the 



