THE EXCESS-VALUE IN BEHAVIOUR. 155 



V. EXCESS-VALUE IN BEHAVIOUR 



By excess-value in behaviour is meant those degrees of 

 activities that do more than satisfy the urges of assimila- 

 tion, growth and reproduction, and self-preservation. By 

 '* values " is meant simply measurable estimates of the activities 

 in question. 



A candid survey of the behaviour of men and women, and 

 even of many of the other animals, will show that the treatment 

 of the early part of this chapter affords only a most inadequate 

 description of those organic activities considered. We have, 

 therefore, to attempt an extension of the conceptions already 

 made in the hope that some results of greater applicability may 

 be obtained. 



55. ON NORMALITY IN ORGANIC ACTIVITY 

 The inorganic model illustrating this conception is the activity 

 of an acid. Such a substance tends not to occur freely in nature 

 since it exhibits a tendency to become neutralized by one or 

 more of the chemical substances called bases. In proportion 

 as neutralization proceeds the characteristic tendency of the 

 acid decreases. When it is completely neutralized a salt is 

 formed and this is a more stable substance than an acid. Thus 

 the tendency is for all siliceous (acidic) minerals in the crust of 

 the earth to combine with the basic ones, to the extent that the 

 latter are present. 



The blood of a vertebrate animal has a certain normal con- 

 stitution, such that its hydrogen-ion-concentration, its O2- 

 content, its CO ..-content, etc., remain as nearly as possible 

 constant. The H-ion concentration is actually very nearly 

 constant (or " normal ") in the healthy animal. The propor- 

 tions of O2 and CO, vary within certain limits, but the integrat- 

 ive action of the nervous system, via the respiratory organs, 

 tends always to restore the Os-content should this fall below 

 normality, or to diminish the COo-content, should this rise 

 above normality. The tendency, then, of the tissues of the 

 animal to retain a certain normality is satisfied by various regu- 

 latory mechanisms zvhich cease to operate when the normality is 

 attained. 



