CONFORMITY WITH PLAN 297 



as well come into effect once or several times in the same 

 germinal area, so long as the material permits. 



Applied to the auxiliary idea of the impulses, this know- 

 ledge must be expressed as follows : — 



The number of impulses connected by a rule is unlimited, 

 and so is the number of impulse-systems following a rule. 

 The internal equilibrium alone is effective, which strives 

 to remove the disturbance. This equilibrium, however, is 

 present throughout the entire system, and can make itself 

 felt from every part. 



Of the experiments that have been made on regeneration 

 (by which is understood the repair of form and content) 

 those performed on the genetical building-stones give us a 

 much less equivocal result than those performed on the 

 functional, because here we are dealing with protoplasm 

 containing the same genes or like mixtures of genes. As long 

 as it is present in the requisite quantity, the material puts no 

 check in the way of repair. Any cell can take up any position 

 within the same germinal area, since its gene-content is the 

 same. With the critical point this ceases. The cells belong- 

 ing to the same functional building-stone are very different 

 from one another. So we might assume from the outset that 

 repair would either not be possible at all, or only to a limited 

 extent. But it has been shown that, especially in the lower 

 animals, the cells, although with regard to their framework 

 they are just as definitely formed as in the higher animals, 

 stiU bring with them a large reserve of genes, which permits 

 of reconstruction to a very considerable extent. 



If in a cart consisting of wooden and iron parts, the wooden 

 parts also harbour protoferine and the iron parts a primordium 

 for wood, the quality of the material presents no hindrance to 

 the reconstruction of lost portions. 



The functional building-stones have this advantage over 

 the genetical, that they are not prevented by the limited 



