CONFORMITY WITH PLAN 347 



individual losing its independence in so doing, an independence 

 expressed by the fact that an indication referring to the 

 individual must always appear in its sensed-world before it 

 can perform the action. 



If we imagine the world-as-sensed to be so restricted that it 

 contains only one indication, then the activity of the in- 

 dividuals will assume an increasingly mechanical character. 

 According to the structure of the individual, this may be of 

 a very special kind, if only one external stimulus serves as 

 indication ; or of a general kind, if many different stimuli 

 act as the same indication. 



Regarding the reflex arc from this point of view, then the 

 sensory cell that responds to a single stimulus represents a 

 specialised individual, e.g. the auditory cell responding to 

 a certain atmospheric vibration, the optic cell to a certain 

 etheric vibration. 



The nerve-cell follows the sensory cell. It also is an 

 individual which can conduct excitation only when it has 

 received from the sensory cell a stimulus, which becomes an 

 indication as soon as it releases a nervous excitation at the 

 peripheral end of the nerve-cell. But the nerve-cell is able 

 to convert into excitation other stimuli, such as mechanical 

 and electrical shocks, and it can do this at any point on its 

 elongated body. A nervous excitation, however, must always 

 be aroused before it can be conducted further. The simple 

 steering of the nerve-cell consists in conduction. It must 

 hand on by stimulation to the central cells an excitation 

 transmitted to it by the sensory cell. 



In this way the transference of excitation proceeds in 

 the reflex arc, whether we have to do with nerves, centres, 

 glands or muscles. In each case a very restricted sensed- 

 world forms the socket into which fits the action from the 

 similarly restricted world of action of its neighbour. 



The community-mechanism, based on the transference of 



