3o8 BRAINS OF RATS AND MEN 



those of metabolism of nervous tissue are of the same 

 order of magnitude — total in each case. We can only 

 accept the data as given and conform our practice to 

 them. The fact that we do not know how the brain 

 functions in consciousness need not blind our eyes to 

 the fact that it does so.' 



Consciousness, then, as viewed biologically must 

 be considered as a member of the complex of vital 

 modes, and as such it must be considered in causal 

 relationship with other vital processes; in short, it is 

 a causative factor in the same sense that muscular 

 contraction and reflex response are causative factors. 

 One cannot say, if arguing rigorously, that muscular 

 contraction is the cause of the movement of my arm, 

 but rather that the muscular contraction is one of the 

 countless factors in the complex processes which 

 eventuate in the movement in question. It is true 

 that in scientific analysis I may abstract the contrac- 

 tion from the other factors and investigate it alone. 

 So consciousness as a biological cause is interwoven 

 with other factors of conduct, from which it can be 

 separated only by a process of scientific analysis or 

 logical abstraction.^ 



'Lotka (1925, p. 391) suggests that "the continued conscious state 

 of matter requires constant excitation by the metabolic processes, some- 

 what as the continued maintenance of a magnetic field in the neighbor- 

 hood of the conductor requires constant excitation by the passage of a 

 current." 



' Consciousness, psychologically considered, is already abstracted 

 from the other factors of conduct, for its differentiating feature is just 



