54 NOTES AND MESIORANDA. 



the cell theory to pathology. He then proceeds to give the definition 

 of the word "soul" according to both philosophical theories. First 

 according to the monistic or realistic theory (i. e. that organisms have 

 been developed naturally, in which case they must descend from the 

 simplest and common ancestral forms), and then according to the 

 dualistic or spiritualistic theory (i. e. that the different species of 

 organisms have originated independently of one another, in which 

 case they can only have been created in a supernatural way — by a 

 miracle), he compares the simj^licity of the former with the mystery 

 and irrationality of the other, and shows the futility of Virchow's view 

 that we cannot find psychic phenomena in the lower animals. 

 " Volition and sensation, the most general and most indubitable 

 qualities of all mental life, cannot be overlooked in the lower animals. 

 Indeed, with most Infusoria, particularly with Ciliata, independent 

 motion and conscious sensation (of pressure, heat, light, &c.) are so 

 very evident, that one of their most patient observers, Ehrenberg, 

 maintained up to his death that all Infusoria must have nerves and 

 muscles, organs of sense and of mind (Seelenorgane), just like all 

 higher animals. 



Now it is known that the enormous progress which science has 

 recently made in the natural history of these low organisms has 

 reached its climax in the maxim that they are unicellidar (a maxim 

 which Siebold pronounced thirty years ago, but which has been 

 proved with certainty only recently) ; therefore in the Infusoria a 

 single cell performs all the different functions of life, including the 

 mental functions, which in the HydrcB and Spongice are divided 

 amongst the cells of the two germinal lobes, and in all higher 

 animals amongst those of the various tissues, organs, and apparatus 

 of a complicated organism. . . . By the same right by which we 

 ascribe an independent ' soul ' to these unicellular Infusoria, we must 

 ascribe one to all other cells, because their most important active 

 substance, the protoplasm, shows everywhere the same psychic 

 properties of sensitiveness (sensation) and movability (volition). The 

 difference in the higher organisms is only that there the numerous 

 single cells give up their individual independence, and like good 

 state-citizens, subordinate themselves to the ' state-soul ' which repre- 

 sents the unity of will and sensation in the ' cell-association.' We 

 must distinguish between the central soul of the total polycellular 

 organism or the ' personal soul ' and the separate elementary souls of 

 the single cells, or ' cell-souls." This maxim is excellently illustrated 

 by the interesting group of Siplionopliora. There is no doubt that the 

 whole Siphonophora-st&te has a very determined and uniform (einheitlich) 

 will and sensation ; yet each one of the single individuals which 

 compose this state (or Cormus^ has its separate j^ersonal will and 

 sensation. Indeed, each one of these is originally a separate Medusa, 

 and the ' individual ' Siphonophor a-state has resulted only by association 

 and division of labour of this united society of Medusae. Next to the 

 unicellular Infusoria no phenomenon affords such ample and im- 

 mediate proof for the truth of our cellular-psychology than the fact 

 that the human ovnm, like the ovum of all other animals, is a simple 



