From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



undergone by the organism during embryonic develop- 

 ment. 



As the classical concept of the Self cannot account 

 for the building up of the organism and its specific 

 form, so also it cannot explain how this organism main- 

 tains and repairs itself during life. 



Nothing is more curious than the efforts of naturalists 

 and physiologists to explain individual permanence in 

 despite of perpetual cellular renewal. 



Claude Bernard sought to demonstrate that vital 

 functions are necessarily accompanied by organic destruc- 

 tion and regeneration. 



* When there is movement,' he says, 1 * in a man 

 or an animal, a part of the active substance of the 

 muscle is destroyed or burned; when sensation and 

 will are manifested, the nerves are used up; when 

 thought is exercised, the brain is consumed in some 

 measure. It may be said that the same matter is 

 never used twice during life. When an act is 

 accomplished, that portion of living matter which 

 has served to produce it exists no longer. If the 

 phenomenon is repeated, it is by the aid of new 

 matter. ... In a word, physico-chemical destruction 

 is everywhere conjoined with functional activity, and 

 we may regard as a physiological axiom the proposi- 

 tion : Every manifestation of action in a living being 

 is necessarily connected with organic destruction.' 

 But this axiom is impugned by contemporary 

 physiologists. In opposition to Claude Bernard, their 

 efforts tend to establish, that really living substance, 

 protoplasm, is much less destroyed during life than was 

 imagined. Cellular renovation, according to them, is 

 very slight. (Chauveau, Pfluger.) 



Certain physiologists (Marinesco) have not hesitated 

 to ascribe indefinite duration to the cerebral cells. 



Finally, Le Dantec, going further still, declares that 



1 Claude Bernard : Les Ph&nomtnes de la Vie. 



44 



