72 The Mechanistic Conception of Life 



morphological character of the ganglion-cells, but to definite 

 chemical conditions which are not necessarily confined to 

 ganglion-cells.^ 



The coordinated character of automatic movements has 

 often been explained by the assumption of a '^ center of coordina- 

 tion," which is supposed to keep a kind of police watch on the 

 different elements and see that they move in the right order. 

 Observations in lower animals, however, show that the coordina- 

 tion of automatic movements is caused by the fact that that 

 element which beats most quickly forces the others to beat in 

 its own rhythm. Aperiodic spontaneity is still less a specific 

 function of the ganglion-cell than rhythmical spontaneity. The 

 swarm spores of algae, which possess no ganglion-cells, show 

 spontaneity equal to that of animals having ganglion-cells. 



6. Thus far we have not touched upon the most important 

 problem in physiology, namely, which mechanisms give rise 

 to that complex of phenomena which are called psychic or 

 conscious. Our method of procedure must be the same as in 

 the case of instincts and reflexes. We must find out the ele- 

 mentary physiological processes which underlie the complicated 

 phenomena of consciousness. Some physiologists and psy- 

 chologists consider the purposefulness of the psychic action 

 as the essential element. If an animal or an organ reacts as a 

 rational human being would do under the same circumstances, 

 these authors declare that we are dealing with a phenomenon of 

 consciousness. In this way many reflexes, the instincts 

 especially, are looked upon as psychic functions. Conscious- 

 ness has been ascribed even to the spinal cord, because many of 

 its functions are purposeful. We shall see in the following 

 chapters that many of these reactions are merely tropisms 

 which may occur in exactly the same form in plants. Plants 

 must therefore have a psychic life, and, following the argument, 

 we must ascribe it to machines also, for the tropisms depend 



1 Loeb, J., American Journal of Physiology, III, 327 and 383, 1900. 



