CHAPTER X 



CERTAIN PHASES OF THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 

 KINETIC SYSTEM AND GROWTH, PROCREATION AND 

 CHEMICAL PURITY 



IN taking possession of the final common path in the 

 brain, stimuli of the external environment, as has been 

 stated, observe a definite order of precedence, depending 

 upon the phylogenetic and ontogenetic meaning of each 

 stimulus to the particular organism in question. In 

 general, it may be said that self-preservation stimuli 

 take precedence over species-preservation stimuli. We 

 postulate that the same order of precedence may be 

 observed in responses to the chemical and physical 

 stimuli of the internal environment of the body. 



The stimuli to growth and reproduction, the stimuli 

 of pregnancy, the stimuli to maintenance of the chemi- 

 cal purity of the body, are constantly struggling within 

 the body for the available supply of transformable 

 energy ; and the nature of the stimulus gaining posses- 

 sion of the final common path determines many condi- 

 tions of health and disease in the organism. Some- 

 times the stimuli of the external environment compete 

 with the stimuli of the internal environment as 

 when the integration of the body in response to the 

 stimulus of fear interferes with the normal action of the 

 stimuli in response to which nutrition is accomplished 

 and the sum total of health or disease is the net 



261 



