266 THE ORIGIN OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 
of developmental physiology in a new light, and I have 
ventured to suggest that even the more complex aspects 
of nervous development and integration are related to 
the fundamental physiological features of organismic 
pattern, the gradients. 
From this point the attempt might be made to push 
suggestion and speculation along these lines into the 
field of psychology, but we are concerned primarily 
with the origin of the nervous system rather than with 
its relations to psychological phenomena. It seems 
allowable, however, to point out the possibility that 
the field or content of consciousness at any given 
moment may be associated with the determination of a 
field or area of relatively intense physiological activity 
in a particular region of the Cortex as the resultant of 
the incoming impulses at that moment. If this activity 
is sufficiently intense, this area becomes for the time 
being the dominant region and its connections with 
other parts, together with the physiological conditions 
in other parts, determine the course of action. Hesita- 
tion, deliberation, delays, so characteristic of cortical 
reaction and consciousness, represent the period before 
complete dominance is attained and can be interpreted 
in terms of physiological factors. I do not mean to 
imply that each particular content of consciousness is 
localized in a particular cortical area, but merely that 
increased activity in a particular cortical region or 
regions is itself a resultant of a particular functional 
complex in the nervous system and the body as a whole, 
and that if such activity becomes sufficiently intense it 
determines a certain reaction complex. The structure 
of the cortex indicates that a general physiological 
