66 Heredity and Social Progress 



is also greater than that of the somatic 

 cells, which, being more specialized, respond 

 only to particular agents. If the germ cell 

 alone has the capacity to respond to every 

 stimulus, it alone can be the seat or the 

 necessary accompaniment of consciousness. 

 Objectively considered, consciousness is respon- 

 siveness, and responsiveness must be either 

 cellular or intercellular. The intercellular 

 parts are less responsive to general stimuli 

 than the cells, and the somatic 1 or derived cells 

 are less responsive than the original germ cell. 

 Its continuity alone is preserved in reproduc- 

 tion, and it is all that the different organisms 

 have in common. Consciousness, the common 

 quality of all life, would seem, therefore, to 

 be connected with this unique germ cell, and 

 any objective method of measuring it through 

 responsiveness must join the two together 

 and regard them as two sides of one func- 

 tion. 



If this is so, the simplest forms of conscious- 

 ness should coincide with the simplest form of 



1 Somatic cells are derived by differentiation from the original 

 germ cells. 



