68 Heredity and Social Progress 



more complex mechanism. Any group of cells, 

 by making structure, can yield movement and 

 memory. They are the necessary accompani- 

 ments of all multicellular growth. But sensa- 

 tion demands the nervous arc, and this appears 

 only in a more complex form of structure. 



The growth and changes in cells have two 

 processes : the period of growth during which 

 energy is stored the anabolic ; and the period 

 of change, waste, and destruction of the stored 

 material the katabolic. Which of these is 

 the cause or accompaniment of consciousness? 

 It cannot be the anabolic process, because 

 that is particularly active during sleep, when 

 consciousness disappears. Besides, we know 

 that thought processes are accompanied by de- 

 structive changes through which waste products 

 are formed. This means that consciousness 

 is confined to katabolic epochs and is continu- 

 ous only as katabolic changes are continuous. 

 We might therefore expect a simple cell to 

 have a conscious period during the time of 

 katabolic destruction and a lapse of conscious- 

 ness when the anabolic processes were building 

 up the cell. An intermittent consciousness 



