Affective Tendencies 365 



ganism can no longer use, are likewise no exceptions to 

 this general rule. For, although the need for eliminat- 

 ing them may be called forth by certain vicarious local 

 sensations capable of evoking the act of expulsion in ad- 

 vance, yet in reality, whether in the case of the smallest 

 and simplest infusorians or of the most highly developed 

 vertebrates, it is due only to the circumstance that the 

 accumulation of this waste material within the organism 

 would eventually disturb its normal physiological state. 



To this class of eliminative affective tendencies 'the 

 sexual hunger seems to belong. For we know that cer- 

 tain recent theories are inclined to regard the whole or- 

 ganism rather than any one definite part of the body as 

 the seat of sexual hunger just as in the case of hunger 

 proper, and at the same time to regard it as due to the 

 need of eliminating the germinal substance. 6 



It may be that just as infusoria after a certain num- 

 ber of divisions become subject to "senescence" (Maupas) 

 so also the germinal substance constantly produced in the 

 adult organism, especially after it has undergone the re- 

 ducing divisions, may be subject to a similar degenera- 

 tion if it has not also experienced the requisite caryo- 

 gamic rejuvenation. Therefore it seems quite plausible 

 that "sexual hunger" is originally nothing but the ten- 

 dency of the organism to free itself of this "senile cor- 

 ruption" which the germinal substance, being in its 

 nature a nuclear substance awaiting fertilization, pro- 

 duces by means of its hormonic secretions or substances 

 of disintegration and spreads throughout the entire or- 

 ganism. 



6 See, for instance, though only in certain respects, J. Roux, 

 L'instinct d' amour, ch. I, "Base organique de 1'instinct sexuel." 

 Paris, Bailliere. 1904. 



