Specific Modes of Being of Nervous Currents 45 
Consequently the view is not only justified but almost 
required that in plant bodies also there is a nervous cir- 
culation or distribution, which, though it manifests itself 
only in its variations dependent on some change in the 
external influences, is certainly none the less present 
during the repose of the organism when it is in a state 
of dynamic equilibrium. It is this constant circulation 
or continuous distribution of nervous energy, which con- 
stitutes in plants quite as well as in animals the “smali 
yet mighty link” which unites the parts of the organism 
into a “sympathetic whole,’ a function which Lewes 
ascribes especially to the nervous system.?* 
As to the properties of each of the respective excita- 
tations or currents which constitute this general nervous 
flux, it is sufficient for our purpose to suppose that these 
latter appear in specifically differing modes of existence 
which are capable now of combining now of disjoining; 
we mean by this that two specific modes of being are 
able for example to combine with each other and so to 
give rise to a third specific mode of being, or indeed that 
this latter can break up giving rise to the two preceding 
specific modes of being or even to others different from 
them. 
While for the present we are not in a position to 
discover what these different specific modes of being 
really are, yet we can and indeed must necessarily regard 
them as existing since in different tissues different specific 
nuclear stimuli must certainly be present in the cells. 
These different specific modes of being might consist in 
something analogous with the intensity of the continuous 
electric current, or perhaps in a rhythmic form correspond- 
287 ewes: The physical basis of mind. New edition. London, 
Kegan Paul, Trench, Tritbner & Co. 1893. P. 61. 
