Affective Tendencies 369 
of every stationary physiological condition to remain 
constant. We shall soon see that this tendency in its 
turn is only the direct result of the mnemonic faculty 
characteristic of all living matter. 
This single physiological tendency of a general kind, 
accordingly, is sufficient to give rise to a large number 
of the most diversified particular affective tendencies. 
Thus every cause of disturbance will produce a corres- 
ponding tendency to repulsion with special characteris- 
tics détermined by the kind of disturbance, by its 
strength, and by the modes of reaction tending to circum- 
vent the disturbing factor; and for every incidental means 
of preserving or restoring the normal physiological con- 
dition, there will be a quite definite corresponding ten- 
dency such as “longing,” “desire,” “attraction” and so 
forth. 
Even the instinct of self-preservation—when under- 
stood in the usual narrow sense of “preservation of 
one’s own life”’—is only a particular derivative and 
direct consequence of this very general tendency to pre- 
serve physiological invariability. For every condition 
which would eventually lead to death first presents itself 
as a mere disturbance, and it is only as such that the 
animal tries and learns to avoid it. Jenning’s amceba, 
for instance, which had been completely swallowed by 
another amceba, but had succeeded in getting away, did 
not in all probability flee from a phenomenon that en- 
dangered its life, but from a condition in its environ- 
ment which even though a profound disturbance, was 
nevertheless nothing but a disturbance. 
It is well known that Quinton was the first to de- 
velop a theory that organisms tend to maintain in their 
internal intercellular environment the same chemical 
