CHAPTER XIV 



CONTROL. ARREST 



Successful control implies the preservation of the identity 

 of any given living system, or of its equilibrium as a whole 

 in the face of all forces tending to disintegrate it. And 

 this is so although the system is " internally " a scene of 

 constant disequilibrium. 



It is through a centre, or centres, of control that its 

 equilibrium is maintained during the life of a living system ; 

 and moreover, it is through such centres that the action 

 of Environment in moulding and adapting the product of 

 the growth-cycle has been, and continues to be carried into 

 effect, the centres themselves being part of the moulded 

 product. The evolution of Control has clearly gone hand 

 in hand with the evolution of Continuity, and thus shows 

 itself as a species of progressive multiplication. 



Every atom, we believe, retains its identity, or at a 

 given moment exists as a definite electronic system by 

 reason of the controlling power of its core or centre ; and 

 it would seem to follow that every plasmolecule similarly 

 controls its component atoms. Further, in both cases we 

 may say that as the controlling centre can both attract 

 and repel any one of its controlled parts, so each system has 

 an afferent and efferent nervous system of a fundamental 

 sort. The nucleus of the cell is the multiple of the atomic 

 or plasmolecular centre, and may be looked on as the cell's 

 central nervous system which sends and receives messages 

 to and from any part of the cell along molecular nerve-paths, 

 the plasmolecular centres being, as it were, so many " nerve- 

 ganglia " on the paths. In fact, the cell's nervous system 

 has in command the nucleus ; under this, the plasmolecule's 

 nucleus, and under this the atoms controlling the electron. 

 And whether the cell is discontinuous, or united with others 

 to form a tissue, the general functions of its nucleus are the 



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