ABSTRACT
Let us now turn to the question of how our hypothesis is related to the theory of the libido. Here we may be inclined to surmise that this theory will come later on to be in some respects differently stated. When we considered the most primitive acts of reproduction and of feeding, we saw no reason to consider either of them caused by anything but local states of tension. Coming to the higher animals, a similar series of facts is present. In the multi-cellular animals we find that local tension is conducted from one cell to another by means of simple protoplasmic processes or by nerve fibres, so that we get in the higher animals somatic tension conducted from one segment to another, either directly, or via the brain and spinal cord. In conscious beings this may be accompanied by feeling changes that are related to this tension.
