ABSTRACT
If there exist in an organism certain mechanisms already prepared, which require only an effective stimulus in order to release them, it follows that in order to have a unified, individualized organism, there must be a coordination, an integration of these partial mechanisms. In the lower species of Metazoa, approaching a colony organization, which is perhaps the first multi-cellular form, the individualization is not complete. Some segments may show a relatively independent life. Among the Echinoderms various stages of individual unification may be observed. According to Uexküll, the sea-urchin may be regarded as a “republic of reflexes.” Little by little the individual acquires, along with a large number of independent hereditary activities, the capacity of control, that is to say, the requirements of the synthetic behaviour of the organism are superimposed on the partial tendencies.
