Note 243 — Chapter II · DEDUCTIONS FROM GENERAL LAWS.

The idea of a fixed anatomical mechanism for reflexion, such as that of an excito-motory system, is completely refuted by the fact that the gray substance may anywhere be cut sway, and yet so long as a small bridge of gray substance remains the stimulation will be propagated through it. The idea of a fixed pathway is also refuted by the fact of the variations in the reflex responses, and the necessary irradiation even for very simple reflexes. Take, for example, that of breathing. An irritation of the bronchial filaments is transmitted by the pneumogastric to its centre in the medulla oblongata; from this, however, it is immediately irradiated downwards to the cervical and dorsal regions, which innervate the muscles of chest and diaphragm, and upwards to the brain, whether the stimulation awaken consciousness or not. One may say, indeed, that inasmuch as under normal conditions the bronchial irritation always causes a movement of a particular group of muscles, there is to this extent a fixed pathway of discharge; but, as I have formerly explained, this is only an expression of the particular tension of particular centres, and is variable with that tension; the other centres are also affected, even when they are not excited to discharge.