g several
generations accumulate and end by becoming ecphoriated when they have
acquired enough power.

Engrams may be associated simultaneously in space, such as those of
sight. But they may also be associated in succession, such as those of
hearing and of ontogeny. Simultaneous engrams are associated in every
direction with the same intensity. Successive engrams, on the
contrary, are associated more strongly forwards than backwards, and
have only two poles. In the succession _a b_, _a_ acts more strongly
on _b_ than _b_ on _a_. In the successions of engrams it often happens
that two or more analogous engrams are associated in a manner more or
less equivalent to a preceding engram. _Semon_ calls this phenomenon
dichotomy, trichotomy, etc. But in the successions, two engrams cannot
be ecphoriated simultaneously. Hence the phenomenon which _Semon_
names _alternating ecphoria_; that is sometimes one, sometimes the
other of the constituent engrams, for example, of a dichotomy, which
arrives at ecphoria. Similarly, the engram of the ecphoriated
dichotomy is most often that which has been previously most often
repeated.

In the laws of ontogeny and heredity alternating ecphoria plays an
important part. The branch less often repeated remains latent and the
other only is ecphoriated. But certain combinations which reenforce
the latent branch or paralyze the other may induce ecphoria of the
first to the second generation.

_Semon_ also shows that the phenomena of regeneration in the embryo,
as well as those of the adult, obey the law of the mneme.

_Homophony._--The terms engram and ecphoria correspond to the
well-known introspective phenomena in psychology of memory and the
association of ideas. Engrams are thus ecphoriated. At the time of
such phenomena every mnemic irritation of the engrams vibrates
simultaneously with the state of synchronous irritation produced by a
new irritation. This simultaneous irritation is named by _Semon_
_homophony_. When a partial discord is produced between the new
irritation and the mnemic irritation, the organism always tends to
reestablish homophony (harmony). This is seen in psychological
introspection by activity of attention; in embryology by the
phenomenon of regeneration; and in phylogeny by that of adaptation.

Relying on these convincing facts, _Semon_ shows that irritative
actions are only localized at first in their zone of entry (primary
zone); but that afterward they irradia