Every person who touches us even in the slightest degree, is drawn by the law of attraction because we need him to bring out some latency in ourselves, and because HE needs us to help develop some latency in him.
This period between infancy and puberty is known as the latency period.
So far I have been speaking of cases where the interval between the death and the manifestation was so short as to make the theory of latency possible.
The experimental cases to which I have referred as analogous are few and uncertain, and, moreover, in them the period of latency has been measured by seconds or minutes, not by hours.
But though the theory of latency has thus a good deal to be said for it, my colleagues and I are most anxious not to be supposed to be putting forward as a dogma what must be regarded at present merely as a working hypothesis.
Even the first appearance was several hours after the death, but this we might explain by the latency of the impression till a season of quiet.
A period of latency may result when the extension of the morbid process is thus hindered.
It affects the same tissues, results in the same pathological formations, and is preceded by the same period of latency or quiescence of variable duration.
It is during this period of total or at least partial latency that the psychic forces develop which later act as inhibitions on the sexual life, and narrow its direction like dams.
We will therefore add that the same process acts in the development of every individual, and that it begins to act in the sexual latency period.
The first shift has its origin between the age of three and five years, and is brought to a stop or to retrogression by the latency period; it is characterized by the infantile nature of its sexual aims.
The most striking process of puberty has been selected as its most characteristic; it is the manifest growth of the external genitals which have shown a relative inhibition of growth during the latency period of childhood.
The sexual activity of the child, however, does not develop in the same measure as its other functions, but merges first into the so-called latency period from the age of three to the age of five years.
The sexual impulse later regularly becomes autoerotic, and only after overcoming the latency period is there a resumption of the original relation.
By means of an instrument known as a disjunctor the instrumental time-loss or latency of the chronograph is determined.
They remain stored up in latency and are ready to spring into activity as soon as the depths of the mind are probed.
The occasional occurrence in Scotland of red grouse with a large amount of white in the winter plumage, especially on the under parts, is justly regarded by Mr. Wallace[ED] as a good example of reversion or latency in wild birds.
We come now to those cases of latency in which this obvious correlation does not occur.
Here the latency of the red pigment may be deduced partly from general arguments like those just given, partly from the special systematic relations in the given cases.
The conception of latency of characters as the common source of the origination of varieties, either in the positive or in the negative way, leads to some rules on variability, which are known under the names given to them by Darwin.
But it would be cumbrous to speak always of partial inactivity, incomplete latencyor half awakening qualities.
But in the main we will have to assume the latency of the character in the species and its reassumption by the variety when originating, as the most probable explanation.
All the hitherto recorded cases of latency have this in common, that they may become active during the life-time of any given individual once, or oftener.
Systematic latency may betray itself in different ways, either by normal systematic marks, or by atavism.
And even this latency is not a complete one, as little scales remind us of the leaves, and traces of chlorophyll still exist in the tissues.
But evidently this loss is not a true one, but only the latency of those characters.
The latency of the faculty of producing the red pigment in leaves must obviously be accepted for nearly the whole vegetable kingdom.
If it is granted that latency is not an absolute quality, then it will be readily accepted, that even latency must be subjected to the laws of gradual variation or fluctuating variability.
But as we have seen, when dealing with the phenomena of latency at large, sundry cases of latency are to be distinguished, in order to get a clear insight into these difficult processes.
Contrasted to this is the loss, or the latency of characters, and this may be designated retrogressive or retrograde evolution.
Hitherto we have dealt with negative characters and tried to prove that the conception of latency of the opposite positive characteristics is a more natural explanation of the phenomenon than the idea of a complete loss.
As this individual latency may show itself from time to time during the life of a given plant, the first may only become active from time to time during the whole existence of the variety or the species.
This opinion does not seem to be generally accepted; at any rate, I think we are quite safe in saying that in the majority of cases no departure from the usual latency is observed.
In this respect rötheln resembles scarlatina more than measles, the period of latency in the latter observing considerable uniformity.
I think I may, without undue assumption, affirm that a period of latency of indefinite duration, applies as cogently to the germs of disease as to those of plants.
It may remain in a state of latency for an indefinite time; then transferred to a new field, it may resume its original activities.
While in this stage of latencyit is difficult to destroy.
I shall now give an account of my experiments in the period of latency and the summation of stimuli.
If, as soon as the tissue has relaxed, the stimulation is again repeated, the period of latency will be somewhat shorter, and will be followed by a somewhat stronger contraction.
Similarly, if the stimulation is repeated a third time, the period oflatency will be still shorter, and the ensuing contraction still stronger.
The repression during the period of latency is an inner obstacle of this kind--or rather one which has become inner.
