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The main cybernetic ideas are briefly introduced. The author then gives examples from physiology and pathology that can be interpreted by means of feed-back mechanism. 'The control of the p H of the blood through variation in the depth of respiration, the regulation of the body temperature, and the adjustment of cardiac action and of blood pressure through the mediation of the carotid sinus, are self-regulating functions embodying negative feed-back, …' (p. 300). Disorders of feed-back systems are illustrated by Cheyne-Stokes breathing (negative feed-back); chronic hypertensive renal disease (positive feed-back); cerebellar incoordination; possibly also 'dysdiadokokinesia, clonus, and the spontaneous movements of Parkinsonian tremor and chorea' (p. 301). It is suggested that sleep may be a mechanism for the avoidance or correction of disorders by allowing useless electroneural reverberations to subside. The analogy is pointed out between treating a disordered machine by switching off the abnormal sub-system, disrupting permanently such a system, and giving the entire machine a shock on the one hand, and on the other treating a disordered mind by deep sedation, pre-frontal leucotomy, and E.C.T. A cautionary note is included that the whole subject is only in the stage of being a working hypothesis.