THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 477 



of food and other important services necessary for the welfare of 

 the community as a whole. The drones are males j they do 

 no ordinary work, their sole function being to fertilise the queen. 

 None of these different kinds of individuals could live a really 

 independent life ; they are all mutually dependent upon one 

 another. The morphologist, however, would not hesitate to 

 regard them all as separate individuals, and I suppose the 

 physiologist would probably agree with him. But, if we are to 

 be strictly logical, from the physiological point of view the 

 complete individual can be nothing less than the entire community. 

 From this point of view, indeed, such communities might be 

 looked upon as individuals of yet a fourth order, but in which, 

 from the nature of the case, morphological integration is no 

 longer possible. It is much the same with human societies, in 

 which the component individuals become more and more dependent 

 upon one another as civilisation progresses. 



But, you may say, there can at least be no doubt about 

 the individuality of my own self. I have my own personality, 

 complete and indivisible. Here we approach the psychological 

 aspect of our problem, into which I do not propose to enter. 

 I have no doubt, however, that the psychologist would tell 

 us that perhaps, after all, we may be mistaken in supposing 

 that we can attain a sharply defined conception of individuality 

 even in his province. Remarkable but, fortunately, abnormal 

 cases are well known, in which two or more personalities 

 alternate with one another in the life of what, from both the 

 morphological and physiological points of view, we unhesi- 

 tatingly call a single individual. 



It appears, then, to be a hopeless task to seek for any 

 biological criterion of individuality that can be applied to more 

 than a very limited number of cases. We have constantly 

 to modify our ideas on the subject as we pass from one group 

 of organisms to another, and everything depends upon the point 

 of view. It is certain, however, that, whatever else an in- 

 dividual may be, it is something which works as a whole 

 for its own self-preservation and self-expression, and is more 

 or less antagonistic towards other individuals with which it 

 comes into relation in the struggle for existence. 



Other facts that emerge quite clearly from our inquiry 

 are that co-operation, differentiation, division of labour and 



