170 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



was forth with greatly expanded " ; and further on it is said " that 

 the truth thus found to be all-embracing in Biology returns to 

 Sociology ready to be for it, too, an all-embracing truth." Here 

 it is manifest that the two sciences are regarded as yielding 

 mutual elucidations ; and if, as the first sentence taken alone may 

 appear to imply, I regard the analogy as showing that Sociology 

 must be based on Biology, then, on the strength of the subsequent 

 sentences, it may just as truly be said that I base Biology upon 

 Sociology. Clearly, when taken together, these passages show 

 the thought to be that for distinct understanding of either sci- 

 ence certain conceptions furnished by the other must be pos- 

 sessed. It can not be said that each science is based on the other. 

 Hence the alleged connection must be not a necessary dependence 

 but an exchange of enlightenments. There is direct proof of this. 

 The sociological division of labor had been recognized long be- 

 fore Biology had assumed a scientific form; and "the physio- 

 logical division of labor," though not thus named, had been long 

 recognized in living bodies as a co-operation among the various 

 organs. In either science the conception might gradually have 

 been elaborated to the full without aid from the other, though 

 with nothing like the same rapidity and clearness. 



Let as pass finally to the exposition of the analogy contained 

 in Part II of The Principles of Sociology. It is there said that 

 "between a society and anything else, the only conceivable 

 resemblance must be one due to paraUelism of iirinciple in the 

 arrangement of components." ( 213.) It is shown "how the com- 

 bined actions of mutually-dependent parts constitute life of the 

 whole, and how there hence results a parallelism between social 

 life and animal life." ( 218.) Mutual dependence of parts being 

 thus regarded as the essential trait in either case, there is subse- 

 quently pointed out a fundamental contrast between the modes in 

 which this mutual dependence is effected in individual bodies and 

 in bodies politic. 221 begins 



" Though coherence among its parts is a prerequisite to that co-operation 

 hy which the life of an individual organism is carried on ; and though the 

 members of a social oi'gauism, not forming a concrete whole, can not main- 

 tain co-operation by means of physical influences directly propagated from 

 part to part; yet they can and do maintain co-operation by another agency. 

 Not in contact, they nevertheless aflect one another through intervening 

 spaces, both by emotional language and by the language, oral and written, 

 of the intellect." 



It is argued that mutual dependence of parts requires the convey- 

 ance of impulses from part to part, and that while " this requisite 

 is fulfilled in living bodies by molecular waves," " it is fulfilled in 

 societies by the signs of feelings and thoughts, conveyed from 

 person to person." 



