SOCIAL EVOLUTION AS A BIOLOGICAL PROCESS 257 ^ 



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Hydra only in the degree of differentiation exhibited by 



its constituent elements. Instead of a loose network j 



of nerve-cells there is the far more complex nervous i 



system whose evolution has been outlined in the sixth j 



chapter. The blood-vascular and respiratory and ex- 1 



cretory systems have become well organized, in response, i 



so to speak, to the demands on the part of the nervous i 



and alimentary organs that they may be relieved of the \ 



tasks of circulation and respiration and the discharge J 



of ash-wastes. Therefore the cells which make up an i 



insect and a man are more diverse, they have more ^ 



varied interrelationships, and they are far more inter- i 



dependent then in the case of the components of Hydra. i 



Yet all the many-celled organisms that we are so accus- \ a j 



tomed to regard as individuals are really communities, : L* ' 



dejnan&trating the existence and partial antithesis of | / *^ 



the great laws of egoism and altruism, wliich are trace- f . 



able even down to AmoBha 2iRd its like. / i 



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So much has been made of the lower kinds of cell- 

 associations because the mind of the layman is uncon- j 

 sciously imbued with the idea that human society is a | 

 new thing, an idea which we now see it is necessary ; 

 to discard at the outset. Indeed, the cell-association ! 

 of the Hydra and insect type is a more compact and a j 

 more stable kind of community than any group of 

 human individuals worked out by nature toward the i 

 present end of the whole scheme of evolution. That j 

 is to say, the subordination of cell-interest to cell-group I 

 welfare, while it must not go so far as to render the unit - 

 incapable of doing its work, is_jufficiently advanced to ; 

 make uncontrolled individualism impossible. Let any I 

 class of Hydra^s cells, such as the nerve or muscle net- 

 s 



