NATURE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE. 525 



above its usual size ; but, if the extra function begins after maturity, 

 the deviation is less: in either case, however, being great. If we con- 

 sider how increase of the limb is effected, we shall see why this is so. 

 More active function brings a greater local supply of blood ; and, for a 

 time, new tissue is formed in excess of waste. But the local supply of 

 blood is limited by the sizes of the arteries which bring it ; and though, 

 up to a certain point, increase of flow is gained by temporary dilata- 

 tion of them, yet beyond that point increase can be gained only by un- 

 building and rebuilding the arteries. Such alterations of arteries slowly 

 take place less slowly with the smaller peripheral ones, more slowly 

 with the larger ones out of which these branch ; since these have to be 

 altered all the way back to their points of divergence from the great cen- 

 tral blood-vessels. In like manner, the channels for carrying off waste 

 products must be remodelled, both locally and centrally. The nerve- 

 trunks, too, and also the centres from which they come, must be ad- 

 justed to the greater demands upon them. Nay, more ; with a given 

 visceral system, a large extra quantity of blood cannot be permanently 

 given to one part of the body, without decreasing the quantities given 

 to other parts ; and, therefore, structural changes have to be made by 

 which the drafting-off of blood to these other parts is diminished. 

 Hence, the great resistance to increase in the size of a limb beyond a 

 certain moderate limit. Such increase cannot be effected without un- 

 building and rebuilding not only the parts that directly minister to 

 the limb, but, eventually, all the remoter parts. So that the bringing 

 of structures into perfect fitness for certain requirements, immensely 

 hinders the adaptation of them to other requirements readjustments 

 become difficult in proportion as adjustments are made complete. 



How far does this law hold in the social organism ? To what ex- 

 tent does it happen here, too, that the multiplying and elaborating of 

 institutions, and the perfecting of arrangements for gaining immediate 

 ends, raise impediments to the development of better institutions and 

 to the fnture gaining of higher ends ? Socially, as well as individu- 

 ally, organization is indispensable to growth : beyond a certain point 

 there cannot be further growth without further organization. Yet 

 there is not a little reason for suspecting that beyond this point organi- 

 zation is indirectly repressive increases the obstacles to those read- 

 justments required for larger growth and more perfect structure. 

 Doubtless the aggregate we call a society is much more plastic than 

 an individual living aggregate to which it is here compared its type 

 is far less fixed. Nevertheless, there is evidence that its type tends 

 continually to become fixed, and that each addition to its structures is 

 a step toward the fixation. A few instances will show how this is true 

 alike of the material structures a society develops and of its institu- 

 tions, political or other. 



Cases, quite insignificant, perhaps, but quite to the point, are fur- 

 nished by our appliances for locomotion. Not to dwell on the minor 



