8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



From these likenesses between the social organism and the indi- 

 vidual organism, we must now turn to an extreme unlikeness. The 

 parts of an animal form a concrete whole, hut the parts of a so- 

 ciety form a whole that is discrete. While the living units com- 

 posing the one are bound together in close contact, the living units 

 composing the other are free, not in contact, and more or less widely 

 dispersed. How, then, can there be any parallelism ? 



Though this difference is fundamental and apparently puts com- 

 parison out of the question, yet examination proves it to be less than 

 it seems. Presently I shall have to point out that complete admis- 

 sion of it consists with maintenance of the alleged analogy; but we 

 will first observe how one who thought it needful might argue that 

 even in this respect there is more kinship than a cursory glance shows. 



He might urge that the physically-coherent body of an animal is 

 not composed all through of living units, but that it consists in large 

 measure of differentiated parts which the vitally active parts have 

 formed, and which thereafter become semi-vital and in some cases 

 almost tin-vital. Taking as an example the protoplasmic layer under- 

 lying the skin, he might say that, while this consists of truly living 

 units, the cells produced in it, changing into epithelium-scales, become 

 inert protective structures ; and, pointing to the insensitive nails, hair, 

 horns, and teeth, arising from this layer, he might show that such 

 parts, though components of the organism, are hardly living compo- 

 nents. Carrying out the argument, he would contend that elsewhere 

 in the body there exist such protoplasmic layers, from which grow 

 the tissues composing the various organs layers which alone remain 

 fully alive, while the structures evolved from them lose their vitality 

 in proportion as they are "specialized : instancing cartilage, tendon, 

 and connective tissue, as showing in conspicuous ways this low vital- 

 ity. From all which he would draw the inference that, though the 

 body forms a coherent whole, its essential units, taken by themselves, 

 form a whole which is coherent only throughout the protoplasmic 

 layers. 



And then would follow the ai-gument that the social organism, 

 rightly conceived, is much less discontinuous than it seems. He 

 would contend that, as in the individual organism we include with 

 the fully living parts the less living and not living parts which co- 

 operate in the total activities, so, in the social organism, we must 

 include not only those most highly-vitalized units, the human beings, 

 who chiefly determine its phenomena, but also the various kinds of 

 domestic animals, lower in the scale of life, which under the control 

 of man cooperate with him, and even those far inferior structures the 

 plants, which, propagated by human agency, supply materials for ani- 

 mal and human activities. In defense of this view he would point 

 out how largely these lower classes of organisms, coexisting with men 

 in societies, affect the structures and activities of the societies how 



