^ 



256 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



And so we may say that, though without functional 

 framework, the species acts in conformity with plan. 



It is only by seeing the species as a living thing that we 

 are enabled to understand there being unities which have 

 aiisen in accordance with plan and yet can do without func- 

 tional connection ; for here the action by the whole, which 

 is in full conformity with plan, arises quite of itself from 

 the rudiment so laid down. 



In the species there is no vocational organisation, but 

 the performance by the whole expresses itself directly in the 

 activities of the individuals. 



In this respect the community is essentially different 

 from the species. The community is distinguished by a per- 

 vading inter-adjustment. In it the unified action arises 

 through a unified rule of function, and the function-circles 

 are sharply defined from one another, at least in so far as they 

 relate to the world of action. For in fully developed com- 

 munities we find builder-persons, who arrange the medium 

 to form a dwelling, soldiers who fight the enemy, and workers 

 who see to the commissariat ; finally, there are the sexual 

 persons, whose business is reproduction. There is a functional 

 division according to vocation. Organisation through voca- 

 tion is characteristic of the framework of the community. 

 •The various vocations are expressed by the different develop- 

 ment of the effectors in different individuals. Occasionally 

 also there are vocational groups in respect of receptors : 

 swans, for instance, set as outposts those individuals possess- 

 ing especially keen sight. 



According to the type of the animal community as a 

 whole, the inter-adjustments within it are very variously 

 specialised. If there are vocational groups of workers that 

 never leave the dwelling, their receptors, in correspondence 

 with the restriction of the function-circle, are reduced so as 

 to deal only with those indications that have importance 



