328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tions of these doctrines, and learn expertness in the use of this method 

 by the previous study of biology. 



Now, there is, or shortly will be (for it is scarcely yet organized), 

 a science far higher than any yet mentioned — a science which is the 

 crown of human knowledge — a science to which all others are subsidi- 

 ary — sociology. I wish to show the close connection between this 

 science and biology. I wish to show that it only becomes truly scien- 

 tific by being connected with biology, and thus placed at the head of 

 the hierarchy. I wish to show that whatever of recent advance has 

 been made in this science has been made by the application of the 

 characteristic doctrines and methods of biology. I wish to show that 

 biology is an important — yea, more, the most important — preparatory 

 school for the study of sociology. 



Biological Ideas applicable to Sociology. — As already stated, 

 the fundamental idea of biology is life. Under this general idea there 

 are two subordinate ideas or doctrines, viz., organization and progress 

 by evolution. Life is maintained through an organized structure. 

 Life advances from lower to higher grades by evolution. Now, is not 

 society, too, endowed with life ? Is not the social life maintained by 

 organization ; and does it not advance from lower to higher grades by 

 a process of evolution ? Let us examine in more detail : 



1. Organization. — A living organized structure, or an organism, 

 may be defined as a structure consisting of many different parts, having 

 different forms, and performing different functions, but all cooperating 

 to one given end, viz., the life, growth, and development, of the whole. 

 The animal organism is composed wholly of cells, as a building is of 

 bricks ; all animal functions are performed by cells ; growth is continual 

 formation of new cells ; reproduction is the separation of cells to form 

 a new colony of cells. But the constituent cells of an organism, espe- 

 cially one of the higher organisms, are not all alike. On the contrary, 

 they are as diverse in form as they are in function. The many func- 

 tions of the body are parceled out among the cells by division of 

 labor, and thus there results an absolute mutual dependence of parts. 

 So societ\^, also, is composed of many structural elements (individuals), 

 having different pursuits, i. e., performing different social functions, 

 and therefore mutually dependent, but all cooperating to maintain the 

 life of the whole. Society, therefore, is in some sense an organism and 

 subject to the laws of life and organization. 



Again, as in the animal organism, the structural elements, the cells, 

 are far more numerous than the functions : many cells of similar form 

 aggregate to form organs, all the cells of one organ cooperating to 

 perform its function, and all the organs cooperating for the life of the 

 whole organism. So in the social organism, the structural elements 

 (individuals) being much more numerous than the social functions, 

 many individuals of like pursuits or functions aggregate into cor- 

 porations, professions, trades-unions, etc. These are the organs of 



