5o8 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF BIOLOGICAL RESULTS 



From seeds in the same pod may come sweet peas climbing 



five feet high, while their own brothers lie prone upon the ground. 



The stick will not make the dwarf peas climb, though without 



' it the tall can never rise. Education, sanitation, and the rest 



^w^ ^ A are but the giving or withholding of opportunity." 



Jr\^^^ It seems to us that it may be useful to devote this chapter 



to an elementary discussion of the relations of Biology and 



Sociology, and especially to an inquiry into the bearings of 



biological aetiology on social problems. 



Sociologists — that is to say, those who are engaged in the 

 scientific study of the origin, development, structure, and 

 functions of human societary forms — have admittedly a difficult 

 task, and it is not surprising that they should look about for 

 help on many sides. In recent years many writers on socio- 

 logical subjects have appealed to biology for assistance and 

 have used biological formulae in their interpretations. The 

 title of the admirable journal Archiv fiir Rassen- und Gesellschafts- 

 Biologie is very significant. Let us try to illustrate at once the 

 value and the risks of the sociological appeal to biology. Our 

 point of view may seem very obvious to some, absurdly cautious 

 to others ; it seems to us consistent with scientific method. 



§ I. Relations of Biology and Sociology 



Every one admits that in biology — the scientific study of 

 the origin, development, structure, and functions of organisms 

 as such — it is useful to appeal to physics and chemistry. 

 Although it has not been possible, to our thinking, to translate 

 the biological description of any vital sequence into physical 

 and chemical terms, the methods of physical and chemical 

 analysis have been very valuable in biological study, deepening 

 it and broadening it, and enabling us to see more clearly what 

 is distinctively vital, the autonomy of the organism. The 

 utility of the analytic method has increased in proportion to 



