BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY 509 



the completeness with which it has been possible to discriminate 

 the numerous chemical and physical factors which contribute 

 to the result which we call vital activity. 



By analogy, then, it seems on a -priori grounds legitimate to 

 expect that biological analysis applied to the life and history 

 of societary forms will be fruitful ; and the few steady steps 

 already taken in this direction are full of promise. But the-^ 

 analogy also suggests that the result of analysis in terms of ^ 

 lower categories will in the long run be to bring the distinctively -^ 

 social into stronger relief, and that certain progress in the utilisa- 

 tion of biological formulae will depend on the relative com- 

 pleteness with which the biological factors operative in social 

 activity can be discovered. A chemico-physical analysis of 

 organic processes which left out electrical factors would be 

 inept indeed ; a biological analysis of social processes which 

 left out, say, the " mutual aid " instinct would, we venture to 

 think, be equally fallacious. 



From time to time in biology some success in physico-chemical 

 analysis has led to the fallacy which Comte called " a material- 

 ism " — the premature attempt to formulate the phenomena 

 of a higher order of facts in terms of the categories of a lower 

 order of facts, premature in that it attains an apparent success 

 only by ignoring the most essential features ; e.g. in this case, 

 those distinctive peculiarities of self-regulation, adaptive re- 

 sponse, and the like, which give organisms their peculiar apart- 

 ness from all inanimate systems. It is impossible to argue 

 the matter here, and it is impossible to tell what unification of 

 descriptive formulae may be in the lap of the future ; but we are, 

 we think, stating a matter of fact, not expressing a personal 

 opinion, when we say that it is at present an inaccurate " ma- 

 terialism " to pretend that we can formulate any distinctively 

 vital phenomenon in terms of mechanical (physico-chemical) 

 categories. In recognising and appreciating the operation of 

 the chemical and physical factors which contribute to the result 



