3S2 TIIK SOCIAL ORGANISM. 



on surrounding conditions, will be a further point of coiu 

 munity. 



2. That though the living tissue whereof an individual 

 organism consists, forms a continuous mass, tlic living ele 

 ments of a society do not form a continuous mass ; but arc 

 more or less widely dispersed over some portion of the 

 Kartlr.s surface. This, which at first sight appears to be a 

 fundamental distinction, is one which yet to a great extent 

 disappears when we contemplate all the facts. For, in the 

 lower divisions of the animal and vegetal kingdoms, there 

 are types of organi/ation much more nearly allied, in this 

 respect, to the organi/ation of a society, than might be sup 

 posed types in which the living units essentially compos 

 ing the mass, are dispersed through an inert substance, 

 that can scarcely be called living in the lull sense of the 

 word. It is thus with some of the l^rotocorci and with the 

 NbstQCCce, which exist as cells imbedded in a viscid matter. 

 It is so, too, with the Thalassicollce bodies that are made 

 up of differentiated parts, dispersed through an undifferenti- 

 ated jelly. And throughout considerable portions of their 

 bodies, some of the Acalcphcz exhibit more or less distinct 

 ly this type of structure. 



Indeed, it may be contended that this is the primitive 

 form of all organi/ation ; seeing that, even in the highest 

 creatures, as in ourselves, every tissue developes out of 

 what physiologists call a blastema an unorganized though 

 organizablc substance, through which organic points are 

 distributed. Now this is very much the case with a 

 society. For we must remember that though the men 

 who make up a society, are physically separate and even 

 scattered; yet that the surface over which they are scatter 

 ed is not one devoid of life, lr.it is covered by life of a lower 

 order which ministers to their life. The vegetation which 

 clothes a country, makes possible the animal life in that 

 country ; and only through its animal and vegetal producti 



