BIONOMICS 261 



Precisely. Physiology, as well as Bio-Economics, are truly 

 analogous to Political Economy. Both Darwin and Spencer 

 saw the great importance of division of labour, but did not go 

 the whole length of the economic argument, which I am here 

 enforcing and which I believe to be so essentially and univer- 

 sally true, and indispensable in considering all biological 

 problems. 



Spencer is also struck by the increasing dependence of life 

 on co-operation. 



From instant to instant, the aeration of blood implies that certain, 

 respiratory muscles are being made to contract by certain nerves; and 

 that the heart is duly propelling the blood to be aerated. From instant 

 to instant digestion proceeds only on condition that there is a supply 

 of aerated blood, and a due current of nervous energy through the 

 digestive organs. That the heart may act, it must from instant to 

 instant be excited by discharges from certain ganglia ; and the discharges 

 from these ganglia are made possible only by the conveyance to them, 

 from instant to instant, of the blood which the heart propels. It is 

 not easy to find an adequate expression for this double re-distribution 

 of functions. 



I have already introduced the term reciprocal (or 

 symbiotic) differentiation as applicable to the combined 

 physiological and bio-economic activities involved, which can 

 be seen to be strictly analogous to well-understood functions in 

 human society, which Spencer perceives, and asks us to observe 

 how the increasing division of labour in societies is accom- 

 panied by a closer co-operation. 



While local divisions and classes of the community have been grow- 

 ing unlike in their several occupations, the carrying on of their several 

 occupations has been growing dependent on the due activity of that 

 vast organisation by which sustenance is collected and diffused. 



If citizens (or organisms) are thus " growing unlike " to 

 satisfy the demands of the increasingly complex web of life, 

 their increasing mutual dependence constitutes a very 

 important element making for likeness in many ways, and 

 should certainly and normally prevent extreme degrees of 

 antagonism (hostility) in spite of unlikeness. 



The physiological division of labour is usually not carried 



