404: THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 



mere excavations through the half-organized substance of 

 the body : they have no hning iTiembranes, but are mera 

 lacimce traversing a rude tissue. Xow countries in which 

 civilization is but commencing, display a like condition : 

 there are no roads properly so called ; but the wilderness 

 of vegetal life covering the earth's surface, is pierced by 

 tracks, through which the distribution of crude commodi- 

 ties takes place. And while in both cases, the acts of dis- 

 tribution occur only at long intervals (the currents, after a 

 pause, now setting towards a general centre, and now 

 away from it), the transfer is in both cases slow and difficult. 

 But among other accompaniments of progress, common to 

 animals and societies, comes the formation of more definite 

 and complete channels of communication. Blood-vessels 

 acquire distinct walls ; roads are fenced and gravelled. 

 This advance is first seen in those roads or vessels that are 

 nearest to the chief centres of distribution ; wdiile the peri- 

 pheral roads and peripheral vessels, long continue in their 

 primitive states. At a yet later stage of development, 

 where comparative finish of structure is found throughout 

 the system as well as near the chief centres, there remains 

 in both cases the difference, that the main channels are 

 comparatively broad and straight, while the subordinate 

 ones are narrow and tortuous in proportion to their re- 

 moteness. 



Lastly, it is to be remarked that there ultimately arise 

 in the higher social organisms, as in the higher individual 

 organisms, main channels of distribution still more distin- 

 guished by their perfect structures, their comparative 

 Btraightness, and the absence of those small branches which 

 the minor channels perjDctually give off. And in railways 

 we also see, for the first time in the social organism, a 

 BpeciaUzation with respect to the directions of the currents 

 — a system of double channels conveying currents in oppo 

 site directions, as do the artorius and veins of a well-devel* 

 oped animal. 



