TELEGRAPH- WntES Al^ALOGOUS TO NERVES. 415 



and, deciding that Ahe reasons were or were not Biifficieut, 

 grant or withhold a bill of indemnity.* 



Thus far in comparing the governmental organization 

 of the body politic with that of an individual body, we 

 have considered only the respective co-ordinating centres. 

 We have yet to consider the channels through which these 

 co-ordinating centres receive information and convey com- 

 mands. In the simplest societies, as in the simplest organ- 

 isms, there is no " internuncial apparatus," as Hunter styled 

 the nervous system. Consequently, impressions can be but 

 slowly propagated from unit to unit throughout the whole 

 mass. The same progress, however, which, in animal-or- 

 ganiziition, shows itself in the establishment of gangUa or 

 directive centres, shows itself also in the establishment of 

 nerve-threads, through which the ganglia receive and con- 

 vey impressions, and so control remote organs. And in so- 

 cieties the like eventually takes place. 



After a long period during which the directive centres 

 communicate with various parts of the society through 

 other means, there at last comes into existence an " inter- 

 nuncial apparatus," analogous to that found in individual 

 bodies. The comparison of telegraph-wires to nerves, is 

 familiar to all. It applies, however, to an extent not com- 

 monly supposed. We do not refer to the near alliance be- 

 tween the subtle forces employed in the two cases ; though 

 it is now held that the nerve-force, if not literally electric, 



* It may be well to -warn the reader against an error fallen into by one 

 who criticised this essay on its first publication — the error of supposing that 

 the analogy here intended to be drawn, is a specific analogy between the 

 organization of society in England, and the human organization. As said 

 at the outset, no such specific analogy exists. The above parallel, is one 

 between the most-developed systems of governmental organization, indi- 

 vidual and social ; and the vertebrate type is instanced, merely as exhibit- 

 ing this most-developed system. If any specific comparison were made, 

 which it cannot rationally be, it would be to some much lower vertebrate 

 form than the human. 



