416 THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 



is Still a special form of electric action,%'elated to the ordi- 

 nary form much as magnetism is. But we refer to the 

 structural arrangements of our telegrapt-system. Thus, 

 throughout the vertebrate sub-kingdom, the great nerve- 

 bundles diverge from the vertebrate axis, side by side with 

 the great arteries ; and similarly, our groups of telegraph- 

 wires are carried along the sides of our railways. The 

 most striking parallelism, however, remains. Into each 

 great bundle of nerves, as it leaves the axis of the body 

 along with an artery, there enters a branch of the sympa- 

 thetic nerve ; which branch, accompanying the artery 

 throughout its ramifications, has the function of regulating 

 Its diameter and other\vise controlling the flow of blood 

 through it according to the local requirements. Analo- 

 gously, in the group of telegraph-wires running alongside 

 each railway, there is one for the purpose of regulating the 

 traffic — for retarding or expediting the flow of passengers 

 and commodities, as the local conditions demand. Proba- 

 bly, when our now rudimentary telegraph-system is fully 

 developed, other analogies will be traceable. 



Such, then, is a general outhne of the evidence which 

 justifies, in detail, the comparison of societies to living or- 

 ganisms. That they gradually increase in mass ; that they 

 become little by little more complex ; that at the same 

 time their parts grow more mutually dependent ; and that 

 they continue to five and grow as wholes, while successive 

 generations of their units appear and disappear ; are broad 

 peculiarities which bodies politic display, in common with 

 all living bodies ; and in which they and living bodies difier 

 from everything else. And on carrying out the compari- 

 son in detail, we find that these major analogies involve 

 many minor analogies, far closer than might have been ex- 

 pected. To these we would gladly have added others. We 

 had hoped to say something respecting the difierent typea 

 of social organization, and something also on social meta- 

 morphoses ; but we have reached our assigned limits. 



