BIOLOGY IN ITS WIDER ASPECTS 



1241 



cultivates plants, he is taking part of the biosphere into his own 

 kingdom. Plants produce oxygen, that is the biosphere ameliorating 

 the cosmosphere ; the beaver makes a canal or dam, that is the bio- 

 sphere altering the cosmosphere. Or again the biosphere may 

 operate on the sociosphere, as when some terrible parasite like hook- 

 worm forms a heavy cloud over a large fraction of the human race. 

 Or the cosmosphere may invade the biosphere, as when a great 

 change in temperature alters the whole fauna of a continent. 



Now corresponding to this graph there is the old-fashioned system 

 of the sciences as suggested by Herbert Spencer. He recognised five 

 great sciences — sociology, psychology, biology, physics, and chemis- 

 try. Nowadays, as we all know, physics and chemistr}^ run into one 

 another, and according to many biology and psychology also run 

 into one another. Herbert Spencer's scheme was very clear and sound, 

 and it was useful in ranking biology — the science of the nature and the 

 continuance of life — as intermediate between the other great sciences. 

 Biology is based on chemistry and physics, though independent of 

 both; it forms a foundation for psychology and sociology though 

 they are much more than it. This is the classification of the sciences 

 which Herbert Spencer suggested, and it is a very useful one, 

 indicating the central position of biology in the hierarchy. 



Sociology. 



Psychology. 



Biology 



Physics. 



Chemistry 



In simplified form, corresponding to our graph, it may read- 



Sociology. 



Bio-Psychology . 



Chemo-Phy sics . 



But this is all introductory to the answer to our question: — What 

 help can the biologist give to the sociologist? What is the bio- 

 sociological contribution? First of all the biologist has to insist on 



