BIOLOGY IN ITS WIDER ASPFXTS 1251 



illuminating chemistry and physics of the body, but when we have 

 got both of them at their best we have not got an account of the 

 whole life of the creature. The biologist would declare against the 

 false simplicity which calls mankind a herd — that is a biologism — 

 or which speaks of mankind as a human hive — that is a biologism — 

 for human society differs from herd and hive in several deep ways. 

 Man has reason (conceptual inference) whereas animals have at most 

 intelligence (perceptual inference); man has got language whereas 

 animals at the most have words. Man has a social heritage of which 

 the beasts have only an adumbration ; man has permanent products 

 to an extent that is only hinted at in the beaver village. He shares in 

 his own evolution in a conscious direct way that is not known among 

 animals. 



It is the duty of every biologist to expose the seamy side of the 

 beehive to which we are so often referred. The beehive is a most 

 marvellous organisation; the more we know about it the more 

 marvellous a community it appears. There is a remarkably fine 

 display of wealth in the hive — the stored energies of the honey in 

 the honeycomb. There is a high degree of vigour in the beehive, for, 

 apart from the Isle of Wight disease, and foul brood and a few other 

 disturbances, probably due to man, the beehive is a very healthy 

 community. So far the bright side of the beehive, but lift the curtain 

 a little and look at the seamy side. The queen, exaggeratedly 

 specialised for reproduction, is the only normal mother. The workers 

 form a huge proletariat of arrested females under the sway of 

 instincts sometimes almost maniacal. Most of the drones — the male 

 reproductive caste — are quite futile. Sometimes only one effects 

 anything — the more or less fortuitously successful male who over- 

 takes the queen on her nuptial flight. Think of the terribly short life 

 of the worker-bee, say six weeks in the summer time and seldom 

 over two months, with a brain that goes steadily out of gear with 

 over-fatigue, as Hodge has proved. Moreover, to the human male the 

 massacre of the drones in the autumn is an appalling fact. The 

 seamy side of the beehive deserves to be exposed; yet biology has 

 to offer to the sociologist many a hint from which his social science 

 may profit, many a hint which the social reformer, if he is alert, 

 will utilise. 



THE BIOLOGICAL PRISM.— Every practical problem we have to 

 face in modern life has three distinct aspects, and this is particulatly 

 important in regard to social hygiene. The living creature — the 

 organism — is one aspect ; the surroundings — the environment — is the 

 second aspect; and the activities of the organism in that environ- 

 ment constitute the third aspect. We are so apt to be partial in our 

 enthusiasms and ambitions and difficulties — thinking only of one 

 side, and sometimes only of a fraction of one side, instead of thinking, 



