14 EVOLUTION BY ATROPHY 



able, without forcing the analogy, although they have 

 been so compared by some sociologists, to such means 

 of communication between individuals and societies 

 as exchange, traffic, roads, railways, telegrams and 

 telephones. ' It is merely a matter of definition, and 

 if societies are to be termed organisms, they should 

 be distinguished as organisms by social contract, 

 organismes contractuels (Fouille'e). 



This definition, however, only applies to those 

 societies which owe their existence to a formal 

 contract with definite objects in view, and not to 

 ready-made communities consisting of individuals 

 already united together without any preliminary 

 contract. The latter is the case, for instance, in 

 societies of ants or bees, and in human societies in 

 those social groups in which the individuals are 

 united by the bonds of consanguinity. The char- 

 acters of such communities partly approach the 

 characters of organic associations, but precisely as 

 such natural communities approach societies by 

 social contract, the differences between social groups 

 and actual organisms become more marked. In the 

 more complex forms of societies the results of the 

 characters we have distinguished become most ac- 

 centuated. 



IV. Distinctive characters of societies of which 

 the members are united ly social contract. (1) A 

 cell cannot be part of two organisms or of two 



