1 6 EVOLUTION BY ATROPHY 



that, so far as social matters are concerned, the 

 conception of organisms is a pure convention. 

 In the course of this treatise, we may therefore 

 regard families, societies and nations as distinct 

 organisms, or, with regard to their connection with 

 other and vaster organizations, as organs of the 

 latter. 



3. The structure of an animal or plant depends 

 upon the physical arrangements of its parts, and on 

 the physiological links between those parts. The 

 structure of a society depends upon the links of 

 social contract existing among its members. We 

 regard these as two very different things, and we 

 cannot follow Tarde in pressing the analogy between 

 them in the following way : " The length, breadth, 

 and height of an organism are never very much out 

 of proportion. With snakes and poplars the height 

 or length preponderates ; among flat fish the thick- 

 ness is very small compared to the other dimensions, 

 but in each instance the disproportion exhibited in 

 extreme cases is not comparable to that shown by 

 any social aggregate such as China for instance, 

 which is 3000 kilometres in length and breadth, 

 and only one or two yards in average height, for 

 the Chinese being a short race, build their edifices 

 correspondingly low." l 



4. Organic modifications are effected more slowly 

 and with greater difficulty than are social modifica- 



1 Les Monades et la Science sociale. (Tarde. Revue de Sociologie, 

 1893, p. 169.) 



