90 UNIVERSALITY OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



blade (as in Ilex). In each case the leaf par- 

 tially retains its assimilating function and its 

 chlorophyll. 



In other plants, however, and especially in Cacti, 

 and the fleshy-leaved Euphorbias, the leaves exhibit 

 further evidences of degeneration, their function 

 being exclusively one of defence (fig. 51). 



CHAPTER II 



IN THE EVOLUTION OF INSTITUTIONS ALL MODIFICA- 

 TION IS NECESSARILY ACCOMPANIED BY 

 DEGENERATION 



THE distinction we have drawn between the 

 homodynamic organs of an organism, and the homo- 

 logous organs of organisms belonging to other 

 species, is not applicable in sociology, as we have 

 already pointed out in the introduction. Institu- 

 tions, however, may be regarded from two distinct 

 standpoints from a statical point of view, as they 

 exist in the same society, and from the dynamical 

 point of view, as existing from epoch to epoch, and 

 from society to society. In both cases, we shall 

 arrive at the same conclusion as in biology, that 

 all modification entails degeneration. 



In order to demonstrate this we will examine 

 in succession the modifications undergone by the 

 principal types of financial organizations now exist- 



