108 UNIVERSALITY OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



3. The institution of Bilrgerg&meinde public 



corporations -- the members of which 

 enjoyed the sole use of the Allmend, 

 and upon whom fell the costs of local 

 administration ; as the population increased, 

 the conditions of admission into the Bilrger- 

 gemeinde became more and more strict. 



4. The creation of Uinwohnerf/emeinde, or political 



communes, established side by side with the 

 old system, and in many localities eventu- 

 ally taking its place. In these the responsi- 

 bilities of the former system were assumed, 

 and part or the whole of the collective 

 property was appropriated. Where the 

 old communities still survive, they have, 

 as a rule, ceased to exercise the greater 

 part of their original functions. In the 

 Cantons of Berne and Saint- Gall, for 

 instance, the old communities have de- 

 livered up the greater part of their 

 possessions to the political communes to 

 provide for the expenses of general ad- 

 ministration. Their only now remaining 

 function is the administration of the small 

 remainder of their patrimony and the main- 

 tenance of the indigent members of the 

 community. 



Canton of Schwyz owing to the changes in the institution itself 

 (see Miaskowski, Die Schweilzerisclie Allmend in Hirer geschicht- 

 lichen Entwickelung, von xiii. Jahrhundert bis zum Gegenwart). 



