206 THE PATH OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



exist simultaneously. If certain parts of the sup- 

 pressed institution are allowed to persist, these are 

 by no means necessarily the oldest parts, but quite 

 the contrary. 



When, for instance, the Provincial States of 

 Dauphiny and Normandy were suppressed by the 

 French monarchy, only the titles with their cor- 

 responding emoluments were allowed to remain, and 

 they were obviously of more recent origin than the 

 States themselves. 



It must be borne in mind that all the parts of 

 an institution rarely become simultaneously useless 

 and non-functional. Those which retain their utility 

 longest are by no means always the most ancient in 

 origin. 



English sheriffs have gradually become of less 

 and less functional importance, and now fulfil no 

 other role than that of presiding over elections and 

 accompanying the judges when on circuit. Both of 

 these functions have been acquired recently com- 

 pared with all those which the sheriff discharged in 

 the days when the care and protection of the whole 

 county practically devolved upon him. 



The question then of the pathway of degeneration 

 only arises in those cases where the same cause 

 of dissolution simultaneously affects all parts of 

 the institution, and where, without sudden inter- 

 ruption, degeneration is effected slowly but surely 

 through many successive stages. This, of course, 

 happens in the degenerative evolution of individual 



