CAN ORGANS RESUME THEIR PRIMITIVE FUNCTIONS? 237 



SECTION II. 

 Rudimentary institutions. 



It seems, at first sight, as if some societies of 

 the present day furnished instances of a return to 

 primitive conditions. 



Modern developments in finance seemed to tend 

 towards a return to the exchange system. Politi- 

 cal institutions, 



after a period of . ^w * 



absolutism, point 

 anew towards de- 

 mocratic equality. 

 Corporations re- 

 appear in the form 



nf vnrlir>JitpQ rvr FIG. 74. Veronica cupressoides (after Goebel, 



SVn< Pflanzenbiologische Schilderungen, vol. i. p. 19). 



rplicrirmcj ^OPlPtip^ ^ n( * ^ a branch grown under a bell-jar in a 



" A1 fc> AW saturated atmosphere. In the older parts (B), 



T tmrlprl rvrrmprfv tHe leaves are small and applied to the stem; 



uinc property, in the younger parts (A)i the leaves are larger 



formerly Collective nd protiude from the stem. 



and now individual, seems to be again tending 

 towards collectivism. 



The same phenomenon occurs in the evolution 

 of matters relating to maritime rights. The sea, 

 according to Eoman law, was equally open to all 

 maritime nations. Later on it has been from time 

 to time practically in the hands of a few nations, 

 and we have now returned to a condition in which 

 it is equally open to all. 1 



1 Tarde, Transformation du droit, pp. 161-162, Paris, F. Alcan, 

 1890. 



