SPENCER'S "SOCIAL ORGANISM" 145 



justification of that exploitation of labor which 

 is the only source of profit. In concluding this 

 point Spencer seems to satirize his own posi- 

 tion and at the same time gives something that 

 looks very much like a socialist explanation of 

 panics. He says: "And if in the body-politic 

 some part has been stimulated into great pro- 

 ductivity, and afterwards can not get paid for 

 all its produce, certain of its members become 

 bankrupt, and it decreases in size." 



The truth of the whole matter is that Spen- 

 cer IS wholly at sea the moment he touches 

 political economy, and in place of some ele- 

 mentary knowledge on that subject, we have 

 the obsolete theories of the Manchester School 

 proclaimed in the name of physiology. 



Then follows a series of very ingenious com- 

 parisons. Following Liebig, he compares coins 

 to blood corpuscles calling the later blood- 

 discs to enhance the analogy and concludes: 

 "throughout extensive divisions of the lower 

 animals, the blood contains no corpuscles ; and 

 in societies of low civilization, there is no 

 money." 



Then the development of bloodvessels in 

 lower animals is compared to the development 

 of roads in primitive societies; their greater 

 perfection in higher animals comparing with 

 the railroads which more effectively convey 



