36 ANIMAL INDIVIDUALITY [CH. 



direction it seems to lead to contradictions, raising 

 difficulties worse than those it lays. To start with, 

 he has been considering till now only those of the 

 lower animals which slip naturally into u scheme 

 taken from the pattern of Man. A mustering of all 

 the clans soon reveals numerous types of animals that 

 will not fit this frame at all. 



There are communities, such as those of bees and 

 ants, where, though no continuity of substance exists 

 between the members, yet all work for the whole and 

 not for themselves, and each is doomed to death if 

 separated from the society of the rest. 



There are colonies, such as those of corals or of 

 Hydroid polyps, where a number of animals, each 

 of which by itself would unhesitatingly be called an 

 individual, are found to be organically connected, so 

 that the living substance of one is continuous with 

 that of all the rest. Sometimes these apparent 

 individuals differ among themselves and their energies 

 are directed not to their own particular needs, but 

 to the good of the colony as a whole. Which is the 

 individual now ? 



Histology then takes up the tale, and shows that 

 the majority of animals, including man, our primal 

 type of individuality, are built up of a number of 

 units, the so-called cells. Some of these have con- 

 siderable independence, and it soon is forced upon us 

 that they stand in much the same general relation to 



