THE ARCHIPELAGO OF BREIIAT. 101 



his life in manufacturing farming utensils, looms or 

 spindles. Still later, he sells his yarn to a weaver, 

 who has never handled a blacksmith's hammer, a 

 woodsman's axe, or a carpenter's saw. In proportion 

 as each department of labour is left in the hands of 

 persons who devote themselves exclusively to its ex- 

 ecution, or, in other words, in proportion as labour is 

 subdivided, the final result is rendered more and more 

 perfect. 



It is the same with animals. In order to insure 

 the accomplishment of nutrition and reproduction, 

 that is to say, the preservation of the individual and 

 of the species, many secondary functions are neces- 

 sarily brought into play. Again, in order that these 

 processes may be performed with readiness and com- 

 pleteness, it is necessary that each should be 

 performed by some special organ or physiological in- 

 strument. In other words, it is essential to subdivide 

 t lie functional labour as far as possible. Such is the 

 general character of the highest types, as, for instance, 

 of the majority of the Mammalia. In the lower 

 types, on the contrary, two or more functions are ap- 

 portioned to the same organ, until as we descend to 

 the Sponge and the Amreba, which constitute the 

 last representatives of the animal kingdom, we find 

 that all the functions are confounded in one organised 

 living mass, exhibiting nothing more than a homoge- 

 neous pulp, the result of the entire fusion of all the 

 organic elements. 



It follows from this, that an animal, or an or- 

 ganism, becomes degraded whenever the functional 

 labour exhibits a diminished tendency towards subdivi- 



H 3 



