242 ON VARIABILITY AND ADAPTATION 



within it material of various orders, i.e. (1) bodies in the process 

 of being broken down to provide food-stuffs, (2) the molecules not 

 yet wholly organized or built up into the cell structure, (3) other 

 molecules which in the dissociation of the food-stuffs are separ- 

 ated off as waste products, (4) other molecules which are the dis- 

 sociation products of nucleus or cytoplasm, and are the resultants 

 of functional activity, and along with these, (5) framework sub- 

 stances, such as fibrils and the striated material of the muscle-cell, 

 developed as the cell becomes differentiated, the outcome of that 

 differentiation. The activities within the nuclear membrane 

 are, from the nature of that membrane, very different from those 

 outside. Surface tension has also led to the development of a 

 potential, if not an actual, membrane between the cytoplasm 

 and the external medium. 



The cell, in short, is a microcosm — a little world in itself. 



We in pathology always go back to the cell to determine its 

 elementary properties, and from them to base solidly our views 

 regarding the disturbances that may affect collections of cells, 

 namely, the tissues and organs of the body. Has it ever struck 

 you that we can go much further than this ? There is room for 

 a good full essay upon the study of cytology as the essential 

 basis of sociology and political economy. It stands to reason; 

 it is, if I may so express it, a " dead easy " exercise in elementary 

 logic to prove that it must be so. The nation is a collection 

 of allied and similar individuals, and national sentiment, which 

 expresses itself in national action, can only be the expression 

 of the sum of individual sentiments, at most gaining impetus 

 and direction by the interaction of the sentiment of one individual 

 upon the sentiment of the other. It is obvious, therefore, that 

 the political economist, in order to understand social tendencies, 

 must base himself upon, and must first study, the individual 

 and his tendencies. But now, what is the individual but a 

 collection of cells ? By a like process of reasoning, it is in- 

 evitable that to understand the individual we have to get right 

 back to the unit cell, its properties, its reactions, and its inter- 

 actions with the other cells of the corporation. Wherefore it 

 follows that the only sound method of mastering political economy 

 is through an expert study of cytology. 



I might dilate upon this theme ; might, for example, point 

 out how a study of the cell throws light upon the existence of 



