FUNCTION. .163 



orgons. That the heart may act, it must from instant to in- 

 Ptimt be excited by discharges from certain ganglia; and 

 iho discharges from these ganglia are made possible, only by 

 tlio convcyanco to them, from instant to instant, of the 

 blood which thf; heart propels. 



It is not easy to find an adequate expression for this double 

 re-distributiou of functions. It is not easy to realize a trans- 

 formation through which the functions thus become in one 

 sense separat'jd and in another sense combined, or even in- 

 terfused. Here, however, as before, an analogy drawn from 

 social organization helps us. If we observe how the increas- 

 ing division of labour in societies, ia accompanied by a closer 

 co-operation ; and how the agencies of difierent social actions, 

 while becoming in one respect more distinct, become in an- 

 other respect more minutely ramified through each other ; 

 we shall understand better the increasing physiological co- 

 operation that accompanies increasing physiological division 

 of labour. Note, for example, that while local 



divisions and classes of the community have been grow- 

 ing unlike in their several occupations, thfa carrying on of 

 their several occupations has been growing dependent on 

 '.he due activity of that vast organization h)) ' which sus- 

 tenance is collected and diffused. During the early stages 

 of social development, every small group of people, and often 

 every family, obtained separately its own necessaries ; but 

 now, for each necessary, and for each superfluity, there ex- 

 ists a combined body of wholesale and retail distributors, 

 which brings its branched channels of supply within reach 

 of all. While each citizen is pursuing a business that does not 

 immediately aim at the satisfaction of his personal wants, his 

 personal wants are satisfied by a general agency that brings 

 from all places commodities for him and his fellow-citizens 

 — an agency which could not cease its special duties for a few 

 days, without bringing to an end his own special duties and 

 those of most others. Consider, again, how each 



of these differentiated functions is everywhere pervaded by 



