of Edinburgh, Session 1883 - 84 . 
965 
observations of the biologist, and tbe anthropologist, of the registrar, 
census-taker and actuary, tbe hygienist and tbe educationist, are all 
organised into a vast body of knowledge — the statistics and gene- 
ralisations of the new sub-science of “ demography.” * 
Eut our survey must be not only statical but dynamical, not only 
structural but functional ; how are we to approach this 1 Protoplasm 
undergoes incessant waste, and demands incessant repair, and it is 
this fact which underlies economic activities. However different in 
details, all the higher animals agree in obtaining the food needful 
for repairing the waste of their tissues, from their environment by 
the performance. of muscular contractions co-ordinated by the ner- 
vous system. And this furnishes us with the widest definition of 
productive labour while the “sense of effort,” the “pain,” the 
“curse of labour” so much insisted on, is at most merely an accom- 
paniment, incidental either to excessive exertion or defective 
adaptation to the task. 
§ 30. Evolution of Production . — Prom the simple conception of 
animal production here laid down, we have to trace the evolution of 
modern industry; nor are the main steps numerous or difficult. The 
animal demands only ultimate products, and at first only produces 
food, accepting for shelter simply what the environment chances to 
afford. With increasing intelligence, shelters are next constructed : 
a bird’s nest is as truly an ultimate economic product to its builders 
as a house to man. In the case of some the aesthetic subfunction 
begins to appear, and some animals, like the Australian bower-bird, 
even spend no little labour on purely aesthetic production. Stages 
of exploitation, manufactures, and movement are frequently more 
or less distinguishable; but all products as yet are ultimate. 
Mediate products, however, also tend to arise — like the roads and 
granaries of the ant, the engineering works of the beaver, or the 
stick and stone of the higher apes — from which to the rough flint 
implement of the palaeolithic man the transition is easy. Given 
this implement, however, man becomes “ a tool-using animal,” and 
the evolution of ultimate products goes on apace. From this point 
the history of productive processes is being admirably traced by the 
combined labours of archaeologists and historical economists. It is 
sufficient here to recall the origin and aspects of the producers. 
* Vide Classification of Statistics, passim. 
