188 
Psyche 
[September 
sterile, (physiologically), and in being able to accomplish 
only a special task, the machine is nearer to the insect 
worker than is any class of men. Genetically, of course, it 
is not even analogous to the insect. The introduction of the 
machine, on the one hand, and the development of the 
highly specialized worker on the other, has forced both men 
and insects to face the problem of what to do with in- 
dividuals that the machine, or the accomplishment of a 
special function, has deprived of work. The insects have 
solved it. When the work of the specialists is done they are 
slaughtered. When the introduction of a new machine de- 
prives a number of men of work . . . the problem has not 
been solved. 
Besides maintenance by the exploitation of the tropho- 
poric field the society must be maintained against destruc- 
tion by the elements, broadly, climate, and destruction by 
other societies, sub-groups of itself, (nations, different 
colonies), and against the attacks of other organisms, 
(beasts of prey, disease germs, etc.). 
The primary method of defense is flight; next comes the 
building of shelters. The ants and termites construct cav- 
erns, the wasps build houses, i. e., paper nests, etc. Man’s 
shelters differ little fundamentally from those of insects. 
Advantage is taken of natural shelters, caves, comparable 
to the use of hollow trees by bees, or houses are built, com- 
parable to wasps’ nests. Shelters are employed as a means 
of defense against all types of attack. 
A more active method found in both insect and men is 
the development of special classes for defensive purposes, 
“soldiers” in the ants, termites ; soldiers, policemen, etc., in 
human society. There is the same distinction between the 
human soldier and the insect soldier that is found between 
the human worker and the insect worker. One is a special- 
ized organism, the other is a generalized organism in which 
certain abilities are specialized. An insect soldier can be 
only a soldier, really a specialized worker, but a human 
soldier may be a soldier temporarily, and is not forced by 
his morphology to be one whether or no. 
The last problem of a society, and perhaps the first, 
perpetuation has already been discussed. Its successful ac- 
