Evolution by atrophy in biology and sociology / by Jean Demoor, Jean Massart, Émile Vandervelde ; translated by Mrs. Chalmers Mitchell.

  • Demoor, J. (Jean), 1867-1941.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Evolution by atrophy in biology and sociology / by Jean Demoor, Jean Massart, Émile Vandervelde ; translated by Mrs. Chalmers Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that, so far as social matters are concerned, the conception of organisms is a pure convention. In the course of this treatise, we may therefore regard families, societies and nations as distinct organisms, or, with regard to their connection with other and vaster organizations, as organs of the latter. 3. The structure of an animal or plant depends upon the physical arrangements of its parts, and on the physiological links between those parts. The structure of a society depends upon the links of social contract existing among its members. We regard these as two very different things, and we cannot follow Tarde in pressing the analogy between them in the following way : The length, breadth, and height of an organism are never very much out of proportion. With snakes and poplars the height or length preponderates; among flat fish the thick- ness is very small compared to the other dimensions, but in each instance the disproportion exhibited in extreme cases is not comparable to that shown by any social aggregate—such as China for instance, which is 3000 kilometres in length and breadth, and only one or two yards in average height, for the Chinese being a short race, build their edifices correspondingly low.1 4. Organic modifications are effected more slowly and with greater difficulty than are social modifica- 1 Les Monades et la Science sociale. (Tarde. Revue de Sociologie, 1893, p. 169.)