Edmond Perrier

“ Just as we had employed all the comparisons that pedigree furnishes to express the likenesses among organisms before supposing them really to be blood relations, so we have compared organisms to societies and societies to organisms, all the while regarding these comparisons as mere fancies. On the contrary, in the last year, we have reached the conclusion that association has played an important if not exclusive part in the development of organs. ”

“ Each cell, each polyp, detached from the colony, is a copy of it, and his after-development tends always toward its formation. At first all the members of a colony are equally apt to reproduce; then this function is localized like the others, and pertains to some individuals, or some parts, while sexual reproduction becomes more and more important. When the society reaches a certain degree of coherence, these different parts cease to live independently of the others, and can not be separated without danger of dying. ”

“ If it is true that the substances that form living matter are the same as those that enter into certain chemical compounds, we can not infer from this that protoplasm is one of these compounds. What characterizes a chemical compound is fixity of composition. But protoplasm changes incessantly, without modifying any of its fundamental properties. New substances are constantly entering into its mass while others are leaving it. Protoplasm is perpetually decomposing and recomposing itself. ”

“ Cells or polyps, it always submits to the same elaboration in developing new individuals. The cells, once assembled in the organism, yield easily to the changes required by the division of physiological labor, and form various organs, although these organs never become true individuals. If the individuals of a colony often descend to the state of organs, we must not conclude that the organs of an animal are always individuals that have lost their autonomy ”

“ The law which I now have to put forward may be called the law of association; and the process by which it works, the transformation of societies into individuals.
When we have proved that all living beings are composed of microscopic corpuscles more or less alike, when we see such corpuscles capable of leading an independent life constituting by themselves the simplest organisms, it occurs to us to compare the higher animals and vegetables to vast associations of distinct individuals, each represented by one of these corpuscles or cells. ”

“ In the same animal the cells assume many different forms, having different physiological properties. These forms and properties are not modified by the vicinity of different cells. Within the organism each cell lives as if it were alone. If it were possible to isolate a cell of the human body and surround it by normal nutritive material, it would continue to live, to develop and reproduce itself, and carry on all its physiological functions exactly as before. ”

“ Life is, then, only a combination of movements, or, if you please, a mode of movement of which certain substances are alone capable, and which is not without analogy with the whirling movements to which eminent physicists attribute the properties of chemical atoms. ”

“ The Hydras and analogous organisms reply. We can cut a Hydra into as many pieces as we like, and each piece, instead of dying, continues to develop and ends by becoming a complete Hydra, It follows that these different parts are independent of each other, like the polyps forming the lowest colonies. Each cell of the Hydra is a true individual, and the Hydras are a colony of these monocellular individuals as the Siphonophores themselves are colonies of Hydras. Aptitude to social life is communicated by heredity to these cells, as it is communicated to the polyps. ”

“ They have, then, a will which controls them—a will that can find the grounds of its decisions only in a sort of social consciousness, elevating the colony to the rank of a psychological unit. Composed of individuals each of which is equivalent to those Hydras or Medusæ that live free and isolated and sufficient for themselves, every Siphonophore must still be considered in its turn as a single animal—a true individual of a higher order. Here the transformation of the colony to an individual is manifest. ”

“ We find convincing proof of this in the history of Polyps and of Worms. The connection of Worms with the Articulata is apparent to everyone, and we already see how these same Worms are related to Mollusca and Vertebrata. The theory, therefore, extends to the entire animal kingdom.
Now, what do we mean by association? When we say that animal organisms have been in great part produced by the transformation of animal societies into individuals, what do we mean by the term society? Are all societies in the way to become individuals? ”

“ Forced by the nature of this institution to keep himself constantly acquainted with what is known and what is sought, with what is definitely acquired to science, and with the object of aspiration, obliged to coordinate recent with preceding discoveries, to test theories, to bind together the new material continually accumulating about the stones forming the vast edifice of science, the professor sees the lines of this structure slowly modified, he himself contributing to this result, and sometimes ends his career under the sway of other ideas than those which at first inspired him. ”

“ Not only are the elementary individuals of organisms sometimes very dissimilar, but they preserve their personality, live their own way, and keep up with their fellow citizens the relations of good neighborhood. We may compare an animal or plant to a populous town, where each person practices a particular industry on his own account, and yet helps the general prosperity through the activity of exchange. In high organisms, a special corporation in ceaseless movement is the medium of these exchanges. ”

“ Resting upon the law of the division of physiological work, the importance of which was first demonstrated by Milne-Edwards, and upon that of polymorphism, which without it have only a limited and indefinite meaning, consequent on the law of division of protoplasmic masses, it has been the great producer of organization, and establishes a new link between sociology and the branches of biology that are occupied with the constitution and functions of organisms. ”

“ Females. They are different in shape as well as in function; each taking the figure suited to its work, rising or falling in organization; so that division of labor brings with it, as in human society, inequality of conditions. The species thus become polymorphic.
Of these seven sorts of individuals that compose a colony of Hydractinia, the nourishers alone seem capable of living by themselves. The others have neither mouth nor tentacles, the sexual individuals are reduced to simple sacs, the defenders seem to be only sharp spines, between which the polyps can hide themselves (Fig. 5) . ”

“ Further, in the organism itself, the life of each cell is so independent of that of its neighbors, that we may kill all the cells of one kind without injuring the others. Claude Bernard has proved that curare poisons the elements that terminate the motor nerves, thus abolishing all movement without injuring any other part of the system and leaving sensation intact. ”

“ This faculty of division is an important property of protoplasm, because it governs all organic evolution. A protoplasmic mass can not exceed a determinate size. When it reaches this size, a partition forms, and, as its mass is perfectly homogeneous, as it is constantly traversed by currents that completely mingle its substance, all the resulting fragments possess the acquired or hereditary properties of the protoplasmic mass from which they came. ”

“ The social life becomes complicated, and a true division of labor occurs among the members of the same colony. At first all were alike, performing the same functions in the same manner. Specialization soon begins: some hunt, others digest, others reproduce; so that individuals that at first had no need of each other and lived united only in a careless way, become reciprocally necessary; the society thus acquires coherence and solidarity. In the Hydractinia we count not less than seven sorts of individuals: 1. Nourishers or gasterozoids ”

“ One is a simple sac with tentacles, usually solid appendages of the wall of the body, that vary in number with the species, or sometimes with individuals, but are constant for each during the great part of its life. ”

“ In the same zoological group of neighboring species, we find some individuals that always live solitary and others always associated, as for example the specially remarkable group of Polyps or Acalepha.
One species of this group, the brown Hydra (Hydra fusca) , is common in stagnant waters and even in small garden basins. It has always excited the interest of naturalists and philosophers since Trembly made known its marvelous faculties. These Hydras ordinarily live solitary; but frequently the larger individuals are seen carrying smaller ones on the walls of their bodies. ”

“ This jelly has the power of movement, captures animals, digests and assimilates them, grows, and, when it has attained a certain size, divides into two or several masses, that begin anew the life of their mother, and divide like her when they have reached a certain size. ”

“ A new individual is now definitely constituted. Is not this the same law which presides over the transformation of savages into civilized people? Have not nations, corporations even, a consciousness and will? Do they not form great units which we designate by one word in current language?
The transformations we have followed step by step in the class of Polyps are not restricted to these animals. It is easy to show how ”

“ We might pursue this comparison between atoms and protoplasms, and use it to show that the latter must have been formed originally in the greatest possible number; that we seem to be powerless to reproduce them ”

“ From this incapacity of protoplasmic masses to exceed a certain length, it follows that all beings that are larger must be formed of several distinct masses of protoplasm—in a word, are colonies. So the generality of the law of association appears as a consequence of one of the fundamental properties of protoplasm. It constantly decomposes itself into distinct masses. These separate masses are modified, each in a particular fashion, under the influence of external agents. Hence the wonderful variety of nature is an immediate consequence of the law of association, of the. ”

“ Another step, and the hunters, from being distinct throughout their whole length, grow together at the base and interlace with the digesters, and the reproducers follow in this movement. These different parts are, thenceforward, too near together to require a special vascular system; the vessels which unite them are simple perforations of their wall which open in the space just below the digesters, and into which the reproducers penetrate also. ”

“ The parent and child live awhile in this way, but, whenever the latter has reached a certain size, it is detached and fixes itself on some near object, where it hunts on its own account. Soon the parent and offspring are indistinguishable, and during the summer they never cease to produce new Hydras. ”