A  Law  of  Social  Hygiene.  --  The  laws  of  the  social
order  are  analogous  in  many  respects  to  the  laws  of  the
body.  The  body  supplies  conditions  favorable  for  the
development  of  its  cells  (individuals),  but  it  also  takes
measures  to  prevent  the  abnormal  development  of  any
cell  or  group  of  cells.  If  such  abnormal  development
occurs,  it  is  the  result  of  disease  and  is  not  in  accord
with  the  body  plan.  The  dread  disease,  cancer,  de-
scribed in  the  preceding  chapter,  is  a  development  of
this  kind.  By  the  growth  of  cancerous  cells,  the  whole
body  becomes  impoverished  and  diseased.  That  a  cor-
responding social  condition  may  exist  is  quite  obvious.
THE  LARGER   CONTROL  419

The  cancerous  cells  of  the  social  order  are  those  people
who  would  get  more  than  they  give  and  who,  in  planning
for  themselves,  overlook  the  rights  and  needs  of  others
and  the  good  of  society  as  a  whole.  The  perpetuity  of
the  social  order  depends  upon  the  normal,  though  not
equal,  development  of  all  its  members,  and  is  endangered
by  the  perverted  inclinations  and  abnormal  accumula-
tions of  the  few.
