e one of the great ideals of life is to develop a perfect
society built upon rational principles, the study of social pathology
has become important. The care of the weak and the broken-down classes
of humanity has something more than altruism as a foundation. Upon it
rest the preservation of the individual and the perpetuation of a
healthy social organism. The care of the insane, of imbeciles, of
criminals, and of paupers is exercised more nearly on a scientific
basis each succeeding year. Prevention and reform are the fundamental
ideas in connection with the management of these classes. Altruism may
be an initial motive power, prompting people to care for the needy and
the suffering, but necessity for the preservation of society is more
powerful in its final influences.

To care for paupers without increasing pauperism is a great question,
and is rapidly putting all charity upon a scientific basis. To care
for imbeciles without increasing imbecility, and to care for criminals
on the basis of the prevention and decrease of crime, are among the
most vital questions of modern social life. As the conditions of human
misery become more clearly revealed to humanity, and their evil effects
on the social system become more apparent, greater efforts will be
{452} put forward--greater than ever before--in the care of dependents,
defectives, and delinquents. Not only must the pathology of the
individual be studied, for the preservation of his physical system, but
the pathology of human society must receive scientific investigation in
order to perpetuate the social organism.

_Modern Society a Machine of Great Complexity_.--While the family
remains as the most persistent primary unit of social organization out
of which differentiated the great social functions of to-day, it now
expresses but a very small part of the social complex. It is true it
is still a conserving, co-operating, propagating group of individuals,
in which appear many of the elemental functions of society. While it
represents a group based on blood relationship, as in the old dominant
family drawn together by psychical influences and preserved on account
of the protection of the different members of the group and the various
complex relations between them, still within its precincts are found
the elementary practices of economic life, the rights of property, and
the beginnings of education and religion. Outside of this family
nucleus there have been