Durkheim objected that one could find in Lilienfeld's Gedanken, "the transformationist [evolutionary] hypothesis reconciled with the dogma of the Holy Trinity" (Durkheim 1887a: 21 [online version]) Methodologically, Durkheim stated that "the sole object of Lilienfeld’s work is to show the analogies between societies and organisms," thus missing the point of seeing "in moral phenomena sui generis facts necessitating study in themselves, for themselves, by a special method" (Durkheim 1887b: 16 [online version], note 17) Reviewing Lilienfeld's main French exposition of his ideas, La Pathologie Sociale, Franklin H. Giddings a few years later echoed Durkheim's criticism: In the work of Dr. von Lilienfeld we have the first opportunity to judge whether the biological conception of society can throw any new light on practical social questions. That "the body politic" is subject to "disease" is a very ancient notion. But is anything gained by taking a figure of speech literally and converting analogy into identity? Dr. von Lilienfeld’s pages are rich in learning and in wisdom. He has investigated thoroughly and thought deeply; and no one can dip into his chapters without being impressed with the value of his reflections on the economic inequalities, the political corruption, the moral degeneration, the educational imbecilities, the religious indifference of the present day. A thousand hints are thrown out by the way on which statesmen and reformers might well reflect. But there is nothing in the entire book that could not have been better said in a simpler language than that of an ingeniously elaborated "social pathology." To describe fads and crazes, degeneracy, outbreaks of insanity, crime and lubricity, as "anomalies of the social nervous system," is only calculated to hasten the wear and tear of the nervous systems of individuals; and to argue that wealth is a "social intercellular substance," is simply to set up a doctrine of sociological transubstantiation (Giddings 1896: 348). Social Darwinist? In addition to being labelled an organicist sociologist, or simply organicist, Lilienfeld has also been classified as "a systematic Social Darwinist and laissez-faire advocate" (Weikart 1993: 479), who "considered war a natural phenomenon necessitated by Malthusian population pressure and the resultant struggle for existence" (Weikart 1993: 481–482). Lilienfeld did not, however, deny "the propriety of laws ensuring honesty in business competition" (Weikart 1993: 479). Lilienfeld's advocacy of fair business practices is not anomalous, given his thoughts concerning the importance of society on forming the individual: If man, from the