i8z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



but no one can watch her operations without feeling that there is 

 in all of them as much of purpose as there is in those of the 

 female Pelopa3us who so assiduously collects, paralyzes, and stores 

 away in her mud-dabs the spiders which are to nourish her 

 young; or in the many other curious provisions which insects 

 make for their progeny, which, in the majority of instances, they 

 are destined never to behold. Nor can I see any good reason for 

 denying these lowly creatures a degree of consciousness of what 

 they are about, or even of what will result from their labors. 

 They have an object in view, and whether we attribute their per- 

 formances to instinct or to reason depends altogether on the 

 meaning we give to those words. Define instinct as " congenital 

 habit " or " inherited association " or, as I prefer to characterize it, 

 as the inevitable outcome of organization, and most of the doings 

 of the lower animals may justly be called instinctive ; but instinct 

 and intelligence are both present, in most animals, in varying 

 proportion, the last being called into play more especially by 

 unusual and exceptional circumstances, and the power which 

 guides the female Pronuba in her actions differs only in degree 

 from that which directs a bird in the building of its nest, or 

 which governs many of the actions of rational men. 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNFIT. 



By HENRY DWIGHT CHAPIN, M. D. 



rS modern civilization advancing along satisfactory lines toward 

 -L a higher development ? We hope and believe so, but there 

 are not a few who consider such a question an open one. Both 

 the pessimist and optimist can have much to say on either side of 

 this problem. The forces at work in society are diverse and com- 

 plex, acting like the ceaseless operation of a complicated engine 

 that is constantly pushing on, throwing some up and some down, 

 and leaving many a wreck behind. It is of pregnant interest to 

 study the destructive factors at work in society that not only 

 produce the unfit, but also tend to their survival. This question 

 derives its principal significance from the apparently hopeless 

 task of dealing with the unfit. Science and theology, from widely 

 divergent poles, appear to reach much the same conclusion with 

 regard to delinquents. Darwinism and Calvinism present about 

 an equally hopeful consideration for the unfortunates of our race. 

 One says heredity and environment; the other, predestination 

 and foreordination. Both suggest the witty aphorism of Dr. 

 Holmes, that the proper time to begin the treatment of some 

 diseases is a hundred years before birth. 



