pearl: biology and war 359 



leave behind such progeny. Again it must not be forgotten that 

 the whole of the population, both male and female, under about 

 twenty years of age is left untouched by war, and available for 

 the perpetuation of the race as they grow older. This means in 

 statistical terms, that about 40 per cent of the total male popu- 

 lation existent at any given moment, and in which all qualities 

 of germ plasm, good, bad, and indifferent, are normally dis- 

 tributed, as in a random sample of the whole, are not even in- 

 volved in war and hence stand no chance to be eliminated by its 

 operation. * 



In the second place, even in the most destructive of modern 

 wars the proportion of totally eliminated casualties to the whole 

 population is not very great. Indeed, it is always found to be 

 surprisingly small when reviewed dispassionately by the vital 

 statistician after the war is over. To take the case of our own 

 Civil War, the proportion of casualties to the total population 

 was only 2 per cent, and even in proportion to the male popu- 

 lation within the likely breeding period (say fifteen to fifty 

 years of age) was slightly under 9 per cent. It is, of course, too 

 early to obtain similar estimates for the present conflict. 



In the case of the present war, there are still other considera- 

 tions which make it clear that any putative, deleterious, selective 

 effect of war on the races concerned will be insignificantly slight. 

 In all of the nations involved the fighting men have been taken 

 practically at random from the whole population so far as germi- 

 nal variations are concerned. The sound biological principle of 

 conscription operates to leave the distribution curve of germ- 

 plasmic qualities essentially the same after the fighting men have 

 been taken out as it was before. The high development of the 

 mechanical aspect? of the present war operates to the same end. 

 Hand to hand conflicts, man against man, in direct physical 

 struggle, are a relatively small part of the present as compared 

 with earlier wars. The agents of destruction chiefly relied on in 

 the present conflict are entirely impersonal and distribute their 

 effects very largely at random. The whole mode of conduct of 

 the present war operates to make the chances for elimination of 

 the man carrying about withiij his soma the best germ plasm of 



