106 MAN THE ANIMAL 



control. It has occurred and is now occurring among peoples 

 where effective birth control is but very little practised if at all. 

 Rather what is going on appears to be a much more complex 

 biological adjustment or adaptation involving many factors, 

 both immediate and evident as well as remote and obscure. 



Full comprehension of the implications of the present situa- 

 tion of the world's population, makes it seem to the biologist 

 that the adaptive regulatory processes demanded will probably 

 be the greatest and most far-reaching that the human species 

 has ever so far had to undertake in its evolutionary history. 

 Those required during the glaciation of the greater portion of 

 the northern hemisphere seem insignificant by comparison. For, 

 in truth, as was so ably shown by Prof. H. L. Hawkins two 

 years ago in his brilliant address as Chairman of the Section on 

 Geology of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, the position of man as a species presents today an ex- 

 traordinary similarity to that displayed by many others in the 

 paleontological record just prior to their disappearance from 

 the cosmic scheme of things. The case cannot be better presented 

 than in his own words, though the quotation must necessarily 

 be too brief to do justice to the original exposition: 



"All of those brave civilisations and empires of which we 

 have records seem to have shown a succession of similar histories. 

 They have risen from obscurity through possession of successful 

 attributes, and have reached the peak of their power only to 

 pass it. 



"Until comparatively recently, there has been a persistent 

 proportion of ^backward' types, unaffected by the civilising 

 influence of the progressive powers. These have remained to 

 provide a new upstart when the current one had crashed. To-day 

 there are few races of this kind left j almost all of mankind has 

 encountered civilisation and either perished or been transmuted. 

 The fatal complexity of civilisation grips the whole species, 

 crushing it into unity. 



"The specific causes of the collapse of once dominant races 

 are doubtless varied j but there is general agreement that one 



