THE NUMBERS OF MEN 107 



universal factor in disintegration is complexity, an aspect of 

 over-specialisation. 



"The correspondence between this state of affairs and the 

 morphogenetic trends in other races of animals is so close that 

 it needs no elaboration. Those who deny that human institutions 

 are subject to the laws of organic evolution know either no 

 history or no Palaeontology. 



"There is no doubt of man's ability to become the most suc- 

 cessful type of animal that has ever existed j but the reward of 

 success in that direction is death." 



This cogent statement of the case by a paleontologist distils 

 to three essentials, in the view of the human biologist: (a) ex- 

 cessive specialization, to the end of (b) altering enormously the 

 balance of nature in directions and ways thought by man to be 

 to his immediate advantage, which in turn (c) has permitted and 

 encouraged an enormous growth of population, entirely dis- 

 proportionate in magnitude and rapidity. On the existing record, 

 as Hawkins points out, no species has ever yet been able, in the 

 long history of life on the earth, to adapt itself swiftly and 

 skilfully enough to survive this combination of circumstances. 

 Whether mankind will or not lies in the lap of the future. The 

 problem presented is of a sort that statesmen, for the most part, 

 are by their own natures and aptitudes, by their training, and 

 in truth by the very nature- of their business, quite unable to 

 envisage or understand, and still less able to do anything effec- 

 tive about. Some philosophers and men of science understand 

 the problem well enough, but lack the power of a Caesar or the 

 persuasiveness of a Pied Piper to lead mankind to a solution, 

 even if they knew just the road to take to a practical way out. 

 So, on the whole, man's only chance of coming successfully 

 through the ghastly mess he is plainly in for, would seem to lie, 

 for what it may prove to be worth when put to the supreme test, 

 in the fact that he has shown himself on occasions to possess 

 somewhat greater innate powers of adaptability than any other 

 organism ever known. 



