458 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. 



VI. 



understanding how various species of mammals come to be poly- 

 gamous. But polygamy stands on a totally different footing to 

 communal marriage. The possession by each male of many 

 wives would certainly be secured by communism ; but this 

 recommendation of the system would be far more than counter- 

 balanced by the fact that each male has to undergo the trial of 

 knowing other males, his rivals, to be just as well off in this res- 

 pect, as he is himself. Judging from what we know of the habits 

 and instincts of wild animals, no male mammal would or could 

 endure this trial with patience ; especially as the males are often 

 armed "with special weapons for battling with their rivals," 

 and as they are limited to a short breeding-season. Communal 

 marriage implies that each male should acquiesce in the success 

 of his rivals, in order that a similar license may be extended to 

 himself, and he may be permitted to pursue his loves in peace. 

 Each male, on the other hand, amongst the mammals, resists, so 

 far as he is able, the successes of the other males ; and we can 

 not, therefore, suppose that communal marriage, in our sense of 

 the term, ever occurs, or has occurred, amongst the quadrupeds. 

 We are thus unable to trace in any mammal the commencement 

 of those feelings which render communal marriages possible 

 amongst men. 



As regards the manner of action of sexual selection with man- 

 kind, there are only three points which may be noticed. In the 

 first place, sexual selection is said by Mr. Darwin to have acted 

 much more powerfully in very remote periods than at the pre- 

 sent day. We cannot see that any adequate grounds exist for 

 such an assertion. Sexual selection, so far as it acts at all, must 

 be at least as powerful now as it ever was. Its action amongst 

 the most civilized nations has doubtless become infinitely complex, 

 but men select their wives, or wives select their husbands, just 

 as much as they ever did, and if sexual selection has any action 

 in modifying races, it cannot be less effective now than it used 

 to be, simply because the grounds of the selection have been 

 changed. In the second place, it is a fallacy, so far, at any rate, 

 as civilized peoples are concerned, to suppose that the strongest 

 men necessarily leave the largest number of children. On the 

 contrary, the notorious fact is that it is amongst the weaker 

 members of the community, and those both physically and 

 morally below the standard, that the highest ratio of multiplica- 

 tion is found. Not only does a certain amount or kind of phy- 



