258 



The Journal of Heredity 



preparing armaments, and in pursuing 

 the arts and sciences," says Major Crile, 

 one of the most noted students of the 

 emotions. - 



"The most powerful activator of man 

 today, therefore, is his fellow-man. He 

 is at war with him in business, in edu- 

 cation, in philosophy, in the fine arts, 

 in the professions, in the pulpit, in 

 politics, in winning mates ! In all his 

 waking hours and in his dreams he 

 exerts himself against his fellows. The 

 savage stalks or ambushes his enemy 

 or his prey in direct personal effort and 

 settles the issue by physical prowess ; 

 civilized man stalks, ambushes and at- 

 tacks indirectly through the media of 

 trade and commerce. The savage set- 

 tled his issue in one physical bout; in- 

 directly through the organized commu- 

 nity man may hurl himself against his 

 rivals %vith every atom of his strength 

 for months and years, and though this 

 civilized combat draws no blood and 

 tears no tissue, nevertheless the indirect 

 battle is waged to its tinish in bank- 

 ruptcy, want, suffering, broken health, 

 and premature death. 



"The leaders of political parties, of 



or governmental organization, the trans- 

 formation of energy is made in accord- 

 ance with the same principle, by the 

 same organs, and for the same reasons 

 as the transformation of energy in un- 

 civiHzed man or in the lower animals. 



"In the selective struggle for exist- 

 ence the acquisition of food develoi>e?T 

 speed, power, cunning, and craft in all 

 species, but as the food suitable for each 

 species is different, each has developed 

 special activities and special responses 

 to hunger. Man labors long and hard 

 to this end, and the possibility of want 

 is one of his great sources of fear; but 

 a critical analysis will show that there 

 is no difference between the orderly 

 struggle of men to supply their mate- 

 rial needs and the brutish attacks of 

 the carnivora upon their prey." 



Striking confirmation of this is fur- 

 nished by a study of the effects which 

 emotions produce in man and other ani- 

 mals. Fear, as Dr. Crile has shown 

 elsewhere," operates to develop certain 

 organs and inhibit others so that every 

 particle of available energy is concen- 

 trated upon the fighting mechanism. 

 The advantage that this power must 



opposing churches, of industrial and have given to prehistoric man in his 



commercial corporations, individuals in 

 medicine, law, education, literature, art, 

 music, sports, even in philanthropy 

 daily wage these indirect, but no less 

 destructive, contests. In the field or in 

 the shop the individual exerts his 

 strength directly against his task, so 

 that indirectly the energy he thus ex- 

 pends yields in return food, clothing, 

 and shelter and a modicum of pleasure 

 for him and his family. 



ALL LITK A BATTLE 



"Thus in civilized life man is hurling 

 his energies either directly or indirectly 

 against his environment, to the end that 

 he may live and reprothice. From the 

 simple laborer to the head of the great- 

 est commercial, scientific, educational, 



■'A Mechanistic View of War and Peace, by George W. Crile. New York: The Mac- 

 millan Co., 1915. 



•'Man — .^n Aflaptivc Mtchanism, by George W. Crile. New York: The Macmillan Co. 

 1916. See also The Origin and Nature of the Emotions, by George W. Crile. Philadelphia : 

 W. B. Saunders Co.. 1915. 



struggles against superior foes in a 

 wild environment is apparent to anyone 

 who will allow his imagination to re- 

 vert to those days of supreme physical 

 contest. And the fact that this opera- 

 tion of fear has not yet undergone any 

 change, although the demands of civi- 

 lized life are very different from those 

 of a wild existence, is good evidence 

 that man is really ill-adapted to a life 

 of civilization. "In spite of the fact 

 that by harnessing the forces of nature, 

 and by social coordination, which re- 

 duces the number of motor reactions, 

 man has progressed vastly in his meth- 

 ods of ac(|uiring food and avoiding 

 danger, his body still responds to 

 threatened moral or financial disaster, 

 as if the old need for physical contest 

 remained. His heart beats wildly ; his 



