Fighting Instinct Not Warring Instinct 



303 



willowy in nature. (See Fig. 2.) The 

 leaves are somewhat larger and decid- 

 edly longer than typical Washington 

 Navel leaves and are a lighter green in 

 color. The fruit is very coarse and ir- 

 regular, with a tendency toward obtuse- 

 pyriforni shape, and pale yellow in 

 color, in marked contrast to the rich 

 orange of the navel. The quality is 

 very inferior. 



The striking appearance of this limb 

 would no doubt deter a budder from 

 cuttino' bud-wood from it. but as men- 



tioned above, not all bud-sports are as 

 visible as this. This fact emphasizes the 

 desirability of a grower going over his 

 trees very carefully when they are in 

 fruit, for several seasons, before select- 

 ing "mother trees" from which to take 

 bud-wood. It is not enough that the 

 tree bear large crops, but every limb 

 must be of the same strain and yield 

 heavily, uniformly with fruit of good 

 quality. Even the bud-wood should be 

 selected only from limbs which are ac- 

 tually carrying fruit. 



Fighting Instinct is Not the Warring Instinct 



Mr. Paul Popenoe's interesting arti- 

 cle in the October number of the Jour- 

 nal OF Heredity, entitled *Ts War 

 Necessary?" suggests two points in re- 

 gard to which the biology of the ques- 

 tion appears to call for some further 

 discussion. 



1. Is not the fighting instinct some- 

 thing very different from the warring 

 instinct? 



The fighting instinct, that is to say, 

 the instinct for personal combat, is an 

 individual trait, finding an individual ex- 

 pression, as, for instance, in the "bad" 

 man of the early mining camps. This 

 instinct, having a very low survival 

 value in a modern civilized environ- 

 ment, is probably disappearing under 

 the pressure of a gradual elimination of 

 the males in which it is strongly de- 

 veloped. 



The warring instinct, on the other 

 hand, is a group phenomenon, and is 

 simply one phase of the instinct of 

 gregariousness. As such it has a high 

 survival value in the conflict between 

 human groups; and it is not subject 

 to an eliminating pressure. It is a mis- 

 take to suppose that the warring in- 

 stinct is weakened by long periods of 

 peace. In order that this effect should 

 appear, we should have to accept the 

 inheritance of traits acquired from the 

 environment, a theory to which the 

 opinion of biologists is almost univer- 

 sally opposed. 



2. Is it a fact that "The argument 

 that wiar is beneficial because it allows 



the fittest to survive ... is now almost 

 universally known to be fallacious ?" 



These questions are discussed at some 

 length in the Introduction to Dr. Fred- 

 erick Adams Woods' stimulating and 

 suggestive volume entitled "Is War 

 Diminishing?" 



After pointing out that in actual war- 

 fare those who survive hardship and 

 disease must be stronger than those who 

 succumb, and that superior cunning and 

 resourcefulness must also have a sur- 

 vival value, Dr. Woods says : 



"If it be admitted that intelligence 

 is a factor at all, then the more intelli- 

 gent must themselves tend to escape, 

 from the mere fact that they tend to 

 do more of the killing. If strength and 

 intelligence are of any value in a bayonet 

 charge, then just so far as they tend to 

 the killing of opponents so they must 

 tend to the survival of their possessors. 

 With artillery, indirect fire, telephones, 

 wireless, and modern machine guns, in- 

 telligence must count for a good deal 

 in the successful destruction of the 

 enemy. Then it counts that much to- 

 ward the survival of those who do the 

 destroying." 



It would appear to be a matter of im- 

 portance that the points here raised 

 should receive a full scientific discus- 

 sion at this time. A symposium on the 

 subject conducted by the Journal of 

 Heredity would be of the utmost value. 

 Alleyne Ireland, 

 St. Botolph Club, Boston, Mass. 



