SESSION 1893-4. 



WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11th, 1893. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



BY 



DR. ARTHUR NEWSHOLME, M.R.C.P. 



(President of the Society). 



THE INFLUENCE OF CIVILIZATION UPON 

 THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 



Starting with the assumption that nearly all men competent 

 to form an opinion about it were convinced of the substantial 

 truth of the Darwinian theory of the origin of species, and that, 

 as the result of the struggle for existence, the healthiest, the 

 strongest, and the most courageous, lived longest, obtained most 

 food, and overcome their rivals in the choice of mates, thus 

 becoming the progenitors of the future race, Dr. Newsholme 

 pointed out that we thus obtained the "■ survival of the fittest," 

 the evident result of this law of natural selection. Yet, he said, 

 it was quite conceivable that natural selection and the resultant 

 survival of the fittest might hold good for the lower animals, but 

 might fail to adequately explain the more complex phenomena 

 relating to man. This consideration governed the whole subject 

 of the " Influence of Civilization upon the Survival of the Fittest." 

 The Malthusian hypothesis, that population tended to increase 

 more rapidly than the means of subsistence, evidently implied 

 that natural selection must be in full operation for mankind as 

 for the lower animals. It implied that mankind is constantly on 

 the verge of starvation, and that food is only obtained for the 

 inhabitants of this globe because the less worthy in the battle of 

 life are driven out of the struggle by famine, or pestilence, or 



