Poulton. ] 380 [ May 16, 
“Some flossifers think thet a fakkilty’s granted 
The minnit it’s proved to be thoroughly wanted, 
Thet a change o’ demand makes a change o’ condition, 
Aw thet everythin’ ’s nothin’ except by position; 
Ez, fer instance, thet rubber-trees fust begun bearin’ 
Wen p’litikle conshunces come into wearin’, 
Thet the fears of a monkey, whose holt chanced to fail, 
Drawed the vertibry out to a prehensile tail.” 
That is a most ingenious and interesting parody, making the 
theory of natural selection apply to the individual instead of to 
the species. The writer pretends to suppose that a quality is 
gained in the course of the individual life, because of the individual 
need ; whereas under natural selection it is gained in the course 
of many generations by a need which is imperative enough to 
cause the extinction of individuals without the quality, or with 
it in a comparatively slight degree. 
Another interesting question has been raised by Mr. Lloyd 
Morgan, as to whether the phrase ‘‘natural elimination” would 
not be a more correct one than ‘‘natural selection.” The process 
is, of course, selection by and through elimination. The survival 
of the fittest means the elimination of the unfittest. 
The relation between selection and elimination has been put in a 
very striking way by Mr. Samuel Butler, who says that according 
to natural selection we are what we are, not by the successes of our 
fathers and mothers, but by the failures of our uncles and aunts. 
The question is, shall we dignify with the title of this important 
cause of evolution those who have failed in the struggle, and do 
not happen to be the ancestors of any living species, or those who 
have succeeded in the struggle and are now abundantly repre- 
sented by descendants? I think that ‘‘natural selection” forms 
on the whole the best term for the process. It has the advantage, 
also, of being the historic term proposed by Darwin. 
Another important point in favor of ‘‘natural selection” as a 
term, is that it suggests a parallelism or comparison with the 
process of artificial selection. Yet another point is the fact that 
you may find in the words themselves all the three factors 
obviously suggested ; for selection would be impossible without 
individual difference, and it would be useless unless these 
differences were hereditary ; and, furthermore, selection implies 
something which selects ; that is to say, the conditions of nature, 
