THE ORIGIN OF MAN 87 



elimination. We build asylums for the imbecile, the 

 maimed and the sick ; we institute poor laws ; our med- 

 ical experts exert their utmost skill to save the lives of 

 every one to the last moment. There is reason to be- 

 lieve that vaccination has preserved thousands who 

 from weak constitutions would have succumbed to 

 smallpox. Thus the weak members of civilized socie- 

 ties propagate their kind. No one who has attended to 

 the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that tliis 

 must be highly injurious to the race of man." 



This confession deserves analysis. First, he com- 

 mends, by implication, the savage method of eliminat- 

 ing the weak, while, by implication, he condemns 

 " civilized men " for prolonging the life of the weak. 

 He even blames vaccination because it has preserved 

 thousands who might otherwise have succumbed (for 

 the benefit of the race?). Can you imagine anything 

 more brutal? And then note the low level of the ar- 

 gument. " No one who has attended the breeding of 

 domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly 

 injurious to the race of man.'* All on a brute 

 basis. 



His hypothesis breaks down here. The minds 

 which, according to Darwin, are developed by natural 

 selection and sexual selection, use their power to sus- 

 pend the law by which they have reached their high 

 positions. Medicine is one of the greatest of the 

 sciences and its chief object is to save life and 

 strengthen the weak. That, Darwin complains, inter- 

 feres with "the survival of the fittest." If he com- 

 plains of vaccination, what would he say of the more 



