ELIMINATION VERSUS SELECTION 105 



Natural History of Creation was probably the immediate 

 occasion of the parody. 



Another interesting question has been raised by 

 Professor 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 represented by descen- 

 dants '^ 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 favour of * Natural Selec- 

 tion' 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 differ- 

 ence, 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. The rate of increase makes a struggle for 

 existence inevitable : natural conditions at the time deter- 

 mine the relationship between the qualities of survivors 

 and the qualities of those that fail. The three factors 

 of Natural Selection are implied by the very words 

 themselves. 



Now I want very briefly to bring forward the chief 

 objections that have been urged against Natural Selection. 

 In the first place, if Natural Selection be true, all the 

 varied characters of animals and plants must prove to be 



