24 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



This tabl. . '.ally in the large infantile mortality, i& 



sufficient to show that the struggle for life is not a phe- 

 nomenon peculiar to lower animals. The high mortality 

 in early \.-ar> is evidence of the selective death rate. 

 The 'Jd.98 per cent, of deaths under 5 years of age in 

 dieates the extinction of the less fit. The weaker clii Id re n 

 and those born under unfavorable circumstances are more 

 likely to die before they are live years of age than are 

 the -t router children or those born under more favorable 

 circumstances. Thus it is that Nature selects the fit 

 to survive. 



reean>e of the limited amount of food and space upon 

 the earth and because many more individuals are horn 

 than can survive, there is a perpetual battle for life go- 

 ing on among all the individuals of any generation. In 

 this terrible struggle for existence what individuals will 

 be victorious and live? Obviously those best fitted to 

 live, in whatever respect or respects their superiority of 

 fitness may consist. These favored individuals transmit 

 to their progeny their advantageous qualities. Accord- 

 ing to the laws of heredity the characters of the surviv- 

 ing generation are inherited by their offspring. It 

 therefore follows that the "individuals composing each 

 successive generation have a general tendency to be 

 better -uited to their surroundings than were their fo re- 

 fathers. " And so it is that since most of the weaklings 

 die in infancy, the perpetuation of the race is by the 

 "flower of the flock " and the species tends to grow 

 stronger. Tlii- is Darwin's great theory of Natural 

 Selection, or selection by nature, for, out of the thou- 

 sands who die, the thousandth individual who does sur- 

 vive in the battle for existence is on the whole the one 

 best fitted to do so. If now, in any generation some new 



