THE ISSUES OF LIFE 297 



solutions of the problem of meeting the winter; the brown 

 stoats, for instance, by becoming white ermine. But nowa- 

 days the stoats cannot help changing their robe; in the same 

 locality they all do it equally well; the ingrained capacity 

 is the indirect outcome of the struggle for existence in the 

 distant past; the stoat's present-day struggle for existence 

 is to be found elsewhere. Inter-specific struggle for existence 

 implies individual and novel reactions and responses to en- 

 vironing difficulties and limitations. As we understand it, 

 inter-specific struggle for existence cannot be illustrated in 

 regard to adaptations shared equally by all the members, 

 but it may be illustrated if there are inequalities in these 

 adaptations, or in the way they are used, or in individual 

 adjustments. 



It should also be noted that it is a confusion of thought 

 to identify the struggle for existence with Natural Selection. 

 The concept of struggle is wider than that of selection. The 

 struggle for existence is to be found in the reactions between 

 organisms and their environing limitations, which may in- 

 clude, of course, the presence or antagonism of other organ- 

 isms. When inequalities or idiosyncrasies in the reactions 

 or responses are of life-saving importance the result is dis- 

 criminate elimination and the survival of the relatively fitter 

 to the given conditions. But in many cases the result of 

 the struggle for existence is not discriminate elimination. 

 There may be nothing more than a lessening of population- 

 pressure by a large reduction of numbers. And even when 

 discriminate elimination does occur, it may work as slowly 

 as the mills of God. Some writers speak as if a decision 

 was always given there and then. But that is a misunder- 

 standing. The elimination may take the form of gently 

 handicapping those who lack what others have, handicap- 



