NATURAL SELECTION 



4080 



NATURAL SELECTION 



an- 1, 1915, every person to whom a certificate 

 of naturalization is granted is a British subject, 

 not only in Canada, but also in the United 

 Kingdom and in any other British territory. 

 Persons naturalized before 1915 can apply for 

 new certificates valid in any part of the British 

 Krnpire. Before he is eligible for naturaliza- 

 tion in the British Empire, an alien must be in 

 lence for ; ; if he wishes naturaliza- 



tion in Canada or Australia he must be a resi- 

 dent of the Dominion or the Commonwealth 

 for a year preceding his application. 



Section 24 of the act respecting naturaliza- 

 tion of aliens makes the following limitation: 



An alien to whom a certificate of naturalization 

 ranted .shall, within Canada, be entitled to 

 all political and other rights, powers and privi- 

 leges, and be subject to all obligations, to which 

 a natural-born British subject is entitled or sub- 

 ject within Canada, with this qualification that he 

 shall not, when within the limits of the foreign 

 state of which he was a. subject previously to 

 obtaining his certificate of naturalization, be 

 deemed to be a British subject, unless he has 

 ceased to be a. subject of that state in pursuance 

 of the laws thereof, or in pursuance of a treaty or 

 convention to that effect. 



Aliens may also become British citizens by 

 special act of Parliament. Prince Albert was 

 thus naturalized when he married Queen Vic- 

 toria. An alien woman who marries a British 

 citizen thereby acquires British nationality and 

 requires no formal naturalization; in this man- 

 ner many American women have become Brit- 

 ish subjects. 



In Other Countries. In Belgium and Russia a 

 residence of five years is required preceding 

 naturalization; in France, Sweden and Greece, 

 three years; in Argentina two years, and in 

 Portugal one year. In Austria a residence of 

 ten years in itself entitles an alien to all the 

 rights of citizenship, but in Germany there is 

 no fixed period of time. Naturalization in Ger- 

 many is under the control of the central admin- 

 istrative authorities, dominated by the military 

 power of the empire. An applicant must show 

 that he is legally free to change his nationality, 

 or if he is a minor, that he has permission from 

 his father or guardian. He must, moreover, 

 possess an income sufficient to support him or 

 be engaged in a legitimate business or profes- 

 sion. A Turk who wishes to become natural- 

 ized elsewhere must not only secure permission 

 from the sultan's government but must agree 

 never to return to Turkey. W.F.Z. 



NATURAL SELECTION, the theory, first 

 advanced by Darwin, that "New species may 

 result from the selective action of external con- 



ditions upon the variations from their specific 

 type which individuals present.'' When Dar- 

 win's book. Tfn Origin- of Species by Mxin* of 

 Natural Stliction, or Tin' I'n .> rvation of Fa- 

 ! h'aax in the Struggle for Lift , came out 

 in 1858, it gave the word crohiti<nii\. new mean- 

 ing; it advanced a theory as to how all living 

 things came to have their present form, for the 

 theory applies to tin- high. M ae well as to the 

 lowest, to men and to all forms of animal and 

 vegetable life. 



Selection by Life and Death. All living 

 creatures are prolific that is, they tend to pro- 

 duce a great many young of their own kind. 

 If all the young of the various species were to 

 live and produce still more young, the world 

 would speedily become overcrowded. There are 

 yo many more individuals born than can possi- 

 bly survive, because of limitations of space and 

 food, materials for shelter, and so forth, that 

 the very slightest advantage of one over the 

 other may keep the one alive and kill the other. 

 Thus Nature, working as a ruthless force to 

 keep the world habitable, accomplishes the pur- 

 pose by killing off the weak, or those forms 

 which are not adapted to the conditions under 

 which they must live if they survive, and by 

 favoring the others. 



Young of the same parents, in all forms of 

 life, differ more or less widely. These varia- 

 tions, slight as they are, tend to be inherited; 

 if the variation is such that it hinders or inca- 

 pacitates, the species becomes extinct; if it is 

 in the direction of increased fitness, it becomes 

 a characteristic of a surviving species. So it 

 seems that all forms of life are fighting, usually 

 without realizing it, for a chance to live. This 

 fight has given rise to two phrases, "the sur- 

 vival of the fittest" and "the struggle for exist- 

 ence," by which Darwin meant not only that 

 the individual must be successful in maintain- 

 ing life under his conditions, but that he must 

 leave young; otherwise, his species, composed 

 of individuals with the variations and charac- 

 teristics which have made him a survivor, will 

 die out. 



Arguments for Natural Selection. The above, 

 of course, is only a theory. Many scientists dif- 

 fer from Darwin, and hold that though he has 

 accounted for preservation he has not proved 

 origination through his theory of natural selec- 

 tion. The majority of thinkers, however, are 

 inclined to accept the Darwinian view, and 

 since his time every effort has been made to 

 get definite evidence in proof of his hypothesis. 

 Darwin himself admitted that it is hard to 





