24 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



This table, especially in the large infantile mortality, is 

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

 nomenon peculiar to lower animals. The high mortality 

 in early years is evidence of the selective death-rate. 

 The 26.98 per cent, of deaths under 5 years of age in- 

 dicates the extinction of the less fit. The weaker children 

 and those born under unfavorable circumstances are more 

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

 the stronger children or those born under more favorable 

 circumstances. Thus it is that Nature selects the fittest 

 to survive. 



Because of the limited amount of food and space upon 

 the earth and because many more individuals are born 

 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 suited to their surroundings than were their fore- 

 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. This 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 



