CHAPTER IX 



NATURAL SELECTION AMONG CIVILIZED MEN 



The alleged Cessation of Selection among civilized peoples Civilized 

 man is stringently selected A problem for medical men Inborn 

 and acquired immunity Doctrines of heredity as applied to 

 problems of disease. 



167. WE are told by many biologists that man's evolution 

 has ceased. He has become civilized, and has obtained a 

 mastery over the forces of Nature so great that he is no longer 

 stringently selected. Hunger and thirst seldom afflict him. 

 He has made himself secure against cold. Wild beasts do 

 not wait for him in the forest, nor do his enemies watch by the 

 path. Wives are no longer fought for nor captured by the 

 swift and strong. Neither courage nor intelligence reward 

 men with long life and many offspring. The handicap of life 

 is arranged with extravagant unfairness ; the competitors do 

 not all start from the scratch. Moreover, the weakling and the 

 fool rear as numerous a progeny in the hovel and the work- 

 house as stronger and wiser men do in better homes. 



168. In proof of their deductions these writers tell us that 

 in size of body and brain the moderns were equalled or 

 surpassed by some peoples who lived during the Stone Age, 

 and were certainly surpassed in intellect by the Greeks who 

 lived two thousand years ago. They tell us also that man's 

 sight, hearing, and teeth have plainly degenerated, and invite 

 us to believe that the rest of his faculties are on the same 

 downward path. 



169. Doubtless to a certain extent they are right. It is 

 possible that some regression is occurring. But man, when 

 judged by historical and even by palaeolithic standards, is a 

 very ancient animal. Most of his structures and faculties 

 his muscles, bones, and viscera, all his five senses must have 

 been derived with little essential change from pre-human 

 ancestors. Even his specially human attributes, his erect 



106 



