NATURAL SELECTION SINCE DARWIN 67 



the reproductive organs, and very rigorous condi- 

 tions hamper the procreation of offspring. 



The more favourable conditions are, the better pro- 

 tection a species receives and the more easily will it 

 evolve. And it is precisely under unfavourable con- 

 ditions that the life struggle and selection are most 

 rigorous. Here are, therefore, two factors which, 

 instead of fostering evolution, impede it, by pre- 

 venting variation and eliminating new forms just 

 ready to come into existence. 11 



Korshinsky's attitude to the rather negative and 

 preventive role of natural selection and of the life 

 struggle is justified to a great extent; unfortunately 

 when Korshinsky attempts to give another defini- 

 tion of evolution (which he is careful to distinguish 

 from adaptation, the latter being apt to assume a 

 retrogressive appearance), he seeks to find it in a cer- 

 tain inborn tendency of all things towards progress 

 and thus loses himself in a maze of metaphysical spec- 

 ulations. 



Another argument frequently brought up against 

 the theory of selection is the following: do some 

 peculiar organic characters which give the individual V 

 a better chance in the general competition, cause cer- 

 tain individuals to survive to the exclusion of others? 



11 Korshinsky. Hdterogtndse et Evolution. Contribution a la th^orie 

 des espfeces. M6moires de l'Acad^mie de Saint-Petersbourg, Vol. IX, 

 1899. 



