22 SCIENCE AND MORALS 



plunged into cold water, is not perhaps a conscious 

 method of eliminating the weak, though it must 

 operate in that direction. At a later period of 

 life should any disease believed to be infectious 

 break out in a tribe, " those attacked by it are 

 immediately left, even by their closest relatives, 

 the house is abandoned, and possibly even burnt. 

 Such derelict houses are no uncommon sight in 

 the forest, grimly desolate mementoes of possible 

 tragedies." When a person becomes insane, he 

 is first of all exorcised by the medicine man, and 

 if that fails is put to death by poison by the same 

 functionary. The sick are" dealt with on similar 

 lines, unless there is or seems to be a probability 

 of speedy recovery. " Cases of chronic illness 

 meet with no sympathy from the Indians. A 

 man who cannot hunt or fight is regarded as 

 useless, he is merely a burden on the community." 

 Under these circumstances he is either left at 

 home untended or hunted out into the bush to 

 die, or his end is accelerated by the medicine man. 

 The same fate awaits the aged, unless they seem 

 to be of value to the tribe on account of their 

 wisdom and experience. 



All these things placed together give us a 

 perfect picture of life under Natural Selection, 

 and having studied it we may fairly ask whether 

 such a rule of life is one under which any one of us 

 would like to live. In every respect it is the 

 antipodes of the Christian rule of life, and of that 

 rule of life which civilised countries, whether 

 in fact Christian or not, have derived from 

 Christianity and still practise. The non-Christian 



