442 Experimental Zoology 



somewhat higher level, which would be lost as soon as the 

 selection stopped. 



The process as imagined by Darwin is highly wasteful, for 

 in order to build up the ornamentation of the males, countless 

 individuals must have been sacrificed, yet the end result is of no 

 advantage to the species. 1 If competition is as keen in nature as 

 Darwin supposes, one would think that natural selection itself 

 would soon have put an end to such a wasteful and useless pro- 

 cedure. There cannot be much doubt that the horns of the stag 

 and brilliant coloration of many male birds must expose them to 

 greater danger, so that natural selection ought, from the Dar- 

 winian standpoint, to bring about their disappearance. 



There is a considerable number of sexual characters, such as the 

 loud voice of the stag, that Darwin believes have been developed 

 through use. In fact, he appeals not infrequently to Lamarck's 

 theory when the evidence is unfavorable to the selection theory. 

 Since the theory of inheritance of acquired characters has itself 

 been brought into question in recent years, it is doubtful if Dar- 

 win's position is strengthened by an appeal to such a principle. 



The application of the theory to man shows how involved the 

 argument becomes. Darwin thinks that the beard in man has 

 been developed by women selecting those males that had this 

 outgrowth most developed. The absence of the beard in women 

 is explained as the result of men selecting those women that 

 had less beard until it was eliminated. These two conflicting 

 processes are supposed to go on at the same time, or alternately. 

 The greater energy, size, and pugnacity of men have come from 

 their competition with each other, while the standard of beauty 

 has been maintained for both sexes by men selecting the more 

 beautiful women, who have then transmitted this quality to the 

 male. The deeper voice in man has been developed by its long- 

 continued use by the male "under the excitement of love, rage, 



1 Natural selection also is wasteful, since the waste is unavoidable. If 

 amongst individuals of the same species it leads to the survival of the strongest, 

 this may be an advantage, so that in either case the outcome is different from 

 that of sexual selection depending on female choice. 



