675 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Surprise 

 sustenance 



sects. We cannot doubt that, on the whole, 

 any beneficial variations will give the pos- 

 sessors of it a greater probability of living 

 through the tremendous ordeal they have 

 to undergo. There may be something left 

 to chance, but on the whole the fittest will 

 survive. WALLACE Darwinism, ch. 1, p. 7. 

 (Hum.) 



3338. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 



Fitness Is Fittedness The Texas Bull and 

 the Mosquito The Prize-fighter and the 

 Cripple Social Compassion Makes a New 

 Fitness for the Weak. The survival of the 

 fittest, of course, does not mean the survival 

 of the strongest. It means the survival of 

 the adapted the survival of the [one] most 

 fitted to the circumstances which surround 

 it. A fish survives in water when a leaking 

 ironclad goes to the bottom, not because 

 it is stronger, but because it is better adapt- 

 ed to the element in which it lives. A Texas 

 bull is stronger than a mosquito, but in an 

 autumn drought the bull dies, the mosquito 

 lives. Fitness to survive is simply fitted- 

 ness, and has nothing to do with strength 

 or courage, or intelligence or cunning as 

 such, but only with adjustments as fit or 

 unfit to the world around. A prize-fighter 

 is stronger than a cripple; but in the en- 

 vironment of modern life the cripple is cared 

 for by the people, is judged fit to live by 

 a moral world, while the pugilist, handi- 

 capped by his very health, has to conduct 

 his own struggle for existence. Physical fit- 

 ness here is actually a disqualification ; what 

 was once unfitness is now fitness to survive. 

 As we rise in the scale the physical fitness 

 of the early world changes to fitness of a 

 different quality, and this law becomes the 

 guardian of a moral order. In one era the 

 race is to the swift, in another the meek 

 inherit the earth. In a material world social 

 survival depends on wealth, health, power; 

 in a moral world the fittest are the weak, 

 the pitiable, the poor. Thus there comes 

 a time when this very law, in securing sur- 

 vival for those who would otherwise sink 

 and fall, is the minister of moral ends. 

 DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, ch. 6, p. 209. 

 (J. P., 1900.) 



3339. 



Natural Interfer- 



ence with. Apes that abstract a thorn from 

 a wounded comrade, and protect the weak 

 or wounded, defy the laws of the struggle 

 for existence. KOKEN Die Vorwelt, p. 635. 

 (Translated for Scientific Side-Lights.} 



334O. SURVIVAL OF WEAPON AS 

 SYMBOL OF POWER The Mace Is the War- 

 club of Primitive Man. Among the sim- 

 plest of weapons is the thick stick or cudgel, 

 which when heavier or knobbed passes into 

 the club. Rude champions have delighted 

 in the ferocious roughness of such a gnarled 

 club as Hercules in the pictures carries on 

 his shoulder, while others spent their lei- 

 sure hours in elegant shaping and carving, 

 like that of the South Sea Island clubs to 



be seen in museums. From savage through 

 barbaric times the war-club lasted on into 

 the Middle Ages of Europe, when knights 

 still smashed helmets in with their heavy 

 maces. Mostly used as a weapon, it only 

 now and then appears in peaceful arts, 

 as in the ribbed clubs with which the Poly- 

 nesian women beat out bark cloth. It is 

 curious to see how the rudest of primitive 

 weapons, after its serious warlike use has 

 ceased, survives as a symbol of power, when 

 the mace is carried as emblem of the royal 

 authority, and is laid on the table during 

 the sitting of Parliament or the Royal So- 

 ciety. TYLOK Anthropology, ch. 8, p. 184. 

 (A., 1899.) 



334 1 . SUSPENSE, EVIL HELD IN- 



May Burst Forth Anew Antiseptics vs. 

 Germicides Cold Merely Represses Bac- 

 teria. In a cold temperature, as a general 

 rule, bacteria do not multiply with the same 

 rapidity as at blood-heat. Within the limits 

 of a moist perimeter the air is, to all in- 

 tents and purposes, germ-free. Direct sun- 

 light has a definitely germicidal effect in 

 the course of time upon some of the most 

 virulent bacteria we know. Here, then, are 

 three examples of physical agents low tem- 

 perature, moist perimeter, sunlight which, 

 if strong enough in degree, or acting for a 

 long enough period of time, become first 

 antiseptics and then germicides. Yet for 

 a limited period they have no injurious 

 effect upon bacteria. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 

 9, p. 323. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



3342. SUSPENSE, IMPATIENCE OF 



Longing for Action of Some Kind. Cer- 

 tain motives are more or less constantly 

 in play [in time of deliberation]. One of 

 these is impatience of the deliberative state ; 

 or, to express it otherwise, proneness to act 

 or to decide merely because action and de- 

 cision are, as such, agreeable, and relieve 

 the tension of doubt and hesitancy. Thus 

 it comes that we will often take any course 

 whatever which happens to be most vividly 

 before our minds, at the moment when this 

 impulse to decisive action becomes extreme. 

 JAMES Psychology, vol. ii, ch. 26, p. 529. 

 (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3343. SUSTENANCE STORED IN 

 BODY FOR LONG FAST Summer Torpid- 

 ity of Lemuroids. Certain small nocturnal 

 lemuroids inhabit Madagascar. . . . They 

 have also an interesting peculiarity of a 

 temporary nature; this is their tendency 

 to accumulate a quantity of fat in certain 

 parts of the body, especially at the root of 

 the tail, which becomes of an exceedingly 

 large size. This peculiarity of structure 

 is related to a peculiarity of habit, for dur- 

 ing the dry season they retire into the holes 

 of trees, coil themselves up, and pass the 

 whole period in sleep, as bats with us hiber- 

 nate in winter. When, with the advent of 

 the rainy season, they rouse themselves 

 again, their fat has disappeared, having 



