50 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS, 



Man has been selected by the Action of the Microbes of 

 Fever. 



Races, therefore, subject to epidemics of a particular 

 fever, suffer selections in the hands of the microbe of 

 that particular fever, and those living are survivals cast 

 in the most resisting mould. It may not be flattering 

 to our national vanity to look upon Englishmen as 

 the product of the selection of the micro-organisms of 

 measles, scarlet fever, small-pox, etc., but the reason- 

 ableness of the conclusion seems to be forced upon us 

 when we consider his immunity from these diseases 

 as compared with that of natives of the interior of 

 Africa, or of the wilds of America, whose races have 

 never been so selected, and who, when attacked for 

 the first time by these diseases, are ravaged almost to 

 extermination. We find, then, that an ordinary 

 attack of measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, 

 erysipelas, typhoid, or typhus fever, when it has 

 passed away, leaves the tissues of the body in as 

 sound and healthy a condition as before ; and, indeed, 

 were it not for this fact, the human race could hardly 

 have existed at all, continually exposed as it has 

 been, for countless ages, to the aggressions of these 

 microbes. By exterminating these diseases, we shall, 

 no doubt, preserve countless lives to the community, 

 who will in their turn become race producers, but, 

 inasmuch as the individuals thus preserved will in 



