58 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



It comes out pretty clearly from our short study 

 of the infective diseases that some of the microbes 

 that cause these, such as the bacillus of tubercle, 

 only feed on unhealthy human tissue, while the 

 greater number of them kill, if anything, the weak 

 rather than the strong. They are, therefore, on the 

 whole, and as a natural consequence, our race friends 

 rather than our foes, and if we attempt seriously to 

 do away with their selective influence viz., the 

 elimination of the weak and the preservation of the 

 strong we must supply this selective influence by 

 one equally potent, or the race will tend to deteri- 

 orate. What can be done in the future, and what it 

 is expedient for us to do at the present time, will be 

 more fully discussed in a subsequent chapter ; but I 

 may state at once that part passu with our endeavour 

 to prevent these diseases must be our efforts to en- 

 list the co-operation of the human charity that 

 would avert suffering in such selection as shall 

 necessitate the birth of future generations from the 

 healthiest and best of those amongst us. As selec- 

 tion is the race-changer, we must replace the 

 selection of the microbe by the selection of human 

 forethought. 



A number of diseases, which are due probably to 

 innate family predispositions, are known to us. Of 

 these diabetes, haemophilia, and some others are of 

 comparative rarity, and may be left on one side in 



