"Fittest" for Physical Environment 6i 



"Survival of the Fittest." In the philosophy of 

 force "fittest" means "strongest," often indeed 

 "most brutal." In Darwin's work and in biology 

 "fittest" means "best adapted" to the physical 

 environment. In the chapter on "Natural Selec- 

 tion; or the Survival of the Fittest," Darwin 

 says: 



Let it also be borne in mind how infinitely complex 

 and close-fitting are the mutual relations of all organic 

 beings to each other and to their physical conditions 

 of life; and consequently what infinitely varied diversi- 

 ties of structures might be of use to each being under 

 changing conditions of life. . . . This preservation 

 of favourable individual differences and variations, 

 and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have 

 called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the 

 Fittest. ^ 



We shall best understand the probable course of 

 Natural Selection by taking the case of a country 

 undergoing some physical change, for instance, of 

 climate. The proportional numbers of its inhabitants 

 will almost immediately undergo a change and some 

 species will probably become extinct. ... In such 

 cases, slight modification, which in any way favoured 



' In a letter to C. Lyell, in which Darwin complained of the 

 way in which his work was misrepresented and misunderstood, 

 he wrote : " I suppose ' Natural Selection ' was a bad term ; but 

 to change it now, I think, would make confusion worse con- 

 founded; nor can I think of a better. 'Natural Preservation' 

 would not imply a preservation of particular varieties and would 

 seem a truism and would not bring man's and nature's selections 

 under one point of view." — Life and Letters of Darwin, vol. ii., 

 p. III. 



