72 The Biological Errors 



homini lupus. It is carried on only by social acts, 

 but because it has changed its methods and its name, 

 it is none the less cruel and murderous.^ 



Mr. de Lapouge has overlooked enemies such 

 as the microbe of tuberculosis and the bacilli of 

 cholera and of typhoid fever, which men may fear 

 even in civilized countries. Men find food at the 

 grocery store on the condition that they have 

 something to give in exchange to the merchant. 

 The necessity of having this something to give 

 in exchange is a source of constant care of which 

 man can never rid himself. 



Why is it considered that in the case of all other 

 animals the struggle should take place only be- 

 tween members of different species, while in the 

 case of man struggle takes place only between 

 members of the same species? The reasons for 

 this contradiction is found in a number of interest- 

 ing psychological facts. In part, it is due to the 

 dramatic character of war, which, being relatively 

 rare, strikes the human imagination vividly, 

 while the struggle against other species and the 

 physical environment which goes on constantly 

 comes to be considered so natural that we no 

 longer think about it. Thus struggle becomes 

 synonymous with the combat between men and 

 between m.en alone, so much so that it is sometimes 

 denied, as we have seen above, that this word may 

 be applied to the efforts necessary to adapt the 



' Les selections sociales, Paris, 1896, p. 199. 



