Struggle Confused with Total Death 79 



enormous mortality of children at an early age is 

 caused by the severity of the climate, or the 

 microbes of disease. Although the men in this 

 case are present in abundance, the competition 

 between men exercises no influence whatever upon 

 the mortality of the children. The proof that 

 the high infant mortality is caused by unfavourable 

 conditions of the environment is given by the fact 

 that infant mortality is very greatly reduced in 

 countries with healthy and temperate climates. 

 From the point of view of mankind as well as that 

 of animals, therefore, if the struggle for existence 

 improves the species, it is the struggle against 

 the physical environment and not the struggle 

 between fellow-creatures. 



A third important error of the philosophy of * 

 force is due to an analysis which is too simple and 

 observations which are too superficial; struggle is 

 confounded with the total death of the vanquished. *• 

 This is the only result of struggle recognized in 

 "social Darwinism" but the facts are infinitely 

 more complex in Nature. To understand the 

 phenomena we have to divide the results of 

 struggle into those which lead to the total death 

 of the vanquished, and those which lead to the 

 diminution of vital power or partial death. The 

 struggle which leads to total death must be again 

 divided into two subdivisions — absorption and * 

 elimination. 



Absorption is the more rapid procedure and is . 



