THE WEAK SIDES OF NATURAL SELECTION. &\) 



explanation of the Origin of Species. Authorities are by 

 no means agreed as to its bearings and its efficiency. 



But there is further divergence of opinion. One of the 

 authorised expounders of Darwinism tells us that most people 

 misunderstand the meaning of the phrase, " struggle for 

 existence." "They imagine that the struggle is chiefly 

 waged between different species, whilst it is chiefly conducted 

 between members of the same species." But what says the 

 co-discoverer of the theory of Natural Selection ? In his 

 " Island Life " he admits that " The most effective agent in 

 the extinction of species is the pressure of other species, 

 whether as enemies, or simply as competitors," a distinction, 

 I must remark, without a difference. We cannot, indeed, 

 conceive of a species extinguishing itself, the case of the 

 Kilkenny cats, of course, being always excepted. But let 

 us turn from authorities, even the most eminent, to actual 

 facts. 



The native flora and fauna of St. Helena have been prac- 

 tically extirpated by the goat, The young seedlings were 

 browsed down as fast as they sprung up, and when the old 

 giants of the forest decayed there were no successors to take 

 their place. As a necessary consequence the insects and the 

 birds disappeared in turn. The same " horned wretch " — fit 

 type of evil — which as Sir Joseph Hooker shows, has ravaged 

 the earth even to a greater extent than man has done by 

 war, is now, in the very same manner, laying waste South 

 Africa ; to such an extent has the mischief already been 

 carried that a troop of the Colonial cavalry on the march 

 actually gave three cheers on meeting with a tree. 



Vile European weeds, devoid alike of use and beauty, are 

 fast extirpating the lovely and interesting flora of West 

 Australia and of California. To give a catalogue of the 

 instances where some plant or animal is being extinguished, 

 or has already disappeared under the pressure of some other 

 species, would fill a goodly volume. But almost every observer 

 or even reader will himself have met with such instances. 

 We may, therefore, I think, venture to reject Mr. Grant Allen's 

 contention, and to conclude that though much suffering has 

 been occasioned to individuals by struggles within the 

 boundaries of the same Bpecies, for the causes of the great 

 changes in cither the animal or the vegetable world, we must 

 look elsewhere, i.e., to attacks from without, 



I fear it must be owned that Natural Selection supplies 

 too easy a solution for many difficulties. Thus we are asked 



