MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 295 



a respectable selectionist. To hold such an opinion argues a belief that 

 the life of the world has arrived at finality and that all types are perfectly 

 adapted to their surroundings. This no true selectionist will accept. No 

 one affirms, as far as I know, that an individual differing from type must 

 die. That would mean that the variation must necessarily be injurious 

 and emphatically so. The iiadividual will die if the divergence is a 

 sufficiently harmful one. Otherwise it will fail to reproduce itself, or re- 

 produce in diminishing ratio or simply not transmit the " acquired 

 character," according to the degree in which the variation is prejudicial. 



On the other hand, when the modification is beneficial it is likely to 

 endure and eventually evolve a new species. 



It may be pointed out here that it is too often forgotten that there are 

 two distinct lines in variations leading to evolution : those that are noxious 

 or beneficial to the individual and those that affect the race or community. 

 The later case, of course, comes more into play among social and gregarious 

 animals and many instances will occur to anyone conversant with the 

 subject of certain traits which, though injurious to the individual, are 

 .sufficiently beneficial to the race as a whole to outweigh the detriment to 

 the individual. 



Loose expressions in regard to Natural Selection are so frequent, and 

 these are readily seized upon by opponents to throw discredit upon it 

 that I feel that little apology is needed for at once contradicting a mis- 

 statement or incorrect inference. 



C. E. C. FISCHER, i.f.s. 



C01MBATOE.E, 1st March 1911. 



No. L v.— IMMUNITY OF ANIMALS TO SNAKE-BITE. 



In a recent article in the Indian Field on the subject of my heading, 

 I was surprised to find the statement that the mongoose is completely 

 immune to the effects of snake venom. After consulting our Journal, 

 articles in which provided the only information to my hand, I wrote a letter 

 on the subject to the paper in question, the substance of which I have 

 transcribed for publication in the Journal in the hope of eliciting fur- 

 ther information on an interesting question. 



In the first place, if the mongoose be entirely immune, why should he 

 occasionally show fear of a cobra, and always, as I believe to be the case, 

 display great activity in avoiding a bite ? 



The Indian Field article does not give the name of the French writer 

 by whom the complete immunity of the mongoose is said to have been 

 proved. Professor Calmette, not the least eminent French authority on 

 snake poisons, arrived at a different conclusion. He found that eight times 



