ELIMINATION AND SELECTION. 



27B 



lu's meanini;; in many cases would have boon made moro 

 clear. " T]io principlo of selection," lie says, " may Le con- 

 veniently divided into three kinds : Methodical Selection is 

 that which guides a man who systematically endeavours 

 to modify a breed according to some pro-detonnined stand- 

 ard. Unconscious Selection is that which follows from men 

 naturally preserving the most valued, and destroying the 

 less valued individuals,, without any thought of altering the 

 breed. Tjastly, we have Natural Selection, which implies 

 that tho individuals which are best litted for the complex 

 and in tho course of ages changing conditions to which they 

 arc exposed, generally survive and procreate their kind." * 

 Here the transition from selection to elimination is effected 

 under the head of unconscious selection, where the brooder 

 is not intentionally modifying the strain, but is merely 

 desirous of keeping up tho standard. And this he effects 

 in one or both of two ways : either by selecting his best 

 cattle, or dogs, or other domestic animals to breed from, or 

 by weeding out the unsatisfactory individuals. The end 

 iji view is tho same, but tho processes employed are 

 sufficiently distinct; solection being ai)plicd to one end 

 of the scale, elimination at the other. 



Now in " natural selection " (so-called), the standard is 

 maintained mainly (but not entirely) by weeding out the 

 failures ; by elimination of the unfit. " Natural Eejoction " 

 would therefore have boon a more appropriate phrase ; but 

 " Natural Elimination " seems to me more satisfactory and 

 loss metaphorical. 



It is just possible that some one may say: If nothing 

 more takes place than tho elimination of the unfit, whore is 

 the possibility of advance ? You may keep up tho stand- 



' Animals and I'lants," 1st ed., vol. ii., p. 193. 



