154 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



in Africa. And this destruction of species by man is but a par- 

 ticulariy vivid illustration of what has been accompUshed by 

 the warfare of species against species throughout the ages, and 

 of what is stiU going on every day before our eyes. 



And it is not only non-human species which become the 

 victims of elimination through human agency ; the lower races 

 of mankind give way before the evolution of the superior races. 

 " When civiUsed nations come into contact with barbarians the 

 struggle is short, except where a deadly climate gives its aid to 

 the native race. Of the causes which lead to the victory of 

 civilised nations, some are plain and simple, others complex 

 and obscure. We can see that the cultivation of the land will 

 be fatal in many ways to savages, for they cannot, or will not, 

 change their habits. New diseases and vices have in some 

 cases proved highly destructive, and it appears 'that a new 

 disease often causes much death, until those who are most 

 susceptible to its destructive influence are gradually weeded 

 out ; and so it may be with spirituous liquors, as well as with 

 the unconquerably strong taste for them shown by so many 

 savages. It further appears, mysterious as is the fact, that the 

 first meeting of distinct and separated people generates disease." ^ 

 The inferior human race, like the animal species, is eUminated, 

 not because it is in itself physically decrepit and senile, but 

 because it is relatively inferior to its competitors. The savage 

 whose land is uncultivated is not biologically degenerate, but 

 when his land is placed under cultivation he is unable to adapt 

 himself to the new conditions of Ufe ; and failure to adapt one- 

 self involves extinction. 



Weismann has said that when we speak of the " senile decay " 

 of a species, or of its alleged inability to undergo any further 

 evolution, we are indulging in wholly unscientific fictions.^ 

 Neither species nor races sufEer senile decay. The extinction of 



1 Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 283 (edition 1901). 



2 Vortrdge, ii. 298. 



