tion takes place among immature forms before any varia- 

 tion from the parent stock is discernible at all. In this 

 connection we may instance the vast amount of eggs and 

 seeds destroyed annually irrespective of any adaptive ad- 

 vantage that would be possessed by the matured form. 

 And the countless forms in every stage of individual de- 

 velopment which meet destruction through "accidental 

 causes which would not be in the least degree mitigated 

 by certain changes of structure or of constitution which 

 would otherwise be beneficial to the species." This diffi- 

 culty, Darwin himself recognized. But he was of opinion 

 that if even "one-hundredth or one-thousandth part" of 

 organic beings escaped this fortuitous destruction, there 

 Avould supervene among the survivors a struggle for life 

 sufficiently destructive to satisfy his theory. This sugges- 

 tion, however, fails to meet the difficulty. For, as Professor 

 Morgan points out, Darwin assumes "that a second com- 

 petition takes place after the first destruction of individ- 

 uals has occurred, and this presupposes that more indi- 

 viduals reach maturity than there is room for in the econ- 

 omy of nature." It presupposes that the vast majority of 

 forms that survive accidental destruction, succumb in the 

 second struggle for life in which the determining factor is 

 some slight individual variation, e. g., a little longer neck 

 in the case of the giraffe, or a wing shorter than usual in 

 the case of an insect on an island. The whole theory of 

 struggle, as formulated by Darwin, is, therefore, a violent 

 assumption. Men of science now recognize that "egoism 

 and struggle play a very subordinate part in organic devel- 



15 



