216 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



society is very different from natural selection, 

 and while we systematically thwart the process 

 of natural selection, some still persists in present 

 operation. Let us get a hold of Prof. Karl 

 Pearson's argument. If Darwinism apphes to 

 man, " we must have evidence (1) that man 

 varies, (2) that these variations, favourable or 

 unfavourable, are inherited, and (3) that they 

 are selected." (1) " The extent of variation in 

 both man and woman has been measured by the 

 Biometric School in nearly two hundred cases." 

 (2) " There appears no doubt that good and 

 bad physique, the Uability to and the immunity 

 from disease, the moral characters and the mental 

 temperament, are inherited in man and with 

 much the same intensity." (3) Careful work has 

 shown that the death-rate in man is partly selective 

 — a function of his constitution. But while there 

 is still some natural selection left at work, it 

 has diminished out of all proportion to the need 

 for it. " Consciously or unconsciously, we have 

 suspended the racial purgation maintained in less 

 developed communities by natural selection." 



Sir Ray Lankester has pointed out that the 

 ceaseless increase of man is absolutely pecuHar 

 to him of all living species, animal or vegetable, 

 and this is, as Saleeby says, " the source of the 

 major facts of history and the besetting condition 

 of every social problem that can be named at 

 this hour." Man's persistent increase is the more 

 remarkable since he is well known to be a slowly 

 reproducing animal — slowest perhaps, except a 

 few extreme cases like the elephant. The point 

 is this, that whereas most animals have a much 

 higher birth-rate than man, there is none with 



