1 34 The Descent of Man. Pakt 1. 



men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the 

 last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has 

 preserved thousands, who frcm a weak constitution would 

 formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members 

 of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has 

 attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that 

 this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising 

 how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the 

 degeneration of a domestic race ; but excepting in the case of 

 man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his 

 worst animals to breed. 



The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly 

 an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was 

 originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but sub- 

 sequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more 

 tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our 

 sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deteriora- 

 tion in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden 

 himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is 

 acting for the good of his patient ; but if we were intentionally 

 to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a con- 

 tingent benefit, with an overwhelming present evil. We must 

 therefore bear the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving 

 and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one 

 check in steady action, namely that the weaker and inferior 

 members of society do not marry so freely as the sound; and 

 this check might be indefinitely increased by the weak in 

 body or mind refraining from marriage, though this is more to be 

 hoped for than expected. 



In every country in which a large standing army is kept up, 

 the finest young men are taken by the conscription or are 

 enlisted. They are thus exposed to early death during war, are 

 often tempted into vice, and are prevented from marrying during 

 the prime of hfe. On the other hand the shorter and feebler men, 

 with poor constitutions, are left at home, and consequently have 

 a much better chance of marrying and propagating their kind." 



Man accumulates property and bequeaths it to his children, 

 so that the children of the rich have an advantage over the poor 

 in the race for success, independently of bodily or mental su- 

 periority. On the other hand, the children of parents who are 

 short-rlived, and are therefore on an average deficient in health 

 and vigour, come into their property sooner than other children, 



" Prof. H. Fiok ('Einfluss der on this head, and on other Bach 

 N&turwissenschaft auf das Recht,' points. 

 ^one, 1872) has si"jme jood remark*- 



