26 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



monest wild animal of any size is the sparrow. 

 No one has tabulated the death-rate of sparrows. 

 Not even one wild sparrow, that has escaped the 

 dangers of the nest, has had its career followed 

 from birth to finish. The nature of the case 

 forbids accurate observation. It is therefore not 

 easy to refute the contention that Nature does not 

 exercise selection among wild plants and animals. 

 We may be sure, on grounds of common-sense, 

 that Natural Selection is a potent force in the 

 world, but the materials of proof have hitherto 

 been wanting. 



But one animal, however, has been overlooked 

 in a very amazing way by inquirers — the animal 

 best known to all men — man himself. In a past 

 which is becoming remote over by far the greater 

 part of the world, man's survival depended mainly 

 on strength, activity, endurance, mental receptivity, 

 and the like. But the conditions have changed. 

 Civilised men do not perish in great numbers of 

 privation or violence. In any case violence and 

 privation are no longer selective. The man who 

 perishes of hunger is not necessarily the least 

 capable of enduring it, nor the least capable of 

 providing food. The inferior man, born to superior 

 wealth or education, has a better chance than the 

 superior man born to comparative poverty. 

 Lyddite shells and Mauser bullets fired "into 



