THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 85 



the less fit. If it mean that the less fit have a more 

 difficult life and do not live so long, if it mean that 

 they have smaller and less vigorous families, if it 

 mean that the parents are harassed so that they 

 cannot give the offspring the best available start, 

 then it will, in the long run, work out to the same 

 result as if the less fit had come to a rapid violent 

 end. The advantageous character that the fit 

 variant possesses may be of survival- value, although 

 the absence of it does not mean the sudden death 

 of the less fit. 



The eUmination of the less fit may have a con- 

 servative influence, without resulting in any pro- 

 gressive change. It may keep the race up to an 

 established standard. But this is precisely the 

 same kind of process as that which results in 

 progressive adaptation, and should not be separated 

 off. It need hardly be said that when we find a 

 state of affairs where slackness is tolerated, it 

 means a temporary resting on the oars. Among 

 434 toads taken from the same place. Prof. W. E. 

 KeUicott found 5 per cent, with injuries and 3"68 

 per cent, with abnormalities, mostly disadvantage- 

 ous. The conditions of life were peculiarly easy, 

 there was abundant food, there were few enemies, 

 there were readily available means of protection 

 and concealment. 



Breadth of the Darwinian Concept op the 

 Struggle for Existence. — There are many au- 

 thorities who insist that what Darwin particularly 

 and mainly meant was the struggle between 

 organisms of the same kind. Thus Weismann' 

 writes : The " struggle for existence," which 



1 "Darwin and Modern Science." Edited by A. C. Seward, 

 Cambridge (1909), p. 20 



