MAN'S ACCOUNT WITH THE LOWER ANIMALS 5 



fashioned for himself, any cause to fear either conflict or 

 competition with the larger and apparently more dangerous of 

 his fellow-creatures . Everywhere he makes them the ministers 

 of his wants, and, far from wishing to destroy them, seeks to 

 preserve and improve them in his own interests. 



The science of breeding, about which Professor Punnett 

 will speak to us on a future occasion, is teaching us how to 

 direct the course of evolution amongst our domesticated 

 animals — and of course the same appHes to plants — in such a 

 way as to render them ever more and more perfectly adapted 

 to our own requirements. The scientific breeder shares in the 

 joys of creation, and the products of his creative skill are no 

 less wonderful and no less distinctive than those which have 

 arisen in what we call a state of nature. Our ever-deepening s 

 insight into the laws of heredity enables us to produce our ■ 

 results with increasing rapidity and precision, and it is hardly 

 too much to say that we are beginning to look upon the whole 

 organic world as a storehouse of potentiahties which may be 

 reahsed in whatsoever permutations and combinations we 

 may desire. By appropriate mating of carefully selected 

 individuals we may introduce good features and eliminate 

 bad ones, and so UteraUy build up races of plants or animals / 

 to suit our special needs. 



In this way man — hke other animals, essentially a parasite 

 and beast of prey — furnishes for himself immense suppUes of 

 food, immense stores of energy to be utilised in his own 

 advancement to a condition which we may hope will ultimately 

 rise above that of the brute, if it has not done so yet. 



How to hasten the advent of this very desirable state of 

 things by the further control and exploitation of the animal 

 kingdom is the great problem which the economic zoologist 

 has set himself to solve, and its solution is to be found not in 

 the study of the higher forms of animal life alone. 



In the earlier days of human history the struggle for 

 existence was mainly a struggle for food, in which the com- 

 petitors were mostly outside the select ring in process of 

 formation by our enterprising ancestors. The fruits of the 



