DOMINANCY IN NATURE 
AND ITS CORRELATION WITH 
KVOLUTION, PHYLOGKNY, AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
JOHN W. TAYLOR. 
Author ok the Monograph of Land and Freshwater Mom.usca oi- the British Isi.ks. 
President and Honorary Life Member of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union ; 
Ex-President and Honorary Life Member of the Conchoi-Ogicai. Society 
OF Great Britain and Ireland ; 
Ex-President and Honorary Life Member of Leeds Naturalists' Ci ub 
AND Scientific Association ; 
Membre Honoraikk de r.A Societe Malacologique de France; ktc. 
( Pr>'sidential Addresa delivered in the Lecture Hall of the Royal Institution, Hull, at thi- 
nUt Annual Meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, Dec. lUth, 1912). 
Before addressing you on the subject upon which I have undertaken 
to speak to-night I wish to avail myself of the opportunity to 
acknowledge and to express my appreciation of the honour conferred 
upon me by the selection of myself as President of so important a 
scientific organization as the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. 
During my term of office 1 have endeavoured to show practically 
iny appreciation of this flattering recognition of my scientific labours 
by the faithful discharge of every duty devolving on the position, 
by attending not only every official meeting of the Union but also 
every sectional meeting of which I had cognizance. 
In selecting Dominancy and its influences as the topic of my 
Valedictory Address, I have been to some extent influenced by the 
informally expressed wishes of many members and also because my 
own special study, the Land and Freshwater Shells of this country 
involved the investigation and consideration of the general and far- 
reaching laws underlying the problems of Evolution, Dominancy and 
(xeographical Distribution. 
The subject of Dominancy in Nature and its potentiality and 
influence on all organic life is receiving more and more study from 
the thoughtful and advanced investigator, and its acceptance implies 
not only a belief in the superiority or ascendancy of certain species 
over their allies, but that species or groups exhibiting Dominance 
of the highest order are to be regarded as the latest products of 
evolutionary activity, and as occupying the region where the creative 
force is most strongly exercised. 
It also furnishes, in conjunction with great numerical increase, the 
propelling power in the enforced migrations of the weaker and more 
archaic forms of life, and is thus a controlling factor in geographical 
distribution, for it is conceded by most naturalists that food, 
temperature, or situation, in themselves, are insufficient to account 
for phenomena which, without depreciating any actual effects due to 
