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CORRESPONDENCE. 
*** The Editor does not hold himself responsible for statements of fails or 
opinions expressed in Correspondence, or in Articles bearing the signature 
of their respe&ive authors. 
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
Sir, — Possibly the subjoined demonstration, that excessive com- 
petition in any sphere tends to frustrate its own ends, may be 
novel to some of your readers. 
Let us suppose a large public building — church, theatre, 
lecfture-room, or what you please — full of people. When the 
proceedings are at an end it will be quietly and quickly emptied. 
But suppose that each person, on entering, sees an announce- 
ment that the first fifty persons who make their exit after the 
end of the meeting shall receive a sovereign each, the next 
hundred half a sovereign, and the next — say two hundred — five 
shillings each. What will be the result ? There will be a severe 
struggle, and, independent of damage to life and limb, the 
building will probably take twice as long to be cleared as under 
ordinary circumstances. 
Now let us suppose the competition yet intensified : let the 
public on entering find an announcement, issued by some com- 
petent authority, that the last hundred or two hundred who issue 
from the place will be liable to heavy penalties, fine, or imprison- 
ment. The struggle will become desperate, numbers will be 
trodden under foot, and the hall will not be emptied in four- or 
fivefold the usual time. 
It may be said that such cases are entirely imaginary, and 
that we know not what would happen. This reply is founded on 
an error. Only a few months have passed since the offer of a 
few trifling toys allured a couple of hundred children to their 
death. And the effe<5t of a terror behind the multitude was 
shown a few years ago at the cathedral of Santiago, where but a 
few of an immense throng of worshippers ever succeeded in 
making their exit at all. Can the meaning of these instances 
fail to be understood ? — I am, &c., 
G. C, 
