168 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
lions of humanity which now exist to be considered to have 
“upset the balance of nature’’ because the | physical and 
psychical evolution of man from his primitive state has 
resulted in the present successful social organisation ? If so, 
the logical conclusion is, that nature has been upset ever since 
the dawn of civilisation. 
The virility and intelligence with which nature has endowed 
man, led him to land on this island continent, and he has 
since all but exterminated its aborigines; indeed, in Tas- 
mania that result was achieved several decades ago. We do 
not hear anything about ‘‘upsetting nature’s balance’’ in 
connection with these interesting varieties of humanity, 
which, if they still existed, would have been among the most 
valuable subjects of comparative anthropology. 
The inevitable result of the necessities of man compared 
with other organisms, emphasises the fact, that if the one 
exists the others must perish, unless perchance, they can 
live in unison with man. For the utility of things is estim- 
ated from man’s standard, and he considers everything 
subservient to his own desires. 
It is just as much a law of nature for one organism to 
increase, as it is for another to decrease. In the first case 
the means of existence are favourable. whereas in the other 
it is unable to comply with the conditions. of its environ- 
ment. The agencies effecting any favourable or detrimental 
conditions are a part of nature’s process; and the extinc- 
tion of a species brought about by the operations of man is 
within the laws of nature, inasmuch as he is a child of 
nature’s evolutionary procession. The fundamental law is, 
that each organism must increase and multiply as rapidly 
as possible if it is to maintain its specific predominance in 
the struggle for existence, and its concomitant the survival 
of the fittest. 
The operation of nature’s laws in the production of 
myriads of grasshoppers, is a vindication of Darwin’s aver- 
ment, that ‘‘lighten any check, mitigate the destruction ever 
so little, and the number of the species will almost instan- 
taneously increase to any amount,’’ and thereby showing, 
that where the means of existence are favourable, the species 
tends to increase. ; 
This favourableness is the direct result of the work of 
man. The laws of nature working within and without man 
have caused him to bring about a change in nature and 
render her more amenable to his needs, and in so doing have 
incidentally bettered the conditions of the grasshoppers in 
the laying out of pasturages, etc., and the indiscriminate 
destruction of birds inimical to their increase. 
