The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-12-13
FIGHTING For LIFE.
All Animals Engaged In Battling
for Existence.

for Existence.
A larger audience than usual gathered
at Golden Gate hall last evening to hear
President David Starr Jordan, of Leland
Stanford. Jr., university. deliver the third
of his series of university extension lee
lures on evolution.
| President Jordan chose for the subject
| of his remarks the question of the strug-
gle for existence and the survival of the
fittest. The process of natural selection,
he said tends to make animals fit their
surroundings. Thus the animal that can
! not stand the rigor of an Arctic climate
| for instance, dies and makes way for
some other being that is able to thrive
| in those surroundings The weaker be-
| ings of all kinds are constantly being
| crowded to the wall to make room for the
! strong. AS a matter of fact only about
one In g thosand OF the different kinds OF
animals born attain the age that they
! theoretically should. For instance, fe-
male Goldfish lays about 10000 eggs each
season, and if these eggs were permitted
| to hatch and the young cOdhshes allowed
| to grow up and lay other eggs, in only
| five years all the oceans, inland seas,
lakes and rivers would be completely filled
with Goldfish. But other fish destroy the
| eggs aided by other forces, and as a, re-
suit the Goldfish is barely holding its own
| In the world
The theory of population teaches the
| fact that man increases by a geometric
ratio while his means OF support in
creases only by addition. AS no kind of
addition can keep pace with geometric
| ratio if carried out Indefinitely, it becomes
! apparent that if the human race We're to
| increase as rapidly as it theoretically
should the earth would soon be too small
\ to feed or even hold the vast multitude.
Misery, vice and prudence, however. are
| the checks. Herschell said that if all
mankind could live who ought to live,
| that is, if there was no claShing Of forces
and no adverse surroundings, in 800
, years there could be reared from single
couple enough human beings to have solid
| tiers of people covering the whole earth
| and extending to the nearest planet There
would not be mineral matter enough in the
world to make their bones.
| BY the process of artificial selection an
| animal can be raised that will soon differ
| in a marked degree from the animals
! from which it descended. 1t is only nee
essary that variation shall exist in order
to put this process in practice; Thus a
what kind of sheep he going to raise
! from a certain pair If he has pair who
have longer wool than the others say:
| by breeding them long enough he will
| obtain a kind of sheep noted for that
quality. The process may be practiced
with any kind of animals with equally
| good results.
| President Jordan defined the struggle
| for existence as three fold: d) 1t is
| against like creatures; ~ it is against
unlike creatures. and 90 against the forces
| Of nature. In this connection comes the
| law of mutual help, enc of the most inn
portant to be considered in the study of
evolution Some persons have contended
/ that it does well enough to let the weak
| fail and be trampled under foot to make
room for the strong to climb higher. But,
| to use the expression of another, gan
creme is not a good caustic. If vice be
| permitted to invade society at will the
victims perhaps reap only their just re-
ward, but a great deal of material is lost
THAT would be of inestmable value to the
world if saved 1t will be seen, therefore.
| that besides being the human method it is
! also the economical one, for oftentimes
men and women who possess many quail
| ties Of great strength by surrounding cir
cuinstances or otherwise are led from the
straight path
| The question is often asked whether the
struggle for existence explains the origin
iof species. President Jordan said scient-
lists could only guess at the answer, but
| that it did not seem improbable that such
was the case. 1t stands behind the other
forces IN the sense of a motive power
San Francisco Chronicle.