Genius and the Struggle for Existence

Abstract

MR. BULMAN, in NATURE of January 22, urges that what is good for the individual or race will survive unaided. But surely this is contrary to well-known facts. Man, with the increase of specialisation, which (whether it be an unmixed good or no) we find associated with his advance to a greater mastery over the rest of Nature, has become, so to speak, a polymorphic species, like the ants, bees or termites; and while in all species we find more or less mutual aid, in polymorphic species it is especially obvious that it is not the isolated individual types, but the total combination that natural selection regards, since the isolated types may be quite incapable of reproducing their kind and performing their special duties unaided.