On the
other hand, the loss of that part of the population which is more
economically productive is a very serious loss, leading to excessive
poverty with increased severity in the action of natural selection, of
which some of the Southern States, during the Reconstruction period,
offer a good illustration.
Selection is also rendered more intense by the heavy burden of taxation,
and in the very common depreciation of currency as is now felt in
Russia.
Sexual selection as well as lethal is affected by war in manifold ways.
Considering the armed force, there is an inter-group selection, when the
enemy's women are assaulted by the soldiers. While this has been an
important factor in the past, it is somewhat less common now, with
better army discipline and higher social ideals.
Within the group, mating at the outset of a war is greatly increased by
many hurried marriages. There is also alleged to be sometimes an
increase of illegitimacy in the neighborhood of training camps. In each
of these instances, these matings do not represent as much maturity of
judgment as there would have been in times of peace, and hence give a
less desirable sexual selection.
In the belligerent nation at home, the number of marriageable males is
of course far less than at ordinary times.
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