best eugenic quality was represented by
the volunteers, the second best by those who stayed out until they were
conscripted, and the poorest by the deserters. Yet David Starr Jordan
and Harvey Ernest Jordan, who investigated the case with care, found
that this was hardly true and that, due to the peculiar circumstances,
the deserters were probably not as a class eugenically inferior to the
volunteers.[157] Again some wars, such as that between the United States
and Spain, probably develop a volunteer army made up largely of the
adventurous, the nomadic, and those who have fewer ties; it would be
difficult to demonstrate that they are superior to those who, having
settled positions at home, or family obligations, fail to volunteer. The
greatest damage appears to be done in such wars as those waged by great
European nations, where the whole able-bodied male population is called
out, and only those left at home who are physically or mentally unfit
for fighting--but not, it appears to be thought, unfit to perpetuate the
race.

Even within the army of one side, lethal selection is operative. Those
who are killed are by no means a haphazard sample of the whole army.
Among the victims there is a disproportionate representation of those
with (1) dauntless bravery, (2) recklessness, (3) stupidity. These
qualities merge into each other, yet in their extremes they are widely
different. However, as the nature of warfare changes with the increase
of artillery, mines, bombs, and gases, and decrease of personal combat,
those who fall are more and more chance victims.

In addition to the killed and mortally wounded, there are many deaths
from disease or from wounds which were not necessarily fatal. Probably
the most selective of any of these three agencies is the variable
resistance to disease and infection and the widely varying knowledge and
appreciation of the need for hygienic living shown by the individual,
as, for instance, by less reckless drinking of unsterilized water. But
here, too, in modern warfare, this item is becoming less selective, with
the advance in discipline and in organized sanitation.

The efficiency of selection will be affected by the percentage that each
side has sent to the front, if the combatants are either above or below
the average of the population. A nation that sends all its able-bodied
males forward will be affected differently from its enemy that has
needed to call upon only one-half of its able-bo