ABSTRACT
The elements which enter into the life of any creature, especially of a human being living under a high state of culture, are too diverse to make possible a mathematically exact estimate of the degree of success of an individual life as dependent on the activities of that life. This chapter provides the presentation of facts showing, as far as possible in a comparatively brief space, the extent to which maladaptive activity does occur in both the brute and the human animal worlds. Viewing these activities with reference to the ways in which they are disadvantageous to the organisms concerned, we find they fall into four subdivisions. These include: activities which result in waste of time or energy or both; activities which result in waste of materials needed by the creatures; activities which result in injury to the close-of-kin of the individuals performing the acts; finally, activities which result in injury to the acting individuals themselves.
