Experimental Studies on the Struggle for Existence

ABSTRACT Although the phenomena of variation and heredity have in recent years become amenable to quantitative treatment, our knowledge of the struggle for existence has been increased to an almost negligible extent during the past fifty years. In the present paper an account is given of a series of experiments which constitute an attempt to apply experimental methods to the study of the struggle for existence. The work has been carried out with two species of yeast, and observations have been made on the effect of the presence of one species on the rate of reproduction of another. This situation has recently been considered from a mathematical point of view by Lotka (1925) and by Volterra (1931).