It is an interesting consequence that, in Volterra’s equations, competition of two species for the same resources is, in a way, more fatal than a predator-prey relation—i.e., partial annihilation of one species by the other. Competition eventually leads to the extermination of the species with the smaller growth capacity; a predator-prey relation only leads to periodic oscillation of the numbers of the species concerned around a mean value. These relations have been stated for biocoenotic systems, but it may well be that they have also sociological implications.
