characteristics of races, even when subjected to new and varying environments, as for example in the cases of the Indian and the Jew, I do not believe that the characteristics of the Negro will undergo any marked change for many generations.

CHAPTER 53

BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF AMALGAMATION

The Function of Crossing among Plants and Animals-Consequences of Crossing Near and Distantly Related Types-Importance As a Factor in Crossing of the Quality of the Characters Inherited—Biological Considerations Weighing Against Amalgamation

THER

HERE seems to be a general agreement among biologists that the function of crossings in the plant and animal world is to increase variability and to preserve or strengthen physical vigor, that in all forms of life numerous differences exist and that any kind of crossing which takes place may have beneficial or injurious consequences, depending upon whether the offspring does or does not inherit traits favorable to survival, or, in case of artificial crossings, favorable to any result desired.

In a state of nature, crossings have been limited to closely related types for the reason that widely contrasting types are incapable of crossing.

Darwin thought "that a cross between individuals of the same species, which differ to a certain extent, gives vigour and fertility to the offspring, and on the other hand the balance of evidence decidedly tends to show that a cross between individuals of different species, or even of very distinct varieties of the same species, is by no means beneficial as a general rule." 1

For example, if a stockman wishes to preserve the vitality of his herd of Jersey cattle, he will, now and then, introduce Jersey stock from another herd, but would not think of introducing Holsteins or Durhams.

"In general," to quote East and Jones in their book on Inbreeding and Outbreeding, "it can be said that differences in uniting germ plasms, when not too great, may bring about more efficient development and increased fertility. Beyond that critical point of difference both fertility and vigor may be decreased, but fertility is usually the first to suffer-even complete sterility often being coupled with rampant growth." 2

'Chatterton-Hill, Heredity and Selection in Sociology, p. 127.

P. 193.

3

The same principle has been applied to man. Topinard, for instance, asserted that the intermingling of nearly related races is certainly good and that of distantly related races certainly bad. David Livingstone once remarked that "God had made the white man, and God had made the black, but the devil had made the half-breed."

Carr-Saunders illustrates the principle as follows: "Roughly speaking there are two possible kinds of crosses between races. First, there are crosses between the most clearly distinguished varieties, such as white and black. Heterosis, or hybrid vigour, will be exhibited in a marked fashion in the first generation. Heterosis, the underlying cause of which has only recently become apparent, is always at its height in the first cross. The increase of vigour, however, is not long maintained in subsequent generations. Further, each type, such as those which we are considering, has a series of character complexes, built up through ages of selection and compatible with one another, and by crossings such complexes are broken apart. The chance of gain, on the other hand, through favorable re-combination of characters is small. On the average, therefore, the result of such a cross is unfavorable. There may also be crosses between races exhibiting less differences. Again, heterosis will be visible on crossing. But in distinction to the results of the former kind of cross, the other results may not be unfavorable. Great variability may follow such a cross and this is on the whole advantageous. Valuable character re-combinations may also come to light. Thus we may say that, so long as there is not too great a difference between the races which cross, the results are usually genetically favorable; there will be the advantage of hybrid vigour, though this is always temporary, and there may very possibly be the advantage of valuable character re-combinations."

The same idea is advanced by McDougall, who says: "The crossing of the most widely different stocks, stocks belonging to any two of the four main races of man, produces an inferior race; but the crossing of stocks belonging to the same principal race, and especially the crossing of closely allied stocks, generally produces a blended subrace superior to the mean of the two parental stocks, or at least not inferior." "

Not only from the standpoint of physical vigor, but also from the standpoint of mental characters, the crossing of distantly related races is held to be detrimental.

'Eléments d'Anthropologie générale.

'The Population Problem, p. 38. "The Group Mind, p. 332.

"The many elements," says McDougall, "which go to form the mental constitution of an individual become, in a mixed race, variously combined. If the crossed races are very widely different, the results seem to be in nearly all cases bad. The character of the cross-breed is made up of divergent, inharmonious tendencies, which give rise to internal conflict, just as the physical features appear in bizarre combination." "

In reference to the consequences of the crossing of distantly and closely related types, East and Jones make the following statement: "The world faces two types of racial combination: one in which the races are so far apart as to make hybridization a real breaking-down of the inherent characteristics of each; the other, where fewer differences present only the possibility of a somewhat greater variability as a desirable basis for selection. Roughly, the former is the color-line problem; the latter is that of the White Melting Pot, faced particularly by Europe, North America and Australia.

"The genetics of these two kinds of racial intermixture is as follows: Consider first cross between two extremes, typical members of the white and of the black race. In the first generation the individuals show a notable amount of heterosis, indicating differences in a large number of hereditary factors. They are intermediate in hair form, skin color, head shape, and various other physical attributes, in mental capacity, and in psychical characters in general; although they show extraordinary physical vigor. In later generations segregation and recombination in many of these characters can be traced with little difficulty; but if one describes the descendants of the cross as a population, or even the total characteristics of a single individual, fluctuation around the average of the two original races is still the rule. There may be an approach to the head form of one race combined with the skin color of the other, an approximation of the hair of the one coupled with the other's stature; nevertheless, there is little likelihood of an individual return to the pure type of either race. The difficulties involved are those described in Chapter VII. The races differ by so many transmissible factors, factors which are probably linked in varied ways, that there is, practically speaking, no reasonable chance of such breaks in linkage occurring as would bring together only the most desirable features, even supposing conscious selection could be made. And selection is not conscious. Breeding for the most part is at random. The real result of such a wide racial cross, therefore, is to break apart those compatible physical and mental qualities which have established a The Group Mind, p. 193.

smoothly operating whole in each race by hundreds of generations of natural selection.

"If the two races possessed equivalent physical characteristics and mental capacities, there would still be this valid genetical objection to crossing, as one may readily see. But in reality the negro is inferior to the white. This is not hypothesis or suppositions; it is a crude statement of actual fact. The negro has given the world no original contribution of high merit. By his own initiative in his original habitat, he has never risen. Transplanted to a new environment, as in the case of Haiti, he has done no better. In competition with the white race, he has failed to approach its standard. But because he has failed to equal the white man's ability, his natural increase is low in comparison. The native population of Africa is increasing very slowly, if at all. In the best environment to which he has been subjected, the United States, his ratio in the general population is decreasing. chance for an extended survival is amalgamation.

His only

"The United States has been confronted by this grave question for some time. In Africa it has hardly yet come to the fore, but within three generations it will be recognized as the political and economic problem. What the solution will be, no one knows. It seems an unnecessary accompaniment to humane treatment, an illogical extension of altruism, however, to seek to elevate the black race at the cost of lowering the white. And the statement is made with all due regard to the fact that there are certain desirable characteristics existent in the black race, and that unquestionably the two races overlap in general inherent capacity. The white race as a whole is not equal to the black race in resistance to several serious diseases, as the medical records of the United States army show. The two strains have built up disease resistance along different lines, and the addition of both sets of immunity factors would be desirable. But the practical attainment of such a benefit, given the genetic premises, is so improbable as to be negligible, apart from other considerations."

Observations and experiments in the crossing of plants and animals have brought out the fact that, in the matter of vigor and fertility, the results of the crossings of the distantly and closely related types are not as uniform as was formerly believed. "There is a popular belief," says Conklin, "that hybrid races are always inferior to pure bred ones, but this is by no means the case. Some hybrids are undoubtedly inferior to either of the parents, but on the other hand some are vastly ' East and Jones, Inbreeding and Outbreeding, pp. 252-4.

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