EVOLUTION 257 



bination or complex, do tend to set the groups apart. Actually, this same 

 general conclusion applies to sub-species in lower forms as well. 



So far, so good. Now let us observe one of these stocks — the Caucasoids 

 — in greater detail. Within this sub-species, in Europe, there are groups 

 which, originally on a geographical basis, precipitate out as more or less 

 recognizable entities: Northwest, Central, Southwest, Northeast, South- 

 east. To these types — and we here use a simphfied terminology — have 

 been applied the names Nordic, Alpine, Mediterranean, Baltic and Dinaric, 

 respectively. They fall into place in our scheme as follows: 



H. s. 



caucasoideus nordiciis 

 " alpinus 



" mediterraneus 



" balticus 2 



" Dinaricus ^ 



In this stock break-down we come, finally, to the groups that the 

 anthropologist generally terms race; they are, in taxonomic fact, sub-sub- 

 species, or varieties. Do they exist today? The answer must be a qualified 

 affirmative; that there may be local, isolated, probably highly inbred 

 groups of Alpines, for example, in certain Swiss valleys. Similarly there 

 may be small regional groups of the five Caucasoid varieties we have 

 named. But there are no peoples or nations in Europe who are pure Nordics, 

 pure Alpines, or pure anything else. In substance, there are no pure races: 

 there are only populations in which two or more varieties are intermixed, 

 and that intermixture began before the dawn of European history. There- 

 fore what we term races in Man are poorly defined, because they are not 

 — as in races in lower forms — homogeneous; they are intermixed, hy- 

 bridized, diffused. That is why one man says "no races," the other "many 

 races." The first is appalled at the difficulty of disentangling intermingled 

 varieties; the second holds that secondary or composite groups warrant 

 racial status. 



The problem of mixture above mentioned — of hybridization so that 

 "racial purity" is non-existent — renders it impossible to ascribe genetic 

 homogeneity to the races we have set up. Suppose we took ten persons 

 classed as Nordics (five males, five females), and ten persons classed as 

 Mediterraneans (five males, five females) and bred within each group; 

 we could not guarantee, and we would not expect, that the oflFspring would 

 be all Nordics and all Mediterraneans, respectively. In the Nordic X 

 Nordic we might get some short, brunet, long-heads; in the Mediterranean 

 X Mediterranean we might get some tall, blond, long-heads. About all we 

 might reasonably expect is that the Nordic off^spring would tend more to 

 tall blondness, and the Mediterranean off'spring to brunet shortness. In other 

 words, the groups we call races are genetically heterogeneous; they include 



2 There is reason to believe that these were originally variant combinations of the 

 three preceding, basic types, 



