The 

 Human 

 Harvest 



[40] 



The word "blood" in this sense is figura- 

 tive only, an expression formed to cover the 

 qualities of heredity. Such traits, as the 

 phrase goes, " run in the blood." I n the ear- 

 lier philosophy it was held that blood was the 

 actual physical vehicle of heredity, that the 

 traits bequeathed from sire to son as the 

 characteristics of families or races ran literal- 

 ly in the literal blood. We know now that 

 this is not the case. We know that the actual 

 blood in the actual veins plays no part in 

 heredity, that the transfusion of blood means 

 no more than the transposition of food, and 

 that the physical basis of the phenomena of 

 inheritance is found in the structure of the 

 germ-cell and its contained germ-plasm. 



But the old word well serves our purposes. 

 The blood which is " thicker than water " 

 is the symbol of race unity. In this sense the 

 blood of the people concerned is at once the 

 cause and the result of the deeds recorded in 

 their history. For example, wherever an 

 Englishman goes, he carries with him the 

 elements of English history. It is a British 

 deed which he does, British history that he 

 makes. Thus, too, a Jew is a Jew in all ages 



