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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1027 



pose of breaking up the phratries and 

 gentes, in order that the various sections 

 of the population might be mixed up as 

 much as possible, and the old tribal asso- 

 ciations abolished. The "reform" was 

 probably a recognition and extension of a 

 process already begun; but is it too much 

 to suppose that we have here the effective 

 beginning of a series of genetic changes 

 which in a few generations so greatly 

 altered the character of the people ? Under 

 Pericles the' old law was restored (451 

 B.C.), but losses in the great wars led to 

 further laxity in practise, and though at 

 the end of the fifth century the strict rule 

 was re-enacted that a citizen must be of 

 citizen-birth on both sides, the population 

 by that time may well have become largely 

 mongrelized. 



Let me not be construed as arguing that 

 mixture of races is an evil : far from it. A 

 population like our own, indeed, owes much 

 of its strength to the extreme diversity of 

 its components, for they contribute a corre- 

 sponding abundance of aptitudes. Every- 

 thing turns on the nature of the ingredi- 

 ents brought in, and I am concerned solely 

 with the observation that these genetic dis- 

 turbances lead ultimately to great and 

 usually unforeseen changes in the nature of 

 the population. 



Some experiments of this kind are going 

 on at the present time, in the United States, 

 for example, on a very large scale. Our 

 grandchildren may live to see the charac- 

 teristics of the American population en- 

 tirely altered by the vast invasion of 

 Italian and other South European elements. 

 "We may expect that the Eastern States, 

 and especially New England, whose people 

 still exhibit the fine Puritan qualities with 

 their appropriate limitations, absorbing 

 little of the alien elements, will before long 

 be in feelings and aptitudes very notably 

 differentiated from the rest. In Japan, 



also, with the abolition of the feudal system 

 and the rise of commercialism, a change in 

 population has begun which may be worthy 

 of the attention of naturalists in- that 

 country. Till the revolution the Samurai 

 almost always married within their own 

 class, with the result, as I am informed, 

 that the caste had fairly recognizable fea- 

 tures. The changes of 1868 and the con- 

 sequent impoverishment of the Samurai 

 have brought about a beginning of disin- 

 tegration which may not improbably have 

 perceptible effects. 



How many genetic vicissitudes has our 

 own peerage undergone! Into the hard- 

 fighting stock of medieval and Plantagenet 

 times have successively been crossed the 

 cunning shrewdness of Tudor statesmen 

 and courtiers, the numerous contributions 

 of Charles II. and his concubines, reinforc- 

 ing peculiar and persistent attributes which 

 popular imagination especially regards as 

 the characteristic of peers, ultimately the 

 heroes of finance and industrialism. Defi- 

 nitely intellectual elements have been 

 sporadically added, with rare exceptions, 

 however, from the ranks of lawyers and 

 politicians. To this aristocracy art, learn- 

 ing and science have contributed sparse 

 ingredients, but these mostly chosen for 

 celibacy or childlessness. A remarkable 

 body of men, nevertheless; with an aver- 

 age "horse-power," as Samuel Butler 

 would have said, far exceeding that of any 

 random sample of the middle-class. If only 

 man could be reproduced by budding what 

 a simplification it would be ! In vegetative 

 reproduction heredity is usually complete. 

 The Washington plum can be divided to 

 produce as many identical individuals as 

 are required. If, say, Washington, the 

 statesman, or preferably King Solomon, 

 could similarly have been propagated, all 

 the nations of the earth could have been 

 supplied with ideal nilers. 



