RESULTS OF HYBRIDISM 121 



fore, though crossing may, within certain limits, be favourable 

 to the mass of humanity, which it elevates and dignifies, that 

 advantage is obtained at the expense of this same humanity, 

 since intercrossing, on the other hand, abases it, humiliates it, 

 degrades it, robs it of its noblest elements ; and even were one to 

 admit that it is better to raise a myriad of insignificant creatures 

 to the height of mediocrity rather than to preserve the princely 

 races whose blood, diluted, impoverished, poisoned, is the means 

 of effecting this shameful metamorphosis, there still remains the 

 ominous fact that intercrossing, once begun, never ceases. The 

 mediocrities which were yesterday formed at the expense of all 

 that was great unite to-day with greater mediocrities ; and from 

 these intermarriages, becoming ever more degraded, arises a 

 confusion which, like that of Babel, results in the direst impotence, 

 and leads society to hopeless and irremediable bankruptcy."^ 



It may be said of hybridism, as of consanguinity, that it is not 

 in itself necessarily harmful ; but hybridism presents, as a general 

 rule, dangers greater than those of consanguinity. For con- 

 sanguinity, practised in a family whose members are all sound 

 and healthy, cannot but lead to the most favourable results ; 

 the difficulty is to find many families fulfilhng this condition. 

 Hybridism, on the other hand, has never been known to result 

 in fertility persisting for more than four or five generations ; 

 and in the majority of cases hybridism results in complete 

 steriHty. 



If we turn to the vast domain of biology, which alone can 

 give secure information on this subject, we find several curious 

 phenomena associated with hybridism and crossing beyond the 

 limits of the species. In the first place, hybridism does not 

 always have sterUity as a consequence, although it generally 

 does, and although it always|seems to reduce the fertihty of the 



1 J. A. de GohineaxLf'^Essai^sur Vlnegalite des Baces Hwmaines, 

 livre i., chap. xvi. 2nd edition, Paris, 1876. Vide also R. Dreyfus, 

 La Vie et les Propheties du Comte de ,Odbineau, p. 65. Paris, Calmann- 

 IAyj, 1905. 



