CHAPTER VI 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL ON 

 THE RACE 



As one stands at Ellis Island and sees pass the stream of 

 persons, sometimes 5,000 in a day, who go through that portal 

 to enter the United States and, for the most part, to become 

 incorporated into it, one is apt to lose sight of the potential 

 importance to this nation of the individual, or, more strictly, 

 the germ plasm that he or she carries. Yet the study of ex- 

 tensive pedigrees warns us of the fact. Every one of those 

 peasants, each item of that ^'riff-raff " of Europe, as it is some- 

 times carelessly called, will, if fecund, play a r6le for better 

 or worse in the future history of this nation. Formerly, 

 when we believed that factors blend, a characteristic in the 

 germ plasm of a single individual among thousands seemed 

 not worth considering: it would soon be lost in the melting 

 pot. But now we know that unit characters do not blend; 

 that after a score of generations the given characteristic may 

 still appear unaffected by the repeated unions with foreign 

 germ plasm. So the individual, as the bearer of a potentially 

 immortal germ plasm with innumerable traits becomes of 

 the greatest interest. A few examples will illustrate this law 

 and its practical importance. 



1. Elizabeth Tuttle 



From two English parents, sire at least remotely descended 

 from royalty, was born in Massachusetts Elizabeth Tuttle. 

 She developed into a woman of great beauty, of tall and com- 



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