238 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



the Revolution they actually furnished more soldiers than 

 the Gerrit Banker family, but none of them held rank above 

 a corporal. They were, in fact, as often described in legal 

 documents, yeomen, and yeomen under a semi-feudal sys- 

 tem. With the organization of the new nation a larger op- 

 portunity opened. To-day many of this family have reached 

 places of high social standing while a few have been brought 

 into a considerable degree of public prominence." ^ In this 

 instructive example we see the persistence of an initial 

 difference with a final tendency to approach a common level. 

 Because in the absence of caste, and the desire to marry as 

 well as possible, new and strong characters are introduced 

 into the germ plasm. 



1 Compare Banker, 1909. 



