SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14889, 31 January 1914, Page 9

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR.

THE INTER-MARRIAGE OF THE RACES OF MAN. (Special right* secured by "The Press.") (Br Sir Ray L_NKEs__n, E.C.8., F.R.S.) The dog-fancier has generally a great contempt for "mongrels." Breeders generally dislike accidental crosses, becauso they interfere with the purpose which tho breeder has in view of producing animals or piants of a quality, form, and character which he has determined on beforehand. This interference with his purpose seems to bo tho explanation of beliefs and statements, to the prejudice of "mongrels." Really, as is well known to great breeders and horticulturists, a determined and selective crossing of breeds is the very foundation of tno breeder's art, and there is no reason to suppose that a ' mongrel" is necessarily, or even probaoly, interior in vigour or in'qualities which are advantageous in tho struggle tor life in "natural"—that is to Bay, "larger"—conditions of an animal s or plant's life; not those limited conditions tor which the breeder intends his products. Indeed, tho very opposite is the case. In Nature, as Mr Darwin showed, there are innumerable contrivances to ensuro the cross-breeding oi allied but distinct strains. Dog-owjiera who are not exclusively bent upon possessing a dog which shows in a perfect way the "points" of a breed iavoured by the fashion of the moment, or fatting it for some special employment, know very well that a "mongrel" may often exhibit finer qualities of intelligence, or endurance, or other endowments than a dog of purebred "race." And the veiy "races" which are spoken of to-day as "purebred." or "thoroughbred, have (as is well known) been produced .as "mongrels"—that is to say, _y crossing or mating individuals of previouslyexisting distinct and pure breeds, lhe history of many such "mongrel breeds, now spoken of as "thoroughbreu is well known. The English racehorse was gradually produced by the "mongreli sing," or cross-breeding, ot several breeds or races —the English warhorse, the Arab, the Barb. A very fine mongrel stock having at last been obtained, it was found, or, at any rate, was considered to be demonstrated, that no further improvement (for tho purSoses aimed at, viz.. flat-racing) could o effected by introducing the blood of other stock. The offspring of the "mongrels" Herod. Matchem. and Eclipse accordingly became established as "the'' English racehorse, and thenceforward was mated only within its own race or stock, and was kept pure or "thoroughbred. ' Another well-known mongrel breed which is now kept pure, or nearly so, is that of the St. Bernard's dog, a blend of Newfoundland, bloodhound, and English mastiff.

Often the word "mongrel" is limited in its use to signify on undesired or undesirable result of the cross-breeding of individuals of established races. But this is not quite fair to mongrels in general since, as we have seen, the name really refers only to the fact that they are crosses between two breeds, and when they happen to suit some artificial and arbitrary requirement they are favoured, and made the starting point of a new breed, and kept pure in their own line; but when they do not fit some capricious demand of the breeder they are sneered at and condemned. although they may be fine and capable animals. No doubt some mongrels between races differing greatly from one another, or having some peculiar mixture of incompatible qualities the exact nature of which we have not ascertained, are wanting in vigour, and cannot be readily established as a new breed. In nature the success of the mongrel depends on whether ,or not its mixture of qualities makes it fitter than others, and able to survive in the competition' for food and place. In man's breeding operations with varieties of domesticated animals end "cultivated" plants, the survival of the mongrel depends upon its fitting some arbitrary standard applied by man. who destroys those which do not suit his fancy, and selects for survival and continued breeding those which do.

What is called "miscegenation," or the interbreeding of human races, must b* looked at from both these points of view. We require to know how far, if at all. tho mixed or mongrel offspring of a human race A with a human race B is really inferior to either of the original stocks A and B, judged by general capacity and life-preserving qualities in the varied conditions of the gieat area of the habitable globe. And how far an arbitrary or fanciful standard is set up by human races, similar to that set up by the "fancier" or cultivator of breeds of domestic animals. The matter is complicated by the fact that, as I explained some weeks ago, what wo loosely speak of-as "races" of man are of very various degrees of consanguinity or nearness to one another :n blood, that is, in stock, or in ultimate ancestry. It is Also complicated by tho fact that we cannot place any reliance upon the antipathies or preferences shown by the general sentiment of a race in this (or other matters) as necessarily indicating what is beneficial for humanity in general or for the immediate future of any sections of it. Nor have we any assurance that what is called sexual selection"—the preference or taste in the matter of choosing a mate —is among human beings necessarily anything of greater importance—so far as the prosperity of a race or of humanity in general is concerned—than a mere caprice or a meaningless persistence of the human mind in favouring a choice which is habitual and traditional. In reference to this I would refer- the reader to the last paragraph of this article.

In regard to marriage between individuals of different European nationalities, a certain amount of unwillingness exists on the part of both men and women which cannot be ascribed to any deep-seated inborn antipathy, but is due to a mistrust of the unknown "foreigner," which very readily disappears on acquaintance. English, French, Dutch, Scandinavians, Germans, Russians, Greeks, Italians, and Spaniards

have no deep-rooted prejudices on the subject, and readily intermarry when circumstances bring them into association. Though the Jews by their own traditional practice are opposed to marriage with those not of • their faith, there is no effective aversion of a racial kind to such unions, and in early times, as to-day, they have been frequent. So far from there being inborn prejudice against intermarriage of the, peoples, above cited, it is very generally admitted that such "miscegenation" leads frequently to the foundation of families of fine quality. The blend is successful, as may bo seen in the number of prominent Englishmen who havo Huguenot, German, Dutch, or Jewish blood in their veins.

But when we- come to the intermarriage of members of the white raco of Europe with members of either the negroid (black) race or of the yellow and red Mongoloid race, a much greater and more deeply-rooted aversion is found., and this is extended even to members of the Caucasian raco who, possibly by prehistoric mixture, with negro-like races, are very dark-skinned, as is the case with the" Aryan population in India, or are to some extent mixed with Mongolian yellow-stock, as in the case of the Polynesians. It is a very difficult matter; in fact, it seems to mc not risible in our present knowledge of the facts, to decide whether there is a natural inborn congenital disinclination to the marriage of the white race, especially of the Anglo-Saxon branch of it. with "coloured" people, or whether the whole attitude (as J am inclined to think) is one of "pride of race," an attitude which can be defended on the highest grounds, though it may lead to erroneous beliefs as to the immediate evil results of such unions, and to an unreasonable and cruel treatment both of the individuals so intermarrying and of their offspring. There is littlo or no evidenco of objection to mixed unions on the part of coloured people with whites, no evidonce of iihysncal disliko to the white man or whito woman, but on the contrary ready acquiescence.

Two beliefs about such unions aro more or less prevalent among whito men in the regions where they not infrequently occur. Neithor of these beliefs is supported by anything like conclusive evidence. The one is that such unions lead to the production of relatively infertile offspring; the- mixed breed or stock is said to die ofit after a few (some seven or ei,<?ht) generations. The other assertion is that the offspring of parents—one of white raco and tho other of black, yellow, or red —tend by some strange fatality to inherit tho bad qualities of races and the good qualities of neither. Tin's is a*-case to which must be applied the saying, "Give a dog a bad name and hang him.' Tho white man in North America, in India, and in New Zealand (in less degree) desires the increase and prosperity of his own raco. Like the fancier set on the production of pure breeds of domesticated animals, ho has no toleration for a "mongrel " In so far as it is true that miscegenation (marriage of white and coloured race) produces a stock which rapidly dies out—this is duo to tho adverse conditions, the opposition and hostility to which tho mixed race is exposed by the attitude of the dominant whito race. Io the same cause is duo the development of ignoble and possibly dangorous characteristics in tho unfortunate offspring of these marriages more frequently than in those who find their natural place and healthy upbringing either m the white or the coloured sections of tho community. Tho "halfbreed" is in some countries inexorably rejected by the raco of his or her white parent, and forced to take up an equivocal association with the coloured race.

That some, at any rate, of the evils atributed to ''miscegenation" aro due to tho baneful influence of "pride of race" is evident from the fact that the 1 ortuguese (with tho exception of a small aristocratic class) have not. dating from the early days of the iourteerith century, and perhaps owing to established association with tho Moorish and other North Atrican races, shown that pride of race and aversion to mixturo with black blood which is so strong a feature in the Anglo-Saxons, their successors and rivals as colonists. The long-standing admixture of black blood in the Portuguese population beforo the colonisation of South America has led to a toleration on the part of the Portuguese colonists of "miscegenation," both with Indians and the liberated descendants of imported negro slaves. The consequence is that in Brazil there is no condemnation of black blood; children of mixed parentage and of coloured race attend tho same schools as thoso of European blood, and rreely associate with them. Thero is no notion that that portion of the population of mixed negro.. Indian, and white blood is less vigorous or fertile than the unmixed, nor that vice and feebleness are the characteristics of the former, whilst virtue and capacity belong to the latter.

Tho determined hostility of the Anglo-Saxon race in North America and in British India to "miscegenation" is perhaps to some extent to bo explained by the peculiar relation in the one case of a large slave population in the Southern States to a pure white slave-owning race, and ,in the other case of a handful of. white men temporarily stationed as rulers of millions of "natives," but never accepting India as their home. The attitude of the AngloSaxon race to .the North American Indians, and also to the Maoris of New Zeainnd. has never bcea so extreme in the matter of miscegenation as it has been to negroid people and tho very different though dark-skinned people of the East. In New Zealand there are many families of mixed Anglo-Saxon and Maori blood. Though they are not ostracised, as are the half-breeds of negro blood in the United States, there is a firm tendency to relegate the halfbreed' in New Zealand to the Maori section of the population which it must be remembered includes some of the richest and most prosperous landowners in the colony.

It may well be questioned whether there is in* this matter a greater "pride of i ace" among Anglo-Saxons than among other Northern European peoples. Neither the French nor the Germans have established great colonies like the English, nor undertaken the administration of a huge Eastern Empire, and have not, thereforo, shown what attitude they would adopt under such circumstances. The tolerance and easy-going hu'manitarianism of the French in relation to "miscegenation" in their dependencies in past times never had the significance or practical importance which it would have possessed in the English Colonies and in the great Indian Empire.

There is no information of any value as to the results of mixture of other races of man, on account of the sporadic and exceptional occurrence of modern instances. In early times and among more primitive or less civilised peoples there appears to havo been, when immigration or conquest gave the opportunity, no obstacle to a free intermixture of an incoming race with the natives' of an invaded territory. The "pride of race" has, nevertheless, throughout historic time been a frequent factor in the adjustment of populations of diverse races, and though "colour" has been a frequent "test" or symbol of the superiocand exclusive race, it has not been the only characteristic exalted to such importance. Such "pride' of race" has frequently excluded the members of a closely allied but conquered racial group from intermarriage with the conquerors, and has only disappeared after centuries of persistence. 'The term "blue blood" is interesting in this connexion. It is tho ''saing d'azure" of tlie Gothic invaders and conquerors of the Iberian and

Moorish peoole of Spain. It refers not to. any '-blueness'* of the blood itself, such as distinguishes venous from arterial blood, but to the blue colour of the veius as seen through tho colourless skin of a northern race (the Goths) as compared with the invisibility ot the veins when the skin is rendered more or less o_jquo by a brown pigment, as iv the Moors and the swarthy Iberians.

Among the people of Western Europe (especially thoso of Teutonic race) roarSi age has assumed more and more a character which is almost unknown in the rest of the world. Whatever may hereafter be the destructive result of tho present violence on tho part of a few revolting women, thero is no doubt possible that the place _iven to women in Western Europe by the ideals of chivalry and the practice of the northern race (which ha. so largely displaced tho traditions of tho Roman Empire) has established a relation of the sexes in which marriage and consequent parentage has ceased to be regarded as a mere regulari.ation of anin _' desire and appetite. The accepted, but not i alwa.-s consciously recognised, view ot marriage in Western Europe is that the ; union so sanctioned and the families !thereby produced should be the result not of the mere physical necessity of irresponsible victims of an impulse common to all animals, but the outcomo of the deliberate choice of man and woman attracted to one another by sympathy, understanding, and reciprocal admiration based upon knowledge of character, mental gifts and aspirations, as well as upon bodily charm. A rarelyexpressed, but none tho less deeplyseated, conviction exists that from such unions children of the finest nature, nurtured in circumstances most likely to make them worthy members of tho community, will be born and reared. It is this conviction which leads to, or at any rate endorses, tho exclusivenoss which is dej>crited as "prido of race." The Anglo-Saxon man and equally tho Anglo-Saxon woman (as well as the allied races of neighbouring nationalities) recognise a responsibility, a race duty, resulting from accumulated tradition, the heirloom of long ages of family life, which causes tho man to bo ashamed of, and the woman to shrink with instinctive horror from, union with an individual of a remote race with whom there can bo no real sympathy, no intimate understanding. That seems to nio to be the explanation and the justification of the "colour bar."

In relation to the probable effectiveness of sexual selection among uncivilised peoples in favouring and maintaining a particular typo or form of features, hair, etc., characteristic of the race, independently of the life-pre-serving value of such qualities, I may mention, beforo quitting this difficult but strangely fascinating subject, a fact observejd by a traveller in Africa, and related to mc by him. Other similar facts are on record. Among the negroes employed as "porters" by my friend, some thirty in number, was one who had a narrow aquiline nose and thin lips. He was as black and as woolly-haired as any of them but would if of fair complexion have been regarded by Europeans as a very handsome, fine-featured man. Such cases are not uncommon in parts of Africa, where probably an unrecognised mixture with Arab or Hamito .blood has occurred. My friend expected this man to bo a favourite, on account of what to him appeared to be "good looks," with the girls of the villages at which they camped during a three months' journey. At every such, village, as they journeyed on, the travellers were received with joy and good nature. The negro porters were feted and made much of by the young women. But one alone was unpopular and regarded with ridicule and dislike. This was tho handsome nigger with the fino, well-modelled nose, and beautiful European lips. Tho black beauties turned their backs on him, in spito of his amiable character and kindly overtures. They invariably and by open confession preferred the man with the thickest lips, the broadest nose, and the most thoroughly (as we should 'say) degraded prognathous appearance and disgusting expression. Hence no doubt tho young negresses were likely to perpetuate in their offspring the features which are characteristic of their race, and hence it is probable that mere capricious sexual selection of individuals most completely conforming to a preferred type—irrespective of ' the value of the features preferred—may have great effect in both the selection and the maintenance of the peculiarities of the type. Dark, skin may thus have been selected, until it became actually black; _ slight curling of the hair, until it became woolly; thickish lips and broadish nose, until they became excessive in thickness . and breadth.