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Mendel Journal

October 1909 —

1. ORIGINAL RESEARCH.
Parthenogenesis in Nicotiana -. Mrs. R. HAIG THOMAS

2. MENDEL COLLECTION OF HUMAN PEDIGREES.

Inheritance of Suicidal Mania

Pedigree of Tuberculosis

Pedigree of Skin Colour in Human Hybrids. A case of
Segregation of White Skin in a Quadroon Fraternity

3. PAPERS READ TO THE MENDEL SOCIETY.

The Evolution of Man - - J. T, CUNNINGHAM
Plea for operation of more virile sentiment
in Human Affairs : - nie AGP OMUDGE
Mendelism and Sex - : : - ~~. . €. €. HURST
4. METHODS AND RESULTS - “ARDENT MENDELIAN”

Present position of Mendelians and Biometricians
Skin Colour in Human Hybrids :
Variation in the single combs of Fowls

5. MISCELLANEA.
Science and Democracy
Nature of Scientific Hypotheses

6. REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

Copyright All Rights Reserved
Printed and Published for the Mendel Society by
TAYLOR, GARNETT, EVANS, & Co., Ltd., 54, Fleet Street, London, E.C.,
and Manchester

No. oe Price 2/6 nett

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BOTANE

Mendel 4 ournal

PROLOGUE.

Mendelism is a subject which has come to stay and
to play an important part in human affairs. In
Agriculture, in Horticulture, in the Prize Pens, and
in Sociology, its voice will be heard. It will not be
as a voice in the desert, but as a world-vibratory
one, uttering its pronouncements, admonitions, and
definitive conclusions, based on the solid and unshake-
able ground of accurate experiment, wherever culture
and life come into contact.

A subject like Mendelism, full of complexities, and
hable to be misunderstood by the careless, the hasty,
and the unwary, necessarily runs many dangers
among the shoals of human affairs. There are the dilet-
tante philanthropists and scientists, and social refor-
mers; and there are newspaper writers possibly
seeking to ingratiate themselves with their numerous
readers, by assuming the garb of “ gods who destroy
false idols,” which they themselves first set up. Not
Mendelism, nor its progress, but the application of it
to human affairs, is endangered by them.

A great subject like this; one with not only an
academic importance, but clearly of great practical
importance also, and having a bearing upon some of
the greatest phases of human activities, so far as

2 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

its presentation and promulgation are concerned, has
two courses open to it. These two alternatives are
inevitable. Mendelism differs in this respect from
subjects which are purely academic, because these are
only presented and discussed in scientific societies
and in their journals. But Mendelism is a subject
which comes into the category of the ““ Humanities ” ;
it will be discussed in various circles, by people more
or less well acquainted with it, and more or less
antagonistic to it. Must its wider promulgation
necessarily be left wholly to them? We think all
will agree that a better alternative lies before us.

It is better that Mendelism shall be presented to
a wider public by men who believe in its truth, who
foresee its future, and who recognise their responsi-
bilities in the work they do. That is one of the objects
with which the “‘ Mendel Journal” starts upon its
career, and which forms the far distant beacon-light
towards which it will consistently steer.

But it has another object. It is to gather for the
Science of Genetics a harvest rich in facts relating to
human pedigrees and the inheritance of normal
characters as well as of peculiarities. To find these
the seeker must quit the experimental garden and the
cloister, and he must pass out into the world of his
fellows. From them shall the grain be gathered in
order that it may be garnered in these pages. A
golden field, ripe for the harvest, awaits the coming
of the Mendelian reapers. We appeal to all who are
acquainted with families in which peculiarities and
markedly contrasted normal characters, have run

PROLOGUE 3

from one generation to another, to send details to
the Editor of this Journal. Such contributions will
be treated in the strictest confidence, they need not
necessarily be published, and will not be published
without the consent of all who are concerned, and
then only in a form approved by them. While it is
clear that medical men have many unique opportu-
nities for acquiring knowledge of pedigrees of this
kind, it is hoped that contributions from laymen will
also be forthcoming.

In future numbers of this Journal, prominence
will be given to matters pertaining to agricultural
and horticultural practices and problems. It is
also contemplated to make it a medium by which
authoritative advice and direction may be given
in the form of answers to questions upon matters
of general interest, relating to problems of cattle,
cereal, and plant breeding. In this way, it is
hoped that the Journal may become a medium of
great value to all who are engaged in the breeding of
live stock of all kinds, and to those who are concerned
in the production and fixing of new varieties of flowers,
or of leguminous and cereal stocks. It is certain
that much money and time have been wasted in the
past, owing to the haphazard methods and erroneous
ideas which were employed in agricultural and horti-
cultural practices.

It is perhaps not too much to anticipate that this
Journal may at least be more valuable than a Royal
Commission and as competent as a Government
Department, to advance the scientific treatment of

4 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

matters of the greatest commercial importance to
the country.

Any questions directed to the Editor, bearing
upon the scientific breeding of cattle and plants,
will, as far as possible, receive full consideration. in
the next number of the Journal.

Business communicatiens should be addressed to the Manager, Office
of the Mendel Journal, ¢/o Messrs. Taylor, Garnett, Evans, & Co., Ltd.,
54, Fleet Street, E.C. Literary contributions, or questions relating
to the scientific breeding of cattle and plants, or pedigrees of human
families, should be addressed to the General Editor.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH.

(1) Parthenogenesis in Nicotiana.
By ROSE HAIG THOMAS.

I NoTIcED last year and this summer that in several
different cross fertilisations, made between different
species of Nicotiana, some plants bearing only the
characters of the ovule parent were produced along
with others which were apparently Fi hybrids. Upon
the first and second occasion when I obtained these
results—which occurred with reciprocal crosses of
Nic. Sylvestris x Nic Affinis.—I thought they must
be due to accident, for muslin bags had been used,
and it was possible that pollen from adjacent flowers
of the same plant may have gained access through
the bag. I repeated the experiment a third and a
fourth time, with every precaution, such as the use
of wax-paper bags and the cleansing of the pollinating
instruments in spirit before use. At both repeti-
tions of the experiments the same phenomenon
was manifested. I then began to suspect the
cause, and determined to test Nicotiana for
parthenogenesis.

In the first few trials the method employed was
to cut off the anthers alone, but later, after success
attended these I cut off both stigma and

6 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

anthers; the result remained the same, the buds
developed into full bloom, the corollas withered, the
capsules set, the seed in due time ripened, and if left
on the plant long enough the capsules split open and
shed their seed.

My first trial for parthenogenesis was with Nie.
tabaccum Cuba, raised from some seed I gathered from a
plant in the well-known garden of Casa Loring, near
Malaga. The gardener there told me that this plant
had grown from seed brought over from Cuba, and
that it had been gathered from the finest tobacco
plants grown in the island. This plant is taller
than other N. tabaccums, and is 6Ht. to 7ft. in height,
and the stems are very thick; it flowers at first in a
terminal cluster and afterwards axially. The limb
and tube of the corolla are pure white; the corolla
is sometimes four petalled with four stamens, some-
times five petalled with five stamens, and both forms
are found on the same plant. It is a freely self-pollin-
ating plant, for under protection from insects it will
seed every blossom.

On July 15th, 1909, I cut off all the anthers from
five young green buds on a spray of Nie. tab. Cuba,
and covered them with a wax-paper bag, which was
wired on in the usual way. At the same time
all the other buds and blossoms on the spray were
removed. On July 24th the spray was uncovered
and it was found that only one ovary had failed, the
other four capsules having set seed. One or two tiny
buds were sprouting; these were pinched off, and
the bag replaced over the seed. I at once started a

PARTHENOGENESIS 7

second experiment on the same plant to confirm this
first one, and proceeded in exactly the same manner.
On the same day I experimented with another plant,
using the same precautions. This plant was a
hybrid of Fi N. YLabaccum Cuba x N. Fi P.*
(N. Sylvestris x N. Sandere x N. affinis Fi R.*)
On August Ist, the eighth day alter, all the capsules
were found set on both these plants. I now deter-
mined to test every Nicotiana species and variety and
hybrid flowering in my greenhouse and garden, and
succeeded in setting parthenogenetic seed on the
following :—

Number of Successful

Species. Experiments. Notes.
Nic. Suavolens ...| Lspray onl plant. | =
Nic. Sylvestris ...| 3 sprays on 3 plants. —
Nic. Sanderze ...| 2capsules on 2 plants. | —

Nic. Tabaccum Cuba..| 5 sprays on 2 plants. |

| Parthenogenetic seed

sowed 9th Sept.,
germinated on the
z1st Sept.

Nic. Tab. Mirodato .... 1 spray onl plant. | Asia Minor; seed
obtained from the
Board of Trade.
F2 Nic. Sylvestris x
Nie. Affinis ...| 2 capsules on | plant.) This parthenogenetic
seed sowed 4th
Sept., germinated
: : 12th Sept.
Fi Nic. Sylvestris x
Nic. Tab. Cuba ...| 2 sprays on 2 plants. —-

Nic. Tab. Cuba x Fi P.*
(Sylvestris x Fi R.* |
Sander x Affinis)...| 3 sprays on 3 plants. =
Nic. F2P.* (Sylvestris x
Fi R.* Sandere x

Aftinis) es ...| 4 sprays on 4 plants. ==
Nic. Fi P.* Sanderze
Affinis aoe ...| 1 capsule on 1 plant. —

fo lnee—snede Pe — purple:

8 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

The first parthenogenetic seed I examined was
that of Nic. Tab. Cuba; half the seed was round, full,
sound looking; the other half flattened, poor, little
likely to germinate. The parthenogenetic seed was
compared with selfed seed of the same variety ; in
this latter nine-tenths was full, sound seed. It seems
possible that in this variety all the ovules are not
capable of parthenogenesis, and that those not set
might have proved fertile to a pollination either self
or cross. But in the hybrid Nic. Sylvestris x Nic.
afinis F2 the parthenogenetic seed was all round,
full, and sound.

In order to ascertain the condition of the pollen
in the Nicotiana buds, within about twenty-four
hours of expansion, I gathered from Nic. Sylvestris =
Nic. Tab. Cuba Fian unopened bud 23in. in length,
and split it open; the style was two-eighths
of an inch longer than the stamens, and the anthers
were green and solid. I cut one and placed the
section under the microscope; the pollen was
miniature, and floated in a colourless liquid that
dried up after a quarter of a minute’s exposure to
the air. As the anthers dehisce at the opening of
the corolla, the development of the pollen is
probably very rapid towards the end.

The observation of the immature condition of
Nicotiana pollen in the young bud at a time subsequent
‘to that chosen forthe removal ofthe anthers and stigma
testifies both to the ease with which, in this plant, trials
for parthenogenesis can be made, and to the reliability
of the experiments.

PARTHENOGENESIS 9

The cutting off of stigma and anthers in the
earliest stage of the young bud does not in the least
affect its development; the tube grows to its full
length, the corolla expands to its full width before
withering, and there is no more delay in setting the
capsule than under normal selfing occurring on other
sprays of the plant.

In these attempts to obtain parthenogenetic seed,
failures resulted in some of the hybrids, but these
were not more numerous than the failures from
attempts to self the same hybrids.

The fact remains that parthenogenesis was dis-
covered in ten species, varieties and hybrids of
Nicotiana, and it is possible wil! be found in all of them
if the right period is chosen for the trial, ¢.e., when the
plant is beginning to go off its fullest bloom. Amongst
the hybrids I found success more likely to attend a
test made at this stage, and also when that test was
made on a spray which had already seeded one or
two of the lower blossoms. Amongst the species
and varieties this is not so necessary. In the
Tabaccums success was unfailing.

When we remember the wide geographical dis-
tribution of Nicotiana, the occurrence of partheno-
genesis in an Australian plant, like NV. Suavolens, in
the Tabaccum varieties,and in South American species,
points to the conclusion that it is an ancient character
in Nicotiana, and had developed in this genus before
the separation of the possible land connection between
Australia and South America. Or, if that conclusion
is questioned, we are led to infer that partheno-
genesis has arisen independently in different species
of the genus.

10 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

An important consideration which this dis-
covery of parthenogenesis in Nicotiana opens to
discussion, is the supposed hybrid nature of UN.
Sanderw. This plant is said to be a hybrid of N.
Forgetiana =x N. affinis. The former species was
brought by one of Mr. Sander’s travellers from South
America, and it is said was then crossed with UN.
affinis. But the true history of this hybrid appears
to be shrouded in mystery.

In the light of these observations on partheno-
genesis in Nicotiana, it is conceivable that Sander may
have obtained amongst the F: offspring from his cross of
N. Forgetiana « N. affinis not only some true hybrids
which he possibly destroyed, but’also some individuals
derived from the parthenogenetic seed of N . Forgetiana.
He may have selected these and sent out the seed as
the type of the supposed hybrid NV. Sanderw. In other
words, N. Sanderw may simply be N. Forgetiana.
If this is so, it will explain what is, from the Mendelian
standpoint, the remarkable fact that the supposed
hybrid N. Sanderw breeds true to seed, for this is a
phenomenon which is not expected to occur, on Men-
delian principles of gametic purity and segregation.

Parthenogenesis in Nicotiana perhaps explains a
fact which I have frequently observed, namely, when
Nic. Sanderw is growing alongside of other varieties
of Nicotiana in the open it always seedstrue. This
remark applies equally well to other Nicotiana which
I have grown.

THE MENDELIAN COLLECTION OF HUMAN
PEDIGREES.”

(1) Inheritance of Suicidal Mania.

The Families of Aand B. Pedigree Chart I.
BY GEO. P.. MUDGE.

I am indebted to Miss Gertrude Flumertelt, who
was recently one of my students at the London School
of Medicine for Women, for the facts of this pedigree.
I cannot sufficiently express my obligation to her
for the interest which she manifested in this case, and
for the trouble and care which she took in elucidating
the various facts.

THe Facrs OF THE PEDIGREE.

This pedigree was constructed in 1907, by enquiry
of some intimate friends of the Bfamily.t There are
two families concerned, and they have apparently
lived for many generations in an English village.
Both families are very respectable, and their members
as a whole are moderately well off, while some
members have been wealthy farmers.

As already indicated, two families are primarily
involved in the pedigree, namely, the A and B
families. There exists a tradition in the village in

4

* The Editor will be glad to receive from medical men and others,
family pedigrees showing the transmission of disease, peculiarities,
abnormalities, or of marked abilities, but not necessarily for pubtica-
tion. See Prologue.

+The symbolic letters employed to indicate the two families
concerned do not in any way reveal their identity. The two first
letters of the alphabet have been chosen for the necessary purposes of
description.

12 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

which they live that death by means of self-shooting
belonged primarily to the B family, and death by
self-drowning to the A family. The two families
have intermarried, and among their descendants
three forms of suicide are manifested, namely, the
two original forms, by shooting and drowning, and
a new form, by taking poison.

Before the present history commences, according
to tradition, the two families were unrelated.

One peculiar and singularly significant feature
of the case is the very characteristic mode of drowning
adopted by the victims of the suicidal mania. It
seemingly indicates that the manifestation of the
mania is not a matter of opportunity or suggestion,
but is an inherent impulse, which all external influ-
ences are powerless to check or destroy. It 1s indi-
cative of an innate determination so pronounced that
it would call forth our admiration were it manifested
in nobler ways. The victims proceed to drown
themselves by lying down, and then forcing their
faces into a pool of water only a few inches in depth
until death results.

Plate I.—‘* A Pedigree of Suicidal Mania.”
C. M. = Cousin marriage.
Suicide by drowning.
Has been temporarily placed in asylum.
Still living in year 1907.
= Suicide by taking poison.
ah ae shooting.
ie areatal generation.
Tey , P., P,., P,., and P,., = The different generations.
The eae Sue imeicabe those members who have manifested
suicidal mania or whose behaviour has caused their friends anxiety.
The ringed symbols indicate the normal persons.
The ringed symbols marked with a transverse line represent
unknown persons,
The numbers are merely for descriptive purposes.

i) ll

eee eRe

ll ||

Pedigree Chart I.

The ‘‘ Drily.

2 elt eee ae re P;

Pedigree Chart I.

The ‘‘Shooting” or B Family.

The ‘‘ Drowning ”or A Family.

“D2-

HUMAN PEDIGREES 13

The tendency to manifest the suicidal mania
developes, as a rule, between twenty and twenty-five
years of age. There is one marked exception to the
tule. It is the male member, No. 6 in the P generation.
(Pedigree Chart 1.) He was a wealthy farmer,
and was very much respected. He had apparently
lived in his native village all his life. Notwith-
standing that he had been very successful in his
affairs, at fifty years of age,in the July of 1907,
he committed suicide by shooting himself. An
announcement of his death, accompanied by an
obituary, appeared at the time in several of the
weekly newspapers. It appears there was no reason
for the suicide. But it is significant that through-
out his manhood, according to the account of his
relatives supplied to us, he was regarded as “ crazy,”
though he was never confined in an asylum.

As is usual in constructing a pedigree of this sort,
one finds that a few individuals are unknown, or the
memory of them is lost, and we are perforce compelled
to supply their place by hypothetical persons. These
persons, however, we know must have existed.
There are five of them in the present pedigree, and
they are indicated by the cross line passing across the
symbol which stands for them. They are Nos, 1-4 in
the P, generation, and No. 2 in the P, generation. In
the P, generation it is known that other members
besides those shown in the pedigree existed, but all
family account of them is lost, and I have not yet
been able to trace them.

14 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

DETAILS OF THE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS.
P., GENERATION.

The mode of death of the four individuals repre-
sented is unknown. The existence of these four
members is postulated. The family tradition is
that the wife of Mr. A No. 1, and of Mr. B No. 3, were
normal, and that the swicidal mania came down
through the two husbands of this generation.

P, GENERATION.

In this generation Mr. A No. 1, and Mr. B No. 3,
are known to have been brothers-in-law. Since Mr.
B No. 3 was known to have married a woman No. 4,
unrelated to either family, it follows that Mr. A No. 1
could only be brother-in-law to Mr. B No. 3 by
marrying a sister of his. Accordingly, the woman
Miss B No. 2 is postulated, since nothing is certainly
known of her in the family or in the village.

Mopet oF DEATH.

Vie. ACING: 1 Tee .. Died by drowning himself.*
Mrs. A, nee Miss B No. 2 Death unknown.

Mrs B No. 3 “- .. Shot himself.

Mrs. B, nee ?—No. 4 .. Died a normal death.

P, GENERATION.

In this generation Miss A No. 3 is known to be a
cousin of Mr. B No. 4, whom she married. He was
still living in 1907, and was then 80 years of age, and
had been sane all his life. This cousin marriage
confirms the conclusion derived from the known

*In all cases but this one, drowning was known to be by the
characteristic method already described.

HUMAN PEDIGREES iD

existence of brothers-in-law in P,, that the originally
unrelated families A and B have intermarried.

Mope oF DEATH.

Mrs. A, nee?—No.1 .. Is known to have been
normal.

Mr. A No. 2 e. .. Shot himself.

Mrs. B, nee Miss A No. 3. Drowned herself.

Mr. B No. 4 fe .. Was still living in 1907 and

then 80 years of age.
Sane throughout life.

Mr. B No. 5 os .. Tried three times to shoot
himself and failed. Died
a normal death. In the
pedigree he is marked as
an Insane member.

Mrs. B, nee?—No.6 .. Is known to have been
normal.

P GENERATION.

In this generation, a second cousin marriage,
resulting in a second intermarriage of the A and B
families, has occurred. Some individuals of this
generation, in addition to those who have actually
destroyed themselves, have been temporarily placed,
at one time or another, in asylums, because they
became intensely melancholic and it was feared they
too would destroy themselves.

Move or DEArtH.
Mrs. B, nee Miss A No. 1
(cousin and wife of
BiNOS2) 3. .. Was temporarily in an asy-
lum. In 1907 was 40
years of age and alive.

16 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Mri B No.2 ©. a

Mr. B No.
Mr. B No.
Mr. B No.
Mr. B No.

aS oO -® W

Miss B No. 7

Miss B No. 8

Miss BNo.9 ..
Miss B No. 10 ..
Miss BNo. 11 ..
Mrs. B, nee ?—No. 12..

Mr. B No. 13
Miss B No. 14 ..

Miss B No. 15 ..
Miss B No. 16 ..

Was temporarily in an asy-
lum. In 1907 was 40
years of age and alive.

. Unmarried. Drowned himself.
. Unmarried. Drowned himself.
. Poisoned himself.

. Was crazy throughout

manhood, but never put

‘ into an asylum. Shot
himself in 1907 when 5v
years of age.

. Poisoned herself ‘‘ because

she vowed she would
never see the marriage
of her brother (B No. 2)
to an A No. 1, his cousin.”

. Was in an asylum for a

time. In 1907 she was
< ce 99 =
becoming “‘ queer” again.

. Unmarried. Sane.
. Married. Sane.
. Married. Sane.

Introduced by marriage ;
wife of No. 13; normal.

. Shot himself.
. Unmarried, and was for a

time in an asylum.

. Sane.
_ Sane and married. Re-

moved with her husband
and two children from
their native village.

HUMAN PEDIGREES 17

fr —Nonl 7 .. Husband of B No. 16, and
introduced by marriage.

Normal.

F, GENERATION.
Master B No.1 .. ; Quite children. Sane up to the

Master B No.2 .. year 1907.
Mr. B No. 3 .. Is now 22 years of age and in 1907
was sane.

The two remaining children (Nos. 4 and 5) of this
generation are quite young, and their name, sex, and
age are not recorded. They have removed, with their
parents, from the village, and the desire of the family
is, I believe, to lose its identity. The children, none
the less, constitute two of the most interesting
members of the Pedigree, since they are the only
members in this Pedigree both of whose parents are
normal. Their future history is a matter of the
greatest importance, both from the Mendelian and
the medical standpoint. I am endeavouring still to .
trace them.

THE DEDUCTIONS FROM THE PEDIGREE.*

We are not justified yet in saying dogmatically
that this Pedigree is an illustration of Mendelian
phenomena. But there are clearly some Mendelian
indications. In the P generation all the individuals
have passed the twenty-fifth year of life**, and

*We follow the example admirably set by Professor Pearson,
in his ‘Treasury of Human Inheritance,” in keeping our interpreta-
tions apart from the facts of our Pedigrees. Those who seek for the
latter can thereby obtain them without wading through the former,
which at this stage of enquiry must necessarily be wholly tentative.

** The youngest must be nearly forty.
B

18 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

it is between this and the twentieth year that as
a rule the manifestations of insanity make their
appearance. Yet there are some individuals who
are still sane. Others have destroyed themselves
or have been confined in asylums, in order to
prevent self-destruction. This fact suggests a
segregation of the morbid diathesis from the
normal condition. But it is only right to add
that melancholia is said to be a trait of the whole
present family. What such a statement means is
difficult to precisely understand. Whether this melan-
cholia is to be regarded as a diluted form of the
insanity of the family, or whether it is a distinct
morbid diathesis of itself, or whether it is merely
the melancholy that is not infrequently associated
with phlegmatic temperaments leading a monotonous
life, or whether, in this particular case, 1t may not be
merely a neurotic boding, excited by a lonely country
life and a knowledge of the family history, it is
impossible to say. Many families have melancholic
members, but suicidal mania is not manifested by
them. The facts of the pedigree, I think, justify us
in believing that if a member of the family has passed
the twenty-fifth or thirtieth year of life without
showing any peculiarity of behaviour, he is a sane
member of that family. The existence of the in-
dividual, No. 6 in the P generation, who did not
shoot himself until he reached fifty years of age, does
not invalidate this statement, for, as is known, he was
“cranky throughout his manhood.”

HUMAN PEDIGREES 19 .

The next feature in the Pedigree we have to
consider in order to deal with it from a Mendelian
standpoint is the view we ought to take of the con-
dition of members Nos. 1, 2, 8, and 141in the P genera-
tion. These individuals did not attempt to commit
suicide, but their degree of melancholia was so great
and their general behaviour such that, knowing the
family history, their friends thought them safer in
an asylum. In 1907 they were free citizens and
were still living. In the Pedigree Chart we have
indicated them, in the way their relatives and medical
advisers apparently viewed them, as insane. If they
are to be regarded as potentially afflicted with the
family insanity, then they bring the number of insane
members too high, if the case is regarded as one of
simple Mendelian segregation of insanity and normality.
Ii, however, they are to be regarded as merely
extremely melancholic persons, but not insane, then the
Mendelian expectation will be 7 -5 of those afflicted and
7-5 of those not afflicted. The result—upon this view
of the nature of these members—is 6:9 respectively.

(2) A Pedigree of Tuberculosis.
The Family of C. Pedigree Chart 2.
BY GEO. P. MUDGE.

The following Family history was brought to my
notice, in response to some enquiries which I made,
in the early part of this year. The information was

20 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

vouchsated by a member of the family, the No. 4
in the F, generation. The family is a well-to-do
Irish one. It is chiefly remarkable in the apparently
sporadic appearance of tuberculosis in the present
or F, generation and in the manifestation of that
disease, as a rule, at between 19-20 years of age.
The family is one of such social position that it
excludes the factors of malnutrition and unhealthy
surroundings as an operative environment in the
causation of the disease.

THE Facts OF THE PEDIGREE.
P, GENERATION.
. Retired Colonel. Death unknown.

. Died of senility at 80 years of age.
LO. 2

2) |

29 99

» at childbirth.

a

P GENERATION.

All normal except No. 5, who died of cancer.
Nos. 4 and 6 are sisters, and No. 2 is the sister of No. 3.

F, GENERATION.

No. 1. Died at 18 years of age from rapid pulmonary
consumption.
. 2. Stillalive. Hassuffered from ulcerated throat.
, 3. Died at 19 years of age from tuberculosis of
stomach.

ra

. Quite normal.
5. Quite normal, but has gout in one finger joint.
» 6. Still alive, but had tuberculous neck glands
extracted at 19 years of age.

21

HUMAN PEDIGREES

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22 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

No. 7. Suffers from cough, is very susceptible to
cold, very slight in build, is losing flesh,
is 19 years of age, but looks only 15, and
has no moustache.

=. i. Normal.

,» 9. Delicate: suffers from headache.

5 LO. Died at 19 years of age from tuberculosis of
vertebral column.

» ll. Died from tuberculosis of lungs. First
manifested between the 19th and 20th
year.

,, 12. Died at 13 years of age from rapid pulmonary
consumption.

.. 13. Quite normal.
,» 14. Normal, but suffers from adenoids.

In addition to the individuals here given, there
were in the left hand Family (members Nos. 2 to 7),
six more children which were stillborn, and in the
right hand Family (Nos. 8 to 14), there were seven
stillborn children.

DEDUCTIONS FROM THE PEDIGREE.

One fact calls for observation. In the P genera-
tion, Nos. 2 and 3 are sister and brother respectively,
and Nos. 4 and 6 are sisters. Tuberculosis has ap-
peared in both the branches to which Nos. 4 and 6 in
part gave rise, and it has also appeared in both the
branches which owe their origin to Nos. 2 and 3.
Nos. 3 and 4 and 2 and 6 may therefore be tentatively
regarded as D R’s, since clearly the appearance of
themselves and their members in a family has resulted
in the manifestation of tuberculosis in that family.

HUMAN PEDIGREES 23

Ii we regard the capacity of contracting tuber-
culosis as due to the absence of some factor which
is present in normal individuals, then the parents
Nos. 3 and 4 and 2 and 6 may be symbolised as
Nn, where N-=normality, and n =absence of nor-
mality =tubercular predisposition. We shall then
expect in the offspring of Nos. 3 and 4, one
tubercular to three normal individuals. If we
bear in mind the fact that the young man, No. 7,
suffers from cough, is very slight in build, is losing
flesh, and looks younger than he really is, and if we
further remember that he has only just reached the
age, namely, nineteen, when the disease first manifests
itself in this family, there can be little doubt that the
prognosis in his case is a grave one. If we then regard
him as potentially tubercular, that will give us 3: 3,
instead of the expected ratio in this particular
branch.

If we make similar assumptions with regard to
the constitution of the two parents Nos. 5 and 6,
we find that in their offspring there are 4 normals to
3 tuberculates, instead of 5:2 to 1°8 respectively.
Taking the whole F, generation together and includ-
ing No. 7 among the tuberculates, we have 7 normals
to 7 tuberculates, instead of 10°5 to 3°5 respectively.

In regard to this discrepancy of numbers, we
must remember there were thirteen children who
were stillborn. Had they lived, it is possible the
ratios may have been more accordant; they may
have also been more discordant. We have yet to
learn what is the relationship between the tubercular

24 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

diathesis and the “struggle for existence ” during
intra-uterine life. We have also yet to learn
whether the people who are N N are more resisting
in their powers than those who are Nn. For of
the 15-7 persons who are expected’ to be normal
in this Pedigree, only one-third will be N N in con-
stitution, and the rest Nn. We are not justified in
believing that both types will necessarily be identical
in resisting powers. The one may resist disease under
all conditions, and the other only contract it under
exceptionally bad conditions, leaving it to the
persons of nn constitution to fall victims under
even the best conditions, foredoomed to die of
tuberculosis. And, as a matter of fact, No. 6 in
F, has had only a local glandular attack and is
now apparently quite well. Is she anNn? If
we take her and her brother, No. 7, out of the list,
then we have 9:5 where 10-5:3-5 is expected.

The young man No. 7 is from the modern patho-
logical standpoint an interesting case, or rather will
be, if tuberculosis declares itself in him. Can the
hidden weakness in his constitution be stayed by
an opsonic substance ?

(3) A Pedigree of Human Hybrids.

Segregation of European Skin Colour in a Quadroon Fraternity.

BY GEO. P. MUDGE. ~

I am indebted to the courtesy of Mrs. Haig
Thomas, who very kindly passed on to me some

HUMAN PEDIGREES 25

information supplied by her cousin, Colonel H. de
H. Haig, R.E., for the following extremely interesting
case of the segregation of European skin colour in
a generation of quadroons. To Colonel H. de H.
Haig I am under a very great obligation for the
interest he manifested in my enquiries and the great
trouble he took in the endeavour to ascertain the
answers to them. He very kindly sent me a
photograph of a group of persons in which three of
the ladies, who belong to the pedigree, appear.

The facts of the pedigree are given upon the
authority of Colonel H. de H. Haig, who was person-
aliy acquainted with all the persons (with three excep-
tions) who appear in the pedigree. I am not of course
permitted to mention names, nor can I describe the
geographical locality to which these events relate.
It is, perhaps, permissible to say that they did not
occur in the West Indies.

THE Facts oF THE PEDIGREE.
THe Parents =P GENERATION.

The father of the family was almost certainly
a yellow mulatto. His parental origin is not known
for certain. His skin was light yellow brown; it

‘

was the “colour of leather called nut-brown” and
“lighter than a new brown boot.” His hair and nose
were quite negroid, and his lips slightly so.

The mother was an Englishwoman, and a daughter
of English parents of good social position.

The mulatto father came to England to study

medicine, and upon qualifying, he married the English

26 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

lady and returned to his birthplace for the purpose of
practising his profession.

THE CHILDREN=F, GENERATION.

There were seven children. I will describe them
in order of age.

No. 1 is a daughter. ‘‘ Her hair and nose are
unmistakably negroid. Her skin colour is like her
father’s, but lighter. Her lips are not noticeably
negroid. She is very easy going and good tempered.”

Nos. 2 and 3. Both were daughters. ‘ The skin
colour of both is indistinguishable from that of
ordinary English girls; it 1s quite white. The hair
of both is typically European in form, there is no
trace of the negro crimp, and in both it 1s dark brown
in colour. The two girls are very beautiful and
have married Eyropeans, both of them officers in
the Army.”

No. 4 is a son. He was not seen by Colonel
H. de H. Haig, but he is known to have both skin
colour and negro hair like the brother next to be
described.

No. 5 is a son. “ He had negro hair; the skin
colour was like his father’s but lighter, though darker
than that of his eldest sister.”

™m addition there are two other daughters whom
my correspondent has not seen. One of these is
married, but it 1s not known if she has children.

THE GRAND-CHILDREN = F., GENERATION.

Both the married daughters Nos. 2 and 3 have
a family. One has a son and a very pretty daughter,

HUMAN PEDIGREES 27

and the other has one son and three daughters. These
six children have not been seen by my correspondent.

THE DEDUCTIONS FROM THE PEDIGREE AND GENERAL
OBSERVATIONS.

There is one fact which I think needs particular
notice here. In considering this pedigree, we are
bound of course to face certain possibilities. Many
Europeans were resident in the island. But it needs
only the most casual glance at the photograph to
render it at once clear that the likeness between the
three sisters is very pronounced. There can be not
the slightest doubt, I think, that they are sisters by
the same parents. I have shown the photographs
to several friends and they concur in my belief.
Of course the resemblance is much greater between
the two white sisters than between them and the
coloured one. But even between them there
is, In the form of the eyelids and the eyebrows, a
strong suggestion of sisterhood.

If this were a Mendelian phenomenon of the
simplest order, such as Professor Pearson has imagined
possible, we should expect that the offspring of such
parents would be in equal numbers “ whites ” and
coloured persons. There are actually 2 “ whites”:
3 coloured persons plus two of unknown type.
But it is clear that this is not a simple type of
Mendelian phenomenon, because the coloured children
are not alike in respect of skin colour or hair characters,
and they are not exactly like their father. It
is clearly a more complex type of Mendelian

28 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

inheritance. But whatever the nature of its com-
plexity it is obviously a case of Mendelian segre-
gation of European skin colour in the gametes of a
coloured father. It is not necessary to consider the
general problem in detail here, because it is fully
considered in a later article in this Journal entitled
“Skin Colour in Human Hybrids,” pp. 163.

PAPERS READ TO THE MENDEL SOCIETY.

THE EVOLUTION OF MAN.

(An Address delivered to the Mendel Society,
February, 1908.)

By J. T. CUNNINGHAM, M.A., Oxon., F.Z.S.

THE present paper is an attempt to consider some of
the modern conceptions of Biology in relation to the
human species. With regard to species in general,
the Darwinian theory assumed that the differences
between species were differences of adaptation, that
specific characters were useful, that species were
adapted to different modes of life. It has, on the other
hand, been maintained by later zoologists that in the
vast majority of specific characters there 1s no evidence
of such utility, or of correlation with useful characters.
The most eminent systematists distinguish now, as
those of pre-Darwinian days did, between diagnostic
characters, which are of chief systematic value, and
adaptive characters, which for purposes of classifi-
cation are often rather misleading than significant.
The more useless a character is the more valuable it
is as an indication of affinity. One modern school of

30 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

evolutionists, recognising the uselessness of diagnostic
characters, holds that they have not been evolved by
selection, but have arisen spontaneously as muta-
tions; and, with the usual tendency to carry a
doctrine to extremes, they maintain that all characters
are independent of utility, all arose as mutations.
The American investigator, Dr. T. H. Morgan, has
published a book specially devoted to this doctrine,
in which he endeavours to show that adaptations do
not really exist, that mutations have occurred which
could only survive under special conditions of life,
which in some cases the modified creatures have
found, so that habits have been determined by struc-
ture, not structure by habits. Thus in the short
period of half a century we have had the swing of the
pendulum of biological opinion from one extreme to
another, from the belief that all characters were
adaptive or useful to the belief that none were adap-
tive. In the meantime the common-sense view has
persisted that some characters were useful and some
were not, and that the former were easily modified by
conditions of life, the latter unaffected by such con-
ditions. It must at any rate be admitted that usually
in studying any group of animals we can certainly
distinguish between characters which have no visible
relation to the maintenance of life and others which
are necessary or advantageous to that purpose ; and
it is therefore possible to consider the origin of these
two kinds of characters separately.

The human species, in spite of the attention
devoted to Anthropology, and although it is to us the

EVOLUTION OF MAN 31

most familiar species, has perhaps been less studied
from the zoological point of view than any other.
It is also from this point of view the most difficult,
partly because it is our own species and we cannot
get far enough away from it to see it in true perspec-
tive, partly because it has had such an exceptional
history, having spread over the whole earth and
become largely independent of physical conditions ;
that is to say, it has attained to a great extent the
power of making artificially uniform conditions which
render it independent of differences of climate,
geographical features, and differences of fauna and
flora in different habitats. The first question to con-
sider is whether man is a single species or several, and
what is his relation to other species. This question, as
well as most of the others which I propose to consider
in this paper, has been discussed with his usual
thoroughness and judgment by Darwin in his
“Descent of Man,” so that I am really only trying
to see whether we know any more about these prob-
lems than Darwin taught us.

The chief peculiarities of man, as compared with
his nearest allies, the anthropoid apes, are all adaptive
and useful characters, namely, the erect position,
the structure of the hand and foot, and the faculty
of articulate speech. Associated with the possession
of language are the size and differentiation of the
brain, especially of the cerebral hemispheres, and the
correlated size and shape of the cranium. The
reduction of the jaws, teeth, and face generally is
also a characteristic feature, and adaptive to the

32 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

diminution in the use made of the jaws and teeth in
feeding and fighting. If man is regarded as a single
species, then he affords a conspicuous instance against
the doctrine that specific characters are not adap-
tations, but it must be remembered that the con-
tention is not that no specific characters are adaptive,
but that in a vast number of cases several species are
distinguished and named which live in the same
district under the same conditions, and that where
they live in different habitats there is no evidence
that the characters correspond to differences in the
mode of life. On the other hand, there is no reason
why a single species should not become adapted to
some peculiar mode of life, but then it would be a
matter of opinion among systematists whether it
should not be placed in a separate genus. |
Before proceeding further with this part of the
subject, it is interesting to consider the origin and
nature of these adaptations. While others have been
disputing whether acquired characters are ever in-
herited and whether adaptations are due to the
inheritance of acquired characters, Dr. Archdall Reid
has made the brilliant discovery that such adaptations
as those which distinguish man from the anthropoid
apes are not inherited at all, but are acquired by every
individual in the course of his development. Inborn
or congenital characters, he says, are developed by
the stimulus of nutrition alone, acquired characters
are developed by the stimulus of use. Modifications
acquired as a result of use and disuse are clearly never
transmitted, because they never develop except in

EVOLUTION OF MAN 33

response to the same stimulation as in the parent :
“Plainly, then, that which is transmitted to the,
infant is not the modification, but only the power of
acquiring the modification under similar circumstances
—a power which has undergone such an evolution in
high animal organisms that in man, for instance,
nearly all the developmental changes which occur
between infancy and manhood are attributable to
it.”* Now, while it must be admitted that it is very
important to ascertain how far characters are developed
entirely as the result of the constitution of the germ-
plasm, and how far they require an appropriate
stimulus, I think Dr. Reid attributes excessive im-
portance to the latter factor. We know that a child
only learns to speak by hearing speech, but we also
know that monkeys and dogs do not learn to speak
under the same conditions. The difference, therefore,
between man and his nearest allies is not in acquire-
ment, but in hereditary constitution. Indeed, Dr.
Reid admits as much, but he puts the fact in other
words, and here, as in much else that he has written,
it seems to me that he imagines he has discovered
something new when he has expressed what was
known before in different and unnecessarily abundant
language. He says that since “ Nature” has en-
dowed animals with the power of making not all
possible acquirements, but only certain fixed acquire-
ments that are commonly useful to the species, there-
fore species differ not only in characters which are
inborn, but also in those which are acquired ; for

* Principles of Heredity, 2nd Edition, page 35.
c

34 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

instance, the torelimbs of both ox and man grow
greatly in response to use, but the lines of growth are
very different. Exactly. Of course, Dr. Reid
assumes that the difference in the power of making
acquirements is due to natural selection. The power
of growth in response to exercise resides, he says, not
especially in the parts which are most used, as joints,
teeth, or tongue, but in the parts in which it is most
useful ; in other words, in those parts where it has
been evolved, not by use, but by natural selection.
It would be difficult to compress a greater number of
fallacies into such few words. The chief fallacy hes
in the word use. Use of a muscle means contraction,
and contraction causes growth of muscle; but it is
obvious that jomts do not contract, and that a joint
has no size. The fact that jomts can be developed
by use is proved by their actual formation occa-
sionally in neglected fractures. It is also obvious
that the tongue being a muscular organ is developed
by exercise not merely in absolute size, but in the
complexity and precision of its movements, as in the
muscles of the hand; otherwise we could not learn
to speak. In fact, it is precisely because the power
of acquiring certain structural adaptations resides in
those parts which are used for certain purposes that
Lamarckians conclude that the power to acquire
and the acquirement are due to the same causes ;
in other words, that the hereditary or congenital
factor and the acquired factor in adaptations are both
due to external stimuli. The contrary view is mere
assertion based on no evidence. What evidence, for

EVOLUTION OF MAN 35

instance, is there that the ancestor of man possessed
a variation in the power of acquiring the upright
position, independently of the attempt to walk on
his hind legs ?

Dr. Reid supposes that this power of making
acquirements is greatest among the higher animals,
and little or not at all present in the lower animals
and plants. He instances the frog, and expresses
his belief that a tadpole enclosed in a hole or crevice,
if supplied with food, would develop into a perfect
frog, and that this is possibly the explanation of those
cases reported in the newspapers from time to time
of perfect frogs found enclosed in stone in quarries.
It is unnecessary to discuss seriously this suggestion ;
it will be sufficient to consider how much foundation
there is for the dictum of Dr. Reid that the frog’s
body gains nothing from use, and its mind almost
nothing from experience. This implies that the
metamorphosis is entirely due to heredity and not at
all to stimulation. It has been proved, on the con-
trary, that aquatic larve of Amphibians can_ be
made to retain the larval state by forcing them to
breathe in the water and not allowing them to breathe
air, so that in this case, as in many others, the develop-
ment is partly due to acquirement in Dr. Reid’s
sense of the term. Dr. Reid contrasts with the
supposed development of the frog the alleged fact that
if the limb of an infant be locked by paralysis or by
a joint disease it does not develop into an adult
limb, but there is every reason to believe that the
same statement would be true of the frog.

36 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

We must conclude, then, that man differs from the
anthropoid apes chiefly in adaptational characters,
and that these characters are inborn or congenital.
They are congenital in two senses; firstly, in the
sense that they develop to a certain degree under
what Dr. Reid calls the stimulus of nutrition, by
which he means nutrition, moisture, heat, and oxygen,
the essential conditions of all development and all
life; secondly, that they attain their adult develop-
ment from a hereditary tendency to certain modes of
use and function, and from a degree of exercise which
would not produce the same development in any
other species. The new-born infant differs from
the adult man, but it also differs from the new-born
ape in all essential human characters, and that adult
has acquired structural peculiarities which no ape
could possibly acquire from any stimuli in its own
lifetime. Obviously these are not merely specific
characters, and man is not merely a species of a wider
genus. Adaptational differences are characteristic
among other animals of a genus, or of a family, or of
larger groups. For example, among the mammals
the orders are distinguished by differences of adap-
tation, e.g., the Cheiroptera and Carnivora; but
within a single order a family may be so separated,
as in the case of the mole family. It is not easy to
find a genus so distinguished. Man thus appears to
have the rank of a family. The condition of the hair
in man might possibly be regarded as a diagnostic
character which is not adaptive; if the absence of
hair on the body be explained by uselessness, still the

EVOLUTION OF MAN 37

special development on the head looks like a non-
adaptive feature. It is difficult, then, to regard man
as merely a genus of anthropoid apes.

On the other hand, we do not find that man can
obviously be divided into a number of distinct
species as other families of mammals can, or as even a
genus can be divided. There are distinct races of
man, and the question is whether these correspond
to species among other animals. To discuss this
question we have to consider the diagnostic characters
of these races. Darwin considers them very carefully
in the work I have already mentioned, and comes to
two remarkable conclusions which are of chief im-
portance in relation to the object of this paper—
firstly, that these characters graduate into each
other so that the races cannot be absolutely defined ;
secondly, that they are in no sense adaptational.
He says that, so far as we can judge, none of the
differences between the races of man are of any direct
or special service to him, nor can they be accounted
for in a satisfactory manner by the direct action of
the conditions of life, nor by use and disuse, nor
through the principle of correlation. He then pro-
ceeds to enquire whether they can. be explained by
sexual selection. He concludes that this process will
not explain all the differences, but that there is a
residuum which must provisionally, at least, be
regarded as due to spontaneous variations which have
become constant and general without selection.
Thus we find Darwin in this case compelled to adopt
the view which in my opinion still holds good in man

38 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

as in other animals, that there are two categories of
characters, namely, the adaptive and the non-
adaptive. The latter are of the same kind as those
which are called mutations by modern biologists,
while the former, in my opinion, are directly due to
stimuli. Where the stimulus is functional, the
modification is such as to render organs and structures
more fitted for the functions ; but certain conditions
may produce a direct result which has no connection
with function, and which is, therefore, not in the
ordinary sense useful or adaptive; for example, the
absence of light stimulus causes the absence of pig-
ment from the lower sides of flat fishes, but this
character is neither useful nor adaptive. The real
distinction between the two kinds of characters
according to my views is that those of one kind are
due to external stimulation, those of the other kind
are independent of external causes—the latter are
mutations, the former may be called modifications.
Huxley’s classification of the races of mankind is
a somewhat simple one. He divides them into two
primary divisions, resembling perhaps genera, namely,
the Ulotrichi with woolly hair, and the Leiotrichi
with straight hair. The Leiotrichi he subdivides into
four groups: the Australioid, the Mongoloid, the
Xanthochroi or fair whites, and the Melanochroi or
dark whites. The characters in which the races
differ are colour of skin, hair, and eyes, shape of
cranium, whether brachycephalic or dolichocephalic,
character of hair, projection of jaws, shape of features,
especially nose and eye-apertures. The negro race

EVOLUTION OF MAN 39

is one of the most distinctly marked, its characters
being black-brown skin, woolly hair, prognathous,
dolichocephalic skull, thick out-turned lips, flat nose.
The type is most perfectly developed in equatorial
Africa, as in Guinea; to the north it has crossed with
the Berbers, on the east with the Arabs ; to the south
it shows reduced characters apparently without
crossing. The Bushmen and Hottentots, while
apparently belonging to the negro stock, are much
lighter in colour, and this is some evidence that the
black of the negro is originally due to the tropical sun.
In the East Indian Archipelago is a type allied to the
negro, but not identical, extending through the region
called from its presence Melanesia, from Papua to
Fiji. These have woolly hair, but the brow ridges
and the nose are more prominent than in the negro ;
the colour varies from black to chocolate. The
Tasmanians, now extinct, are stated to have been an
isolated colony of this race. The Andaman Islanders
form a connecting link between the eastern blacks
and the negroes, but although they have frizzled hair,
which they shave off, they are brachycephalic, less
prognathous than the negro, and the nose is narrower.
The Australians are brown in colour with wavy black
hair, dolichocephalic, having prognathous skulls with
well-developed brows, and wide but not flat nose.
Allied types are believed to occur in India, namely,
the hill tribes descended from the primitive in-
habitants, and in North-east and North Africa in the
Nubians, Berbers, and the ancient Egyptians. The
Mongoloid race seems to occur in its purest state in

- 40 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Central and Northern Asia, and its features are :
yellowish colour, long black straight hair, high cheek
bones, short nose, and, especially, slanting eye aper-
tures. The allied races are of immense extent and
the features in many considerably modified either by
variation or inter-crossing. The skulls in some of
these are extremely dolichocephalic. In Asia the
Mongoloid type is extended by the Japanese,
Chinese, Siamese ; in Europe its invasions are repre-
sented by the Turks, Finns, Lapps, and Hungarians.
The Malay race seems to be a branch of the Mongo-
loid, and extends over Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and
can be traced to New Zealand and throughout
Micronesia and Polynesia. It is supposed that the
Maoris and the islanders of the Pacific, differing con-
siderably from each other in characters, have arisen
chiefly from crossing between a race allied to the
Malays and the darker Melanesians. The inhabi-
tants of the whole of America, North and South, seem
to belong to one main type supposed to have been
derived from the Mongolian. The uniformity of the
American Indians, as compared with the diversity
of types in the Old World, is one of the most striking
facts in anthropology, and is most probably ex-
plained by the view that America was populated from
a single race, the Mongolian, from Asia, within a
period so comparatively recent that no great diver-
gence has been developed. Lastly, we have the white
men, whose home is chiefly in Europe, and who
include a great variety of subordinate types.

EVOLUTION OF MAN 41

The type with blonde hair and blue eyes is found
chiefly in the north, e.g., in Scandinavia and North
Germany, but representatives of it are found in
North Africa and in Western Asia. There can be
little doubt that this is a pure type, but Huxley
suggests that the Melanochroi originated from the
mixture of the Xanthochroi and Australioids of India
and North Africa.

I can only pretend to offer a few suggestions on
the characters which distinguish the races thus
rapidly surveyed. Mendelians will assume that they
are all simple mutations, but this does not seem to
me to be a reasonable conclusion. Some of them,
as in other groups of animals, are differences of degree
in those adaptive characters which distinguish man
from the apes. For example, prognathism and the
size of the cranium and brain. The decrease in
prognathism is obviously associated with the degree
and duration of civilisation, so that this character in
negroes and Australians is adaptive. Perhaps the
same may be said of the extreme dolichocephaly
associated with a sloping forehead in the same races,
but we cannot say that the men with the shortest
skulls are the most civilised, for some of the least
civilised Mongolians are more brachycephalic than
the English. In my opinion, there is good evidence
that dark or black skin-colour is correlated with the
light and heat of the tropical sun. It may be objected
to this that the American Indians of the tropics are
not black like the negroes, but they are known to be
considerably darker than those of the north. At

42 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

anyrate, we have the following facts: that no very
dark race occurs in temperate climes either north or
south, that the negroes of equatorial Africa are
distinctly darker than the Bantus and Hottentots
of South Africa, and that the negroes of North
America have become lighter since their importation.
I have sometimes thought that perhaps modifications
due to stimuli might differ from mutations in not
exhibiting Mendelian segregation, but the evidence
so far as we have any is contradictory, for while
crossing of negroes with whites always gives inter-
mediates in all degrees of mixture, we have a con-
stantly repeated segregation when dark whites and
fair whites interbreed. Eimer mentions this as
especially conspicuous in South German villages,
where the inhabitants continually intermarry, and
yet pure blondes and dark children occur constantly
in the same family. This may be typical Mendelism,
the dark complexion being dominant and the blonde
recessive; but it requires further investigation.*
There are, however, many race characters which seem
to be evidently mutations, since there is no evidence
that they are useful or due to external conditions.
As examples of these, we may mention the character
of the hair with regard to curling, the direction of
the eye-aperture, the prominence of the nose. We
have little precise evidence concerning Mendelian
inheritance in these. Mr. G. P. Mudge published

*Mr. C. C. Hurst has recently shown that dark eyes of any
shade are dominant to blue eyes, and that the two characters
segregate in Mendelian fashion.—Proc. Roy. Soc., 1908.

EVOLUTION OF MAN 43

lately some data concerning the inheritance of such
features in crosses between Canadian Indians and
Europeans, but it seemed to me that he found all the
Indian characters segregating together in one indi-
vidual, and that this could only occur in a much
smaller proportion of cases than he stated. His
evidence would have been more convincing if he had
dealt with single marked features and proved that
they segregated.* In negro crosses we have no satis-
factory evidence of segregation in any character.
whether adaptive or otherwise. +

A word or two may be devoted to the considera-
tion of Darwin’s suggestion that sexual selection may
account for the non-adaptive character of human
races. I have shown that where the characters are
confined to one sex selection cannot be the cause
of this limitation. Where a character is already
unisexual, however, it may vary and remain uni-
sexual, as, for instance, in the human beard. The
question, then, is whether selection by the female is
required to account for a difference in the beard, or
whether the mutation might not establish itself
without selection. In deer the antlers differ in
different species in size and shape, and it could
scarcely be suggested that the particular size and
shape in a given species was due to the fact that they

* He did, however, state that segregation occurs between the
blue eye, fair complexion, and light hair of a Scotsman, and the black
eye, olive skin, and black hair of the Red Indian.— Nature, Nov. 7,
1907, p. 9, and Proceedings Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. IL.,
No. 3, p. 124. Jan. 1909.

7 This, of course, does not now hold true. See pedigree No. 3
in this Journal, page 24.—The Editor.

44 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

were the best for fighting, or the most admired by the
female. But sexual selection might affect characters
which were not limited in inheritance ; for example,
the black of negroes might be due to the preference by
either or both sexes for the darkest skin, but this 1s
not a probable view.

In a short paper like the present I can only give a
very imperfect outline of the subject, but I hope I
have said enough to show that anthropology requires
to be re-investigated from modern points of view.
My own provisional conclusions are that man affords
an example of a single species which has started a new
group, which might become a genus or family. Other
genera or families may have originated in this way by
a single species adopting a new mode of life. The
evidence does not seem to me to support the view
that all human characters, adaptive and non-adaptive,
can be regarded as mutations independent in their
origin of habits or functional or other stimuli. The
evidence seems to me to agree with the view I take
of animals in general, that adaptive characters are
due, not to selection, but to the effects of functional
and physical stimulation, and that diagnostic
characters are not adaptive and therefore not due
to selection, but to blastogenic variation.

Mr. Cunningham’s paper read to the Mendel Society in February
1908, was published in ‘‘Science Progress” in the following October:
We are indebted to Mr. John Murray the publisher, for kind per-
mission to reprint the article. -

Biological Iconoclasm,
Mendelian Inheritance and Human Society

A PLEA FOR THE OPERATION OF A MORE
VIRILE SENTIMENT IN HUMAN AFFAIRS.

An Address delivered to the Mendel Socrety and to the

Eugenics Education Society, in June, 1908.
By GEORGE PERCIVAL MUDGE.
No biologist who has lived in our community and
watches its affairs, can feel that all is right in the
modern sentiment that is guiding it. If he fearlessly
faces the facts, and puts aside all prejudice arising
out of mistaken ideas, he cannot fail to see that a con-
tinuation and extension of this sentiment will lead
the nation— which is Jast upon the scroll of greatness
—to its destruction.

Let us first consider the nature of the modern
sentiment of which I speak. It is characterised by
a wide range of various phases, but all of them
may be expressed in one general formula, 7.e., ‘* Pre-
serve and procreate the unfit citizens, and hamper
and discourage the fit.” Let me illustrate the different
ways in which this formula has been applied, by
giving one or two examples taken from the statements
and the conduct of the people who are endeavouring
to apply it. When Canon Barnett says that the
“weak of human society are so because of the short-
comings of the strong”; when Mr. Philip Snowden

46 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

says “he believes we can change human nature
by education and legislation” ; when Lady Warwick
and Sir John Gorst demand relief for underfed school
children from the Lambeth Board of Guardians ;
when certain well-intentioned but misinformed people
demand that every elementary State school shall have
an army of nurses to clean and bandage children’s
cut fingers; when Mrs. Sidney Webb impliedly
advocates that the children of workhouse paupers
can be made vigorous and strong and converted into
self-reliant and independent citizens if only they are
nursed by State employed nurses; when Mrs.
Humphry Ward believes that the children of the
lower social classes are going to be made happy, well
ordered, contented, and healthy citizens if the State
will but provide their recreation and their playing
grounds; when an Act of Parliament decrees that
public servants paid out of public moneys. shall
cleanse verminous persons; when certain medical
men assert that the stunted weaklings whose parents
live in one-roomed tenements are more stunted than
those whose parents live in two-roomed tenements,
and these more so than those of three-roomed tene-
ments, and in consequence they conclude that
our nation is undergoing physical degeneration along
this road, and then further by implication recommend
that the State (c.e., the fitter citizens) shall provide
four-roomed tenements; when one of the leader-
writers of The Times asserts that “‘ individuals, like
races, are the product of the environment,” implying
a direct and moulding action of the environment ;

VIRILE SENTIMENT AT

and when the Glasgow Board of Guardians, at the
expense of the ratepayers, send the children of
reprobates, drunkards, criminals, prostitutes, and
general failures to be boarded out and cared for
among the intelligent, virtuous, and thrifty inhabi-
tants of the western coast of Scotland, in the implied
belief that they will inevitably become good citizens
because of the changed environment—they are
expanding this remarkable formula, and are en-
deavouring to teach the strange doctrine that sand
can behave as granite if only both are beaten upon
by the same tempestuous sea. Verily, the age of
fairy tales has not yet passed away!

This corybantic sentiment, so wildly solicitous
of the well-being of the civically unfit, is being
promulgated from every pulpit, by every newspaper,
by every social reformer, by every political opportu-
nist, and by every one of the great multitude of
morbid and neurotic sentimentalists. It is a phase
of hysteria permeating into the soul of our nation.
Surely the worst thing any nation can do is to concern
itself in frantic endeavours to save or pamper its
weaklings and unfit. It is dangerous to ignore
the clear teachings of science, that in the hereditary
processes there is an irrevocable coming out at one
end of the chain of generations of the characters
that go in at the other; they come out not only as
they went in, but numerically increased, because
the individuals bearing them are multiplied in
geometrical progression; they tend to spread ever
wider in each successive generation. That which

48 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

started in the first generation as a pair of parents
may in the seventh generation become a million
individuals! We are not fully aware of the silent
dangers that we incur in our endeavours to save the
unfit and render their lot easier. Useless as they
are, and unable to contribute to national resources or
progress, they become an ever-increasing source of
injury and harassment to the fitter citizens, who,
either voluntarily or under compulsion, contribute
to their maintenance. While the artificially-endowed
unfit, who are being relieved in ever-increasing degree
of their responsibilities, are faithfully procreating,
the artificially-disendowed fit citizens, whose respon-
sibilities increase as those of the other class decrease,
are limiting the number of their children. For any
nation, under any circumstances, this is a dangerous
condition ; but for a nation upon the walls of whose
temples has been written, in the writing of con-
temporary events, the warning that in the not
‘remote future she will be called upon to measure her
strength with other nations upon the battlefield, it
is nothing short of criminal and disastrous folly.
If our nation must depart from the laisser-favre
policy, and make a positive effort to determine what
the qualities of its citizens shall be, the only sound
line of action is to endeavour to encourage and
preserve the worthier citizens, and to discourage
and eliminate the less worthy ones. And _ that
result can be attained without any conscious effort,
for those best fitted to survive under the conditions
which reign on earth will do so by purely natural

VIRILE SENTIMENT 49

processes, without any artificial and compulsory
interference or help. And we may be sure that these
processes are benign; biological teaching is clear
on that point. By these processes, throughout the
whole realm of nature, the maximum amount of
happiness and vigour is attained, with the minimum
amount of misery or pain. Human _ interference
but decreases the former, while increasing the latter.
It is better, in the faith of the greater religions, to
accept our destiny.

I will come now to one of the principal objects
of this address, 7.e., the refutation of the main as-
sumption, sometimes expressed and sometimes im-
plied, upon which this modern sentiment rests.
It is tacitly assumed by the exponents of this senti-
ment that the qualities of the individual depend
upon his environment; that he is vicious because
of the viciousness of his surroundings, and good
because his environment is made up of good in-
fluences. It is entirely wrong; there is no justi-
fication for it at all in the realm of fact. The very
converse is true, for in social life the environment
is the product of the individual, and not wice versa.
The stunted individuals are not the product of
a one-roomed tenement, but the one-roomed tenement
is the expression of the inherent incapacity of this
race to be able to do anything better for
itself. They are not undergoing physical de-
generation because they are living in a one-roomed
tenement—many a better man has done that—

but the one-roomed condition is the natural outcome
D *

50 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of their already-existing physical, moral, and in-
tellectual degeneration. These degenerates are muta-
tions, and breed true to their degeneracy. The
qualities of an individual are determined within
him; they are inherent, and depend upon the
molecular architecture of the racial lines from which
he has sprung. An individual is merely a piece of
his racial stock; what he can do depends, not upon
his environment, but upon the innate qualities
which he has inherited from his stock. Let us
observe that it is a potato plant, and not a dahlia,
that grows out of a potato tuber; it is a dahlia, and
not a potato, that grows out of a dahlia’s tuberous
root-stock. A change of soil will not alter this
fact. One potato may be grown among an army of
dahlias, but it comes up a potato plant in spite of
that. The susceptible wheat plant falls a prey to
the “rust,” but the inherently immune plant growing
in a field of “rusted” plants remains unattacked
and healthy. From the fertilised ovum of a fish
there is developed a fish, and not a bird. Transference
of the bird to water, or of the fish to the skies, will not
convert the one to the other. But the exponents of
modern sentiment are preaching, either directly or
by implication, that it will. It is a strange doctrine,
and is so contrary to the common experiences of
life, that it is marvellous it should ever have been
believed. But I suppose there is no limit to the
amount of delusion which the circumstances of a
democracy, with the various appeals that are made
to the uncultured and unculturable masses for their
judgement, will allow to be imposed upon it.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 51

Let me now proceed to describe one interesting
case, to show how false is this doctrine of environ-
ment, before I pass on to the second main purpose of
my address, 7.e., to demonstrate the irrevocableness
and inevitableness of the transmission from generation
to generation of those inherent qualities that are, for
all practical purposes, the sole determining cause of
what an organism will be and do. In the Tyrolese
valleys and elsewhere there grow two plants known
as the Summer Savory and the Flax. In the valleys
both these plants are green in colour. This green
colour is due to a substance called chlorophyll,
and one of its imherent qualities is that it can
only exist as chlorophyll within a certain range
of light-intensity. In a too dull light it is not formed,
and in a too intense light it is destroyed. But this
chlorophyll is necessary for the existence of the
plant; in its absence death ensues. Now, as we
move higher up a mountain the sunlight becomes
more intense, because there is a less thick layer
of atmosphere, with its contained water particles,
to absorb a certain measure of it. Consequently
at a certain height the light-intensity will be sufficient
to destroy the chlorophyll and kill the plant. The
hypothesis of this modern sentiment demands that
these two plants, placed under the same environment,
shall behave in the same way. For, assuredly, if
it 1s environment which determines the qualities or
behaviour of organisms, then the same environment
shall produce the same response in all organisms
subjected to its influence. If this be not the as-

52 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

sumption underlying all efforts at social reform
then what is the justification for them ? How, then,
do these two plants react to a changed environment,
when they are grown in the intenser sunlight that
shines on the mountain slopes at a height of 2,195
metres, instead of in the shadier valley? What
justification, as living organisms, do they give us
for those almost frantic efforts which are designated
under the collective and misleading phrase, social
reform—efforts which ostensibly aim at improving
the environment of the weak and unfit on the as-
sumption that thereby they will be made strong
and fit? No justification at all do we find in the
behaviour of any living organism. Nothing, in fact,
but condemnation of such efforts. For when these
two plants are moved from an old environment
common to them both, and are grown from seed and
reared under a new and identical environment, do
they both react in the same way to the same con-
ditions ? Not at all! The Summer Savory changee
its colour, and becomes suffused over its whole
surface with a purple colouration. Careful examina-
tion of the tissues of the plant shows that this new
colour is developed in the most superficial tissues
only, the internal tissues remaining unchanged.
What is the meaning of this change of colour under
the new environment of an intenser sunlight ?
The purple-coloured sap which is thus called into
existence possesses the power of absorbing certain
of the rays of sunlight, and especially the particular
ones which are most active in the destruction of the

VIRILE SENTIMENT 53

plant’s green colourmg matter. The organism is
thus protected from the harmful influences of an
increased intensity of sunlight. Its green colouring
matter—its chlorophyll—remains undamaged, and
can continue to discharge those vitally-important
functions that belong to it. This plant thus thrives,
flowers, and seeds under the changed environment.
But it is quite otherwise with the Flax. It does not
develope any purple sap; it fails to respond in that
way, or in any other protective way, to its changed
conditions. It cannot even reach the flowering
stage, for soon after it has passed the seedling stage
its chlorophyll becomes destroyed by the intenser
sunlight, and it perishes.

Here, then, are two organisms that give us a
crucial test of the validity or invalidity of this re-
markable environmental doctrine. And the answer
is definite and condemnatory! What an organism
can and will do does not depend on the environment,
but on the qualities of the organism itself. It is
one of the inherent capacities of the Summer Savory
to respond to this particular kind of new environment,
and to adapt itself to the changed conditions. It
is one of the inherent defects of the Flax that it
cannot do what the Summer Savory does; and the
only result of applying the environmental doctrine
to it is to kill it. This is a fact which is not without
its social significance. It is a fact which is not
without illustration in the case of Man _ himself.
Let me give the illustration, for it is highly significant
and entrancingly interesting. Certain missionaries,

54 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

supremely innocent of biological facts, rushed into
some complex biological problems and endeavoured
to civilise the Tasmanians. Acting under the im-
pelling influences of mistaken ideas, but prompted
by the noblest motives, they sought to change the
environment of these people, and to give them what
they imagined to be a better one. Their efforts were
rewarded by the extinction of the Tasmanians !
In something less than fifty years the whole race of
this people was eliminated, not by war, or plague,
or pestilence, but by the operation of those processes
that flow from the application of that crude, theoreti-
cal, and sentimental conception of the power , of
the environment to make good out of bad that
is the dominating influence of our own social efforts.
Some day we shall learn that the characters of
men are relatively fixed and stable, and that they
are the products of evolution under set conditions.
As we find men, at any given period, in any given
place, they are adapted to the particular combination
of conditions under which they have evolved, and
to no other. Arbitrarily change these conditions,
as in the case of the Flax and the Tasmanians, and
the organisms, who are thereby no longer fitted to
the new conditions are destroyed. Leave them
alone as Nature made them—‘ let the Tasmanians
roam as they were wont, and undisturbed ”’—and
they will thrive. Interfere with them, by setting
up a dogma that rushes in where biological philosophy
fears to tread, and the objects of our solicitude
“become bewildered and dull, they lose all motives

VIRILE SENTIMENT 55

for exertion, and get no new ones in their place,” and
ultimately they perish.

These are considerations which should be recog-
nised before any endeavour is made to interfere
with the conditions and natures of the citizens of
our own communities. In the same way, but in
lesser degree, that the mherent qualities of a Tas-
manian are different from those of an Anglican
Bishop, so are the inherent qualities of the lower
social strata different from those of the upper strata
in civilised communities. And just as the Bishop,
with his higher aspirations and nobler sentiments,
failed to recognise that the Tasmanian had not got
them, and could not be made to have them, so certain
well-intentioned, generous, impulsive, charitable, and
philanthropic persons in the higher social scale fail
to recognise that the aspirations and ideals of the
lower classes are wholly different from their own.
And just as with the Tasmanians, so in our own
social efforts, disaster and destruction will follow
any interference with those benign but merciless
processes of Nature which allow only individuals
adapted to their conditions to survive. The Tas-
manians lived the life they did because their inherent
desires impelled them to do so, and there was nothing
in their physical environment inconsistent with them.
But neither was there anything inconsistent in that
physical environment with half-a-dozen other modes
of living, had they chose to live them. Other
ways, it is conceivable, were open to them, but
they chose the particular one, and the only one,

K

56 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

which their inherent qualities made possible. The
hfe they lived was the product of their desires—it
was the outcome of their innate nature; they were
not the product of their mode of life. They made
their life, not their life made them. It is the same
with our own social classes. The mode of life of
the higher strata is the outcome of their inherent
qualities in just the same way that the mode of life
of the lower is the product of their born desires and
capacities. Endeavour by altering the environment
to compel a cultured and refined woman of the upper
classes to lead the life of the slums, and we shall
eliminate her race. But, clear and obvious though
this is, social reformers fail to recognise the truth of
the reverse process. Try to alter the environment
of the lower classes, and compel them to give up their
inborn habits and desires—which are the product of
their line of evolution—and to lead a wholly different
life, and we shall repeat the concluding chapter
of Tasmanian history. The higher classes are the
outcome of their evolution, and the lower of theirs.
The existence of social classes is a natural fact, and
the existence of different grades of social condi-
tions is but the natural outcome of that fact. The
social conditions are the products of the social
classes, not the social classes the products of
social conditions. It is in this matter that those
medical men who are interested in social problems
and social reformers have confounded cause and effect.
And it is out of this confusion that modern social
sentiment has sprung. So long as this sentiment

VIRILE SENTIMENT 57

exists, and so long as it is operative in guiding and
initiating social legislation, it constitutes a source of
the gravest danger to the nation. It is time we awoke.
It is time we turned our attention to Biology, and

¢

refused to heed any longer the “rope-dancers in the
market. places.”

Let us pass now from the question of environment
to consider inherent qualities and the way in which,
once they have come into existence, be they good or
bad, they irrevocably pass on unaltered through
successive generations. An organism does not mani-
fest a single quality alone, but is made up of a complex
combination of many qualities. Some of these
qualities, be they structural or psychical, are them-
selves not simple, but complex. Some of them are
independent of others in the hereditary transmission,
but others are correlated and always go together,
in larger or smaller groups, from generation to genera-
tion. An individual, like his environment, is really
an aggregate of complexities bound up within each
other. This fact renders all questions of social
interest extremely difficult to consider, and is the
best justification of the Jaisser-faire attitude. If
we depart from the certain ground of Nature, and
artificially touch one link in the series of com-
plexities that are interlinked and make up _ the
tangled chain of life, it is not possible to forecast
even the immediate, much less the remote con-
sequences. They are always such as we _ never
expected them to be. Nevertheless, certain main
trends of this chain are sufficiently clear for practical

58 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

purposes, and can be seen with sufficient distinctness
running through the phenomena of life. These are the
facts that I would like now to bring to your attention.

When a tall person marries a short person, or one
of sweet temper marries one of a bad temper, there
are three conceivable possibilities as to the nature
of the immediate offspring. We can imagine that
tallness and shortness, or sweetness and _ badness,
will blend with each other in each case, and produce
offspring not as tall or as sweet as one parent, nor
as short or as bad-tempered as the other. Let us
call this the hypothesis of “ blended inheritance.”
We can, however, imagine another alternative, and
conceive that some of the offspring may be like one
parent and some like the other, or that, under certain
circumstances, all the offspring in one generation
may be like one of the parents only, those which
resemble the other parent, in the particular character
considered, appearing in the next or later generations.
In such a case there has been no blending of the two
alternative characters, for they have passed on to
the next or later generations distinct from each
other, each retaining its own feature of distinction.
Let us call this the hypothesis of “segregated or
alternative inheritance.” The third alternative is
that the union of two characters in marriage shall
produce an offspring showing a new quality, different
from the two which by their union produced it.
We may call this “diapheromorphic inheritance.”
There is yet a fourth possibility, which can, however,
only occur with certain characters. The bodies of

VIRILE SENTIMENT 59

the offsprmg may be a mosaic of the two characters
of the parents. We may call this “ mosaic, par-
ticulate, or poecilodynamous inheritance.”

I am not concerned now in discussing these types
of inheritance, for it is to be observed they are all
based upon the visible body characters. They are
descriptive of the somatic features only in inheritance.
My present line of enquiry will deal with somatic
or body characters as incidental but still necessary
features of consideration. It is with the gametic
or sex-cell characters, which are, of course, invisible
to us until they are manifested in the body cells,
that we shall be essentially concerned. And I would
like you to try and form a mental picture for yourself
of an individual as a compound made up of a large
number of sex-cells, which are surrounded by body
cells, but which are in a sense independent of them.
The body cells are the perishable cells ; they live our
life for us, and then die. But the sex-cells, in a sense,
are the immortal cells, for they carry on our characters
from the generation in which we live to all those which
succeed us. Whatever the body cells may do, there
is no evidence to show that the sex-cells respond to
environmental influences, in the sense that their
innate qualities can be altered. Indeed, their stability
is a matter of vital importance, for without it there
could not exist species that, throughout long periods
of time and through a wide range of geographical
distribution, retain their characters unaltered. There
could be no survival of the fittest, if the qualities
which made a race the fittest were not stable and,
therefore, persistent.

60 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

The stability of the sex-cell is a fact that I would
like you to grasp, because it is one of very great
importance in considering social problems. What
we have always to bear in mind is not so mucha
question of what the individual himself may be, but
what is the nature of the characters which his sex-
cells are carrying and transmitting to successive
generations. And there is another fact of equal
importance which we should endeavour to fully
understand now, and this is that the body or visible
characters of an individual are not necessarily a reliable
indication of the characters which his sex-cells may be
carrying. Three grey-coated animals, externally
similar, may be carrying in their gametes (sex-cells)
very different qualities, so far as colour is concerned.
One may carry nothing but greyness, another greyness
and albinism, and the third may carry greyness,
blackness, and albinism. The offspring of these
three apparently identical individuals would be
very different. If these processes are at work in
human life—and I shall presently show you evidence
indicating that they are—clearly it is a matter of
the widest significance, and one which all social
reformers have overlooked. If a youth from the
lower classes manifests a few superficial accomplish-
ments—can, for instance, pass an elementary scholar-
ship examination by a process of cram—but is carrying
the civic qualities of his class, is it worth the while of
a State to spend the money of better citizens upon
that youth? Is it worth while to spend money in
order that we may produce in an individual certain

- VIRILE SENTIMENT 61

artificial accomplishments which can always be
had for nothing in the class immediately above that
to which he belongs? In this next higher grade we
not only obtain the artificial accomplishments, but
in addition better innate civic qualities. What we
are really doing by such methods is paying for an
inferior stock when we have already the better one
for nothing. We pay for a few putative accomplish-
ments in an individual whose sex-cells are going to
give us an inferior civic stock! That is one con-
sideration which this new fact of heredity bids us heed.

We are going to deal, then, with the sex-cells.
When the male sex-cell unites with the female sex-
cell there is produced the first body cell, by the
repeated divisions and growth of which a new in-
dividual arises. What this new individual will. be,
and what he will transmit to the next generation,
depends not upon his environment, but upon what
the two sex-cells, male and female, of his parents
brought in. A sex-cell which carries leaden social
instincts is not going to develope into a golden
individual because he has been given a golden en-
vironment. From it a person of leaden instincts only
will develope.

Let us appeal, then, to accurately-conducted
experiments, and see how far we can ascertain some
reliable facts as to what the sex-cells are really doing.
When a sex-cell of a pure black rabbit is united
with one of an albino rabbit, to what sort of offspring
will it give rise? Without exception, whenever this
cross has been made, black rabbits indistinguishable

62 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

from the pure black parent have been the result. The
whiteness of the albino parent is temporarily lost
to view; but it is not destroyed or swamped. It
exists, and under the appointed conditions which
Nature has determined and we have now learned it
will reappear, pure and unaltered. Its association
with blackness, in the processes of heredity, has not
altered it. Environment, even of this intimate kind,
has not changed it. For, if we cross the sex-cells
of the brothers and sisters of this first generation, we
find that two kinds of rabbits are produced, «e.,
black and albinoes. Blackness and albinism have
separated out again, perfectly distinct. There has been
no blending of these characters, but segregation of them.

We know that each member of the offspring in
the first generation which results from uniting the
sex-cells of a pure black rabbit with those of an
albino must have been compound individuals, because
each must have contamed both blackness and
albinism. They are, with respect to these two
characters, impure individuals. We may call them
hybrids, or heterozygotes*. But the feature of
interest is that although they are impure, since they
carry blackness and whiteness, they are indistin-
guishable from the pure black parent which carried
blackness only. Something must have happened
to the albinism, since it does not manifest itself in
these hybrids. We are not sure what does happen
to it, but it does not, for our present purpose, very
much matter. We have got the fact that one of the

*A term applied by Prof. Bateson.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 63

two alternative characters exhibits itself in the hybrid,
and the other does not. We may speak of the
character which thus shows itself to the exclusion
of the other as the Dominant one, and the one which
temporarily disappears as the Recessive character.

When these hybrids are mated with each other,
or are mated back with either of their two aprents,
or with individuals like their parents, blackness and
albinism separate out again in this second generation.
But we know from experiment that all the black
individuals of the second generation are not alike.
This is a very important fact, and its social bearing
we have already glanced at (pp. 60 and 61). Some
are pure black individuals, and others are hybrids ;
the one carries blackness only, and the other both
blackness and albinism. And there is a certain
proportion in which these types appear when hybrids
are mated inter se. It is one pure black, two impure
blacks, and one albino.

It the pure blacks be bred with each other, only
pure black individuals are produced in the offspring.
The dominant character breeds true. If the albinoes
be mated with each other, only albino offspring are
produced. The recessive character also breeds true.
But if the impure blacks be bred together, then the
offspring again consists in this third generation of
different individuals in the proportion of one pure
black, two impure blacks, and one albino. The
hybrids do not breed true.

Now a moment’s thought will show us that we
cannot explain these facts on any assumption of

G4 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the blending of the characters carried by the sex-cells
of the two parents. Had blending occurred, black-
ness as such, and whiteness as such, would have for
ever disappeared. When blackness is crossed with
whiteness, if blending takes place, we should expect
to find a diluted blackness. And the diluted blackness
of the first generation, when bred with diluted
blackness, should on this hypothesis give no other
individuals but those of diluted blackness; and it
should do this for generation after generation.
When crossed with albinism, a dilute black should
give a diluter black, but not blackness as black as
the original, and albinism as pure as the first albino
introduced. It is clear, then, that the blended
hypothesis of inheritance fails completely in this
case. And it similarly fails in a large number of
other cases, comprising a wide range of characters.
Will the hypothesis of segregation give us an ex-
planation of the ascertained facts? Assuredly it
does. Let us proceed to see how. The doctrine of
segregation assumes as a fundamental proposition
that when two sex-cells unite, one carrying black-
ness and the other albinism, these two qualities do
not blend or fuse in the single cell which results,
but remain distinct; and that at the ultimate
cell-divisions by which the sex-cells of the new
individual will separate out from its body cells,
these two qualities will be found distinct from each
other, and carried in different sex-cells. It the in-
dividual is carrying only blackness, then, of course,
all its sex-cells will carry blackness. And, similarly,

VIRILE SENTIMENT 65

if it is carrying only albinism, then all its sex-cells
ean carry albinism alone. But if it carries both
blackness and albinism, then one-half of its sex-cells
will carry one character, and the other half will
carry the other.

Now it is clear that so long as a pure black
individual is crossed with another pure black,
sex-cells carrying blackness only can meet. Hence,
only a black offspring can result. And in the same
way, so long as an albino is crossed with an albino,
there is only one kind of sex-cell which can meet,
a.e., an albinism-carrying one with an albinism-
carrying one. But it is otherwise when an impure
or hybrid black is mated with a similar individual.
Here the two parents are both carrying two kinds
of sex-cells, z.e., those transmitting blackness and
those transmitting albinism. Consequently, at sexual
conjugation, a male sex-cell which carries blackness
has an equal chance of meeting an egg carrying
either blackness or albinism. And the same is true
of the male sex-cell which carries albinism. If we
agree to let A stand for albinism, and B for blackness,
then BA will represent a hybrid individual. This
individual will be black in colour, although it is
carrying albinism, because we have seen that black-
ness is dominant and albinism is recessive. We
may, therefore, graphically represent the possibilities
in this way :— |

PieAe < Bb Parents.

|
|BA+BA+BA | Offspring.

66 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

If No. 1 BA, the sister, is mated with No. 2 BA
the brother, then the B sex-cells of the first may
meet the B and A sex-cells of the second, and give us
BB and BA respectively. Similarly, the A sex-cells
of No. 1 may meet the B and A sex-cells of No. 2
and give us BA and AA respectively. Thus we
shall obtam 1 BB +22BA+ 1AA. Thatasian
the average in every four members of the offspring
_of two BA parents, we shall expect 1 pure black,
1 pure albino, and 2 impure or hybrid black imdi-
viduals. And this is what experiment does give us.

We have spoken so far of the segregation of these
two characters. But there is another feature which
we should note, and it is this: Segregation of charac-
ters alone would not be sufficient to explain the
experimental results. It is possible to have segrega- .
tion and yet have both characters carried in the
same sex-cell; they can he side by side with each
other in the cell. But it is a fundamental part of
our proposition that any one sex-cell can carry one
only of the two alternative characters. To this .
conception of the structure of the sex-cell we apply
the term “gametic purity.” Necessarily, gametic
purity implies segregation. But segregation does not
necessarily imply gametic purity. We may now widen
the description of our principle of heredity, and
call it the theory of segregation and gametic purity.

We have arrived, then, at this position: The
sex-cells are the carriers of the characters of the
race, from one generation to another. Whenever
two alternative characters, such as tallness and

VIRILE SENTIMENT 67

dwarfiness, colour and albinism, short-haired coat
and long-haired coat, hairy epidermis and smooth
epidermis, blue eyes and brown eyes, and a large
number of other alternatives are present in a race,
each of the sex-cells can carry one only of these two
characters, the other character being carried by
another cell. And the distribution of these two
characters among the whole mass of the sex-cells of
any individual is such that one-half of the total
number of them will carry the one character, and the
other half will carry the other character.

And the outcome of this structure and arrangement
of the sex-cells is that when two hybrids are mated,
their offspring will consist of a mixture of individuals,
some showing the dominant character and others
the recessive. Those which exhibit the dominant
character are not alike, some of them being pure
dominants and the others impure or hybrid dominants.
The proportions in which these types appear are one
pure dominant, two hybrid dominants, and one
recessive.

I would like now to ask your consideration of a
type of mating which is very important from the
social standpoint, and from the point of view of the
student of human heredity. It is the mating where
one of the two parents is a hybrid and the other a
recessive. In our symbolic representation we may
state it this way: DRx RR. The result of
such a mating is to produce only two kinds of off-
spring, being identical in regard to the two _par-
ticular characters under consideration with the

68 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

two parents. That is, the offspring will consist,
in the long run, of an equal number of individuals
who are hybrids, or D R#’s, and of pure individuals,
or R R's, who are carrying only the recessive char-
acter. The hybrid individual will carry both the
dominant and _ recessive character, but will ex-
hibit in his structural features or psychical con-
duct only the dominant one. That is, he is some-
thing different from what he appears to be. His
influence on the race, in respect of his hereditary
transmission, may be quite the opposite to that
expected, if the expectation be based on his present
apparent condition. This is a fact which social
reformers and all others who aspire to interfere
with Nature’s processes would do well to clearly
realise. It is easy enough to heedlessly interfere
with the workings of Nature, and to misunderstand
her, but it 1s impossible to escape the consequences
of so doing.

If this conception of segregation and gametic
purity be true of human life, it is easy to see how
important a bearing it has upon the problems with
which Genetics* and Eugenics are concerned. Ii
we, as students of these branches of biological science,
desire to see only our individuals of good civic
qualities mated, and if we find upon further study
that a certain proportion of our apparently good
citizens are carrying in a recessive condition the
antithetic bad qualities, which may become mani-
fested in the next generation, clearly our line of

* For a definition of Genetics and Eugenics, see Appendix, p p. 110 and 112,

VIRILE SENTIMENT 69

action or of social education must be modified.
There is a pitfall lying across our path, and we
must be careful to see it, in order that we may avoid
the consequences of falling into it.

Before I pass on to consider the other main purpose
of this paper, 7.e., the question whether the evidence
justifies us in believing that the processes of segrega-
tion and gametic purity are operating in human
heredity, I would like to make the task a little easier
by tabulating all the possible types of mating which
can occur. We are assuming for the present that
human beings are composed of a number of alternative
or unit characters. These are disposed in pairs,
and each unit character in a pair is capable of re-
placing the alternative one in the processes of here-
dity. One of these unit characters we call dominant,
and the other recessive. This assumption being
tentatively accepted, we may classify human matings,
so far as particular pairs of characters are concerned,
in the following way, and from such matings offspring
of the nature indicated will be expected :—

Parent x Parent. ‘Nature and proportion of expected Offspring.

fee x ey = All i.

UD kh f= ADF and all-visibly D.
Dx Diy = D D+ DF =-all visibly D.
Dip DR = AD D412 DE (visibly D) +14 A.
De x fe 1 DR (visibly D)+1 RR.
EE 1) = VAM DD,

Now we are in a position to consider what is,
next to the question of man’s origin and destiny,
one of the most intensely interesting of human
questions: Do the alternative characters which
make up human beings, and which decide what we

l

|

70 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

shall be and do, separate from each other during
the processes and structural changes by which the
sex-cells are produced, so that, individually, we
represent the product of a sum of paired characters
handed down to us by our parents? And what we
shall be, therefore, will depend not upon what our
ancestors as an aggregate were, but upon the gametic
nature and structure of our parents? And since our
parents can only carry between them a single pair of
alternative characters of the same class, while all our
ancestors between them may have carried many
such pairs, it is clear that we individually cannot
represent in any particular character more than two
of our ancestors, while in some cases we may represent
only one and carry in a recessive condition the
alternative unit character of one other? Or, are we
the product of the blending of all the ancestral alterna-
tive qualities that have been brought into our line by
all our ancestors ? So far as our evidence is definite
at all, the answer for the latter question is negative,
and affirmative for the former. I am far from
asserting that our evidence is complete, or that
it is of such a nature that the blended hypothesis of
inheritance is yet altogether excluded. But I am
prepared to maintain that, making due allowances
for the circumstances under which the human
pedigrees have been obtaimed, and giving proper
consideration to the probable complexity of many
human characters supposed to be simple, the evidence
is very clearly suggestive—and in some cases it
amounts to a scientific demonstration—that gametic

VIRILE SENTIMENT 71

purity and segregation are the two processes which
determine human heredity, alike in the transmission
of normal and abnormal characters.

Let us pass on, therefore, to consider some of the
evidence for segregation and gametic purity in
man. I propose first to deal with the transmission
of a normal human character, 7.e., eye-colour. Until
Mr. Hurst, during the years 1905-1907, examined a
number of families, separately and in detail, recording
each individual eye-colour, it cannot be said that
our knowledge of this matter was anything like
definite or satisfactory. Previous records largely
depended upon the observations of different ob-
servers, and upon a more or less popular and in-
definite classification of eye-colours. And, moreover,
the mathematical methods that were employed to
deal with the ascertained data were of such a nature
that the truth was rather masked than elucidated by
them. As a matter of subsequent knowledge, they
actually did miss the truth. Mr. Hurst made a
personal examination of the eye-colours of one
hundred and thirty-nine pairs of parents, and of
six hundred and eighty-three of their offspring.
He found that he was enabled to classify all eye-
colours into two classes, which he called the ‘“‘ Sim-
plex”? and the ‘“ Duplex.” These two types of
eyes are quite distinct. The simplex type includes
all the pure blue and pure grey* eyes, 7.e., blue and

* Pure grey eyes are simply blue eyes in which the iris tissues are a
little more opaque, and so cause the blue to appear grey. Eyes which
are blue in childhood may become grey in later life, owing to an increase
of this opacity.

72 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

grey eyes which contain no visible trace of yellow
or brown pigment. The duplex type includes the
black, brown, hazel, green, and impure grey and
impure blue eyes, «.e., grey and blue with a little
visible yellow and brown pigments present. He
found that the simplex type behaves as a recessive
to the duplex type; so that, if one parent had pure
duplex eyes and the other had simplex eyes, all the
offspring would show duplex eyes. If both parents
were of the simplex type, then all the children had
simplex eyes. Since the duplex eyes are a dominant
type, individuals who possess them may be either
carrying duplex only, or they may carry as well the
simplex type as a recessive. When both parents
have duplex eyes, there are therefore three possible
combinations which have to be considered. We
may state them symbolically thus :—
DDD; DD sR Dy ken Dl) ae

That is, we may have a pure duplex married to a
pure duplex, or a pure duplex married to a hybrid
duplex, or both parents may be of the hybrid duplex
type. If we turn back to the tabulation on page 69,
we can see the nature and proportion of the expected
offspring in these three kinds of marriages, on the
assumption that the processes of gametic purity and
segregation are operating in Man.

Let us consider Mr. Hurst’s results. When both
parents were simplex all the offspring, one hundred
and one in number, belonging to twenty pairs of
parents, were simplex also. That is, the recessive
character breeds true, in spite of the fact that some

VIRILE SENTIMENT 73

of the grandparents had duplex eyes. This is quite
in accordance with the theory of gametic purity
and segregation, and it is altogether discordant
with any other theory of inheritance, whether bio-
metrical (mathematical) or otherwise.

Turning now to the results when both parents
are duplex, we have just seen that three combinations
are possible. Of these, the two combinations
DDx DD and DD x DR will give the same
visible result, 2.e., all the offspring will show the
duplex type of eye. But the third combination,
ve, DR x DR, will give a mixed offspring, in the
proportion of three individuals having duplex eyes
(=1 DD +2 DR) to one having the simplex eyes.
Examining Mr. Hurst’s results, we find that our
expectations are fulfilled, for of the fifty pairs of
parents which he recorded, both of whom had duplex
eyes, thirty-seven of them had a total offspring, one
hundred and ninety-five in number, all with duplex
eyes. They, therefore, illustrate the two first com-
binations. The remaining thirteen parents had a
mixed offspring, of a total number of sixty-three
individuals. Forty-five of these showed the duplex
eyes, and eighteen of them the simplex eyes. In
nearest round numbers the expectation is forty-seven
and sixteen respectively. That is, Mendelian pre-
diction and result are practically identical.

The next possible combination will be between
parents having duplex eyes and those with simplex
eyes. But the duplex parent may be one of
two things—either a DD or a DR. So that from

74 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the standpoint of the type of ofisprmg which we may
expect, we have two real combinations within this
one visible one, 2.2, DD x RR and DR x RR.
In the first case all the ofispring are expected to have
duplex eyes, and in the latter one-half is expected
to show the duplex eyes and the other half simplex.
What are the actual results ? There were seventeen
pairs of parents, of the nature of Duplex = Simplex,
with a total of sixty-six offspring all showing the
duplex type of eye. And there were fifty-two other
pairs of parents of the same visible nature who had |
a total ofispring of two hundred and fifty-eight, one
hundred and thirty-seven of whom had the simplex
eye and one hundred and twenty-one the duplex eye.
The expectation is one hundred and twenty-nine of
both types. There is thus a very near approximation
of result to prediction.

Mr. Hurst’s work shows two things quite clearly.
It demonstrates the absolute segregation of these
two types of eyes in human inheritance, and compels
us to accept the conception of gametic purity as
the only valid explanation of it. It is quite evident
that the alternative hypothesis of blended inheritance
does not explain a single feature of the phenomena.
For if it did, why do blue-eyed (simplex type) offspring
come from two brown-eyed (duplex) parents? Or,
why do they come from parents one of whom has
brown eyes and the other blue ones? Why do some
brown-eyed pairs of parents give nothing but dark-
eyed offspring, and other pairs give a mixed offspring
of dark-eyed and blue-eyed individuals ? The con-

VIRILE SENTIMENT * 75

ception of blending does not explain it, while that of
gametic purity and segregation enables us to form a
mental picture of the main line of the processes
concerned. The same segregation of eye-colour
occurs when distinct races of mankind are crossed.
Among my collection of human pedigrees I have
several of an European (usually a fair-complexioned,
light-haired, blue-eyed Scotchman) married to a Red
Indian woman, and of their descendants. When the
half-breeds from such a marriage marry an Kuropean
of a certain gametic structure, the fair complexion,
light hair, and the blue eyes segregate out again
among their children.

I pass next to consider another character which
we cannot regard as pathological, but yet is not
normal. We may speak of it as abnormal. I allude
to the quality of albinism. It is a condition in which
there is a complete absence of pigmentation in the
body.* It is known not only among the less deeply
pigmented races of mankind, but also among the
intensely pigmented races, such as negroes. Mr.
Farabee has examined an interesting case of the
hereditary transmission of albinism among negroes.
An albino negro married a normally-pigmented
negress. There were three sons, all normally pig-
mented. All three married pigmented negresses, and
two of them had only the normally-pigmented off-
spring. The other son married twice, and in each

*The pigments of the blood, bile, and of muscle are, of course,
excepted. It may perhaps be better, for practical purposes, to define
an albino as an individual in whom there is absence of visible pig-
mentation.

76 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

case married a pigmented negress. But by his first
wife he had one albino and five pigmented children,
and by his second wife three albino and six pigmented
children. The complete disappearance of the al-
binism in the first generation, and its reappearance in
the second, shows that albinism in man, as in lower
forms, 1s a recessive character to pigmentation.
The results of these marriages are perfectly unintelli-
gible on the conception that blending of characters
occurs. For how, by any process of blending, can
four albino children be produced out of a marriage of
a normally-pigmented negro and a negress? The
blending of black with black does not produce white !
And how can we explain the mixed nature of the
offsprmg—some individuals being albinoes and others
pigmented—on the blending conception. A blend is
expected to produce an uniform result. But the
whole of the facts are explicable on the hypothesis of
segregation and gametic purity. The albino grand-
father married a normal negress. All three of their
sons will be, therefore, hybrids of the nature D Rk,
where D stands for the dominant character of pig-
mentation, and # the recessive character of albinism.
So long as these sons marry only normal negresses
(i.e., D D’s), a pigmented offspring only is expected.
That appears to have been the case with two of the
sons. But if the third D # son shall marry a negress
who is also DR, then we expect in the offspring
albinoes and pigmented individuals in the proportions
of 1: 3. This appears to be the kind of marriage
that the third son contracted with both wives.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 17

And we note that the number of albinoes and pig-
mented individuals, 7.e., 4 and 11 respectively, is as
near as it can be to the expected 4: 12 ratio. This
case, then, must be accepted as demonstrating the
existence of the processes of segregation and gametic
purity in the hereditary transmission of at least one
other human character.

Let us consider another case of albinism, but this
time among Europeans. In a Swiss village there
once lived an albino, Josephine Chassot. She never
married, and for three generations back her ancestors
were apparently normal people. But in her own
generation she had ten cousins in the second degree.*
Of these, three were albinoes, and the remaining
seven were all apparently normal. All the normal
ones appeared in one family, and all the three albinoes
in another. In this latter family it is known that
there were normal members, but the number is
unknown. One of the normal cousins of Josephine
married a normal woman, and had twelve children,
eight beg normal and four albinoes. Now this
case, apparently remarkable because of the sporadic
appearance of the albinoes, is entirely explicable on
the Mendelian explanation of segregation and gametic
purity. The families concerned lived in two Swiss
villages half a league from each other, and we may
suppose that at the time (¢.e., sixty years ago) travel-
ling was difficult, and intercourse with more distant
villages was more or less a rare event. Under such

* That is to say, they were the children of two pairs of parents, one
of whom in each pair was a cousin of one of her parents.

78 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

conditions, consanguineous marriages are apt to be
common. This we see in a marked degree in the
Scotch Highlands, where the inhabitants of many
villages are nearly all cousins, in nearer or remote
relationship. We know that albinism is a recessive
character in animals, and we have just seen in the
negro marriage that it is so alsoim man. Individuals,
apparently quite normal externally, may, therefore,
carry albinism as a recessive character. So long
as such individuals marry a quite normal person
(one not carrying albinism recessive), albinism will
never appear among the offsprmg. But if they
marry another person similar to themselves—that is,
one carrying albinism recessive—then albino children,
as well as normal ones, will be born to them. So
that it may happen that in a long line of ancestry,
apparently normal all along, albinoes may quite
suddenly arise. That appears to be the explanation
of the case of Josephine Chassot. And the same
explanation suffices for the familar fact that albinoes
are very olten the offspring of a cousin marriage.
In these villages, where we may assume consanguineous
or endogamous marriages* were common, there must
have existed a certain proportion of the villagers
who were carrying albinism as a recessive character.
When two such married—and in random selections
this must now and then occur—albinoes are expected.
This, then, being the Mendelian expectation with

= In this particular pedigree it is known that two normal brothers
married two normal sisters, all of the same village, and albinoes appeared
in the descendants of both.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 79

regard to a qualitative result, how far is the ex-
pectation similarly corroborated by a quantitative
result ? The Mendelian expectation with regard to
the proportion of albinoes and normal individuals is
as 1: 3. The total number of offspring concerned
for purposes of calculation is twenty-four plus a few
normals, the number of which is not recorded. The
expectation, therefore, in round numbers is_ six
albinoes and eighteen normals. The actual number
is eight albinoes and sixteen normals. There is thus
what the prediction requires, a large excess of normals
over albinoes. And when we bear in mind that a
few more normals, who are known to have existed,
must be added to the actual result, we see how well
result and prediction meet each other.

Dr. A. M. Gossage has quite recently made a study
of some previously recorded cases of hereditary
transmission of pathological characters in man, and
he has produced a number of interesting facts. On
the whole the cases which he has studied and re-
published confirm the Mendelian generalisation,
though there are some exceptions which are discordant
with it. These latter may, however, receive an
adequate explanation when we know more of the
particular diseases with which they are connected,
or when we have been able to investigate a larger
number of similar cases. But it seems quite clear
from his survey of cases that segregation of alter-
native characters, such as some pathological trait
and normality, does occur. The crucial test that such
segregation has actually occurred is to be found in

80 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the persistency with which a recessive character
breeds true when once it has been segregated out from
association with a dominant character. It is true
that, with the exception of one remarkable case,
which we shall consider later, we have no very long
continuous pedigree of an extracted recessive charac-
ter. But we have a number of short pedigrees,
and when all their indications point in one direction,
and almost invariably show that an extracted reces-
sive character breeds true when the individual
manifesting it is mated with another also showing
the recessive character, we are justified in accepting
this as clear evidence of segregation. And the
justification is not lessened because a few exceptions
occur. These may receive an explanation when we
know what it is that determines which of two alter-
native characters shall be the dominant one, when
we have tested the validity of past records by a
more searching examination of future cases, and
when pathologists and physiological chemists can
tell us more of the nature of the factors which go to
the making up of these pathological characters.
Many abnormal characters are doubtless more or less
complex in their nature. To treat such abnormalities
as simple units is but to disguise the truth. When
we know the nature of their complexities, the general
trend of the whole evidence leads us to believe that
they will fall into line with the general body of facts of
Mendelian inheritance.

Some of the characters studied by Dr. Gossage
are of suggestive interest. In a certain family

VIRILE SENTIMENT 81

some of the individuals possessed hair presumably
of the EKuropean type, but others had a “ tightly-
curled, short, woolly hair of the negro type.” The
facial features of these latter individuals were not in
the least negroid. A tradition in the family attributes
the woolly hair to a Mexican ancestor several genera-
tions back. We may assume it as probable that
this ancestor was of the negroid race. If this is so
we have a clean segregation of European facial
characters from negroid ones, for none of the present
family, thirty-six im number, manifest the least
negroid trait. But in the random segregation of the
various negroid and Kuropean characters that oc-
curred in the sex-cells of this Mexican ancestry,
negroid hair became associated with European facial
characters. And apparently, the European alter-
native characters* being recessive, once the Kuropean
facial characteristics had been extracted they would
henceforth breed true. Hence in none of the offspring
that have descended from a Mexican ancestor who
had European features but negroid hair, do we
expect any negroid facial characters to reappear.
But the negroid hair being a dominant character,
this Mexican individual who bore it may also bear in
his sex-cells the European type of hair as a recessive
character. We should then expect to see both the
negroid and Huropean hair separate out in the
succeeding generations, and be borne by separate
individuals. And the curliness and woolliness must,
on the whole, be as curly and woolly in one individual

as another, And such appears to be the case in
‘

82 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

this family. There have been three marriages of
individuals who had woolly hair ( =D R) with persons
having European hair (=R R&R). The total number
of individuals concerned is thirty-six. Of these,
eighteen had negroid hair and eighteen had ordinary
hair. The segregation is complete, and the pro- |
portions are in exact accordance with Mendelian
expectation.

Another case in which a peculiarity of the hair
is the character considered is one where a congenital
tuft of white hair over the brow was hereditarily
transmitted through six generations. Only a single
member, the father, in each of the first three genera-
tions is known. And each of these possessed the
white tuft. The father of the third generation
married a normal person, and they had four children,
two with and two without the tuft. The white tuft
is a dominant character and the absence of it a
recessive one. One of the normal offspring in time
married a normal husband, and their children, three
in number, were all normals. The two children
with the tuft also married, and they had a mixed
offspring, some of the individuals having the tuft and
others not. Three individuals of this generation
without the tuft married normal persons, and in
their total offsprmg of eight members there was not
a single one with the tuft. Thus in the total of
eleven children born of four pairs of parents, one in
each pair being an extracted recessive and the other
a normal person, the dominant character did not
appear. That is, the Mendelian expectation that the

VIRILE SENTIMENT 83

recessive character would breed true has been fulfilled
in fact. With regard to the proportions in which
the two kinds of offspring derived from parents, one
of which manifests the tuft (=D FR) and the other
does not (=R R), the actual proportion is nearly
identical with that required by expectation. There
are thirty-two individuals in the offspring, and the
expectation is sixteen of each type. There are,
actually, seventeen with the tuft of hair and fifteen
without.

I have taken these two cases from Dr. Gossage’s
paper because they are of a nature which the layman
can understand. They do not deal with patho-
logical characters, but rather with what we may term
peculiarities. But all the rest of the cases with
which he deals are of a pathological nature. The
phenomena of segregation and gametic purity are
clearly manifested, but, as already stated, there are
a few doubtful exceptions. Those who desire to
study these cases will find them described in the
Quarterly Journal of Medicine, Vol. 1, No. 3.

I would lke now to ask you to consider two
extremely important and interesting cases. The
first one has reference to an abnormal condition of
the fingers and toes. The peculiarities connected
with them are correlated with others, but these we
need not consider. The case has been worked out,
with very great care and labour, by Dr. Drinkwater.
The peculiarity is technically called ‘“ Brachy-
dactyly’; more popularly we may speak of it as
“ short-fingerness ” or ‘‘thumb-fingerness.” The

84 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

fingers of the hand are apparently, like the thumb,
made up of two joints, instead of three asin the normal
hand. It is the middle one of the three jomts which
has to all appearance disappeared. There is some
reason to believe that it has not actually disappeared,
but that it is vestigal in size and has become fused on
to the last joint. However, for practical purposes
we may speak of the peculiarity as a two-jomted
condition of the fingers.

The history of the family in which this peculiar
condition is present is known for seven generations.
The first three generations are incomplete, but
the remaining four are complete and comprise a
fairly numerous collection of individuals. The whole
seven generations include one hundred and seventy-
four persons. We may divide the marriages into
two classes, 7.e., those in which an abnormal person
married a normal one, and those in which an extracted
normal individual derived from this family married
a normal one from outside of it. The first type of
marriage will be represented as D Rx R R, and the
latter type by RRxRR. The brachydactylous
condition is shown by the observations on’ this
family to be a dominant one. Now, what is the
Mendelian expectation as to the offspring from these
two types of marriage ? In the first type two classes
of individuals, 7.e., short-fingered and normal-fingered,
are expected in the offspring. And it is further
expected that these two classes will be present in
approximately equal numbers. Once more an appeal
to the facts of human pedigrees confirms Mendelian

VIRILE SENTIMENT 85

prediction. Both classes of individuals are present,
and in very nearly equal numbers. There are eighty
individuals from this type of marriage, and therefore
it is expected that there will be forty each of the
abnormal and normal individuals. There are respec-
tively forty-two and thirty-eight. With regard to
the second type of marriage, ue, RRxRKR, the
expectation is that all the offspring will be normal.
There are eighty individuals,* all normal.

The family which we have just considered is an
English one. But a case of the same nature, dealing
with an American family, was earlier published by
Mr. Farabee. In this case the same principles are
manifested. The extracted recessive (normal) charac-
ter breeds true, and the offspring from a marriage
of a parent with “ short fingers ” with one of normal
fingers is composed of the two types of individuals,
and in approximately equal numbers, 7.e., thirty-six
of abnormal individuals to thirty-three of normal ones,
the expectation being thirty-four and a half of each.
These two cases of human brachydactyly, then, are
clearly Mendelian in nature. Segregation and gametic
purity explain the phenomena presented by them,
while the blending hypothesis and the biometrical

>

“Law of Ancestral Inheritance” completely fail.

I pass now to the second and perhaps one of the
most important cases of a human pedigree. We owe
its compilation in part to a French Army surgeon,

the late M. Florent Cunier, and in part to an English

* In addition to these there are a few individuals known to have
existed, but the sex and type is now not known.

86 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

ophthalmic surgeon, Mr. Nettleship. It is one of the
largest known human pedigrees of its kind, comprising
somewhere near a total of two thousand individuals,
and it extends back through ten generations to the
year 1637, when the individual Jean Nougaret, with
whom it commences, was born. The peculiar here-
ditary character which affected one hundred and
thirty-five persons of this family, and which mani-
fested itself in each generation, is one which is known
as congenital stationary night-blindness. The real
nature of the disease is quite well confirmed, for Mr.
Nettleship, with Professor Truc and M. Capion, have
been able to examine fifteen night-blind subjects,
belonging to the ninth, eighth, seventh, and sixth
generations. The affected persons can see as well
during the daytime as normal people. But at night
time they can see only by candle light and by very

bright moonlight. On moonless nights, or in very
dark places such as cellars, they are blind. The
affection is present from birth, and mothers are able
to determine whether their babies are night-blind or
normal by the apathy or interest manifested by them
when objects likely to attract their attention are held
up at night time. In this case of congenital night-
blindness it is shown by the facts of the pedigree
that the abnormal condition is the dominant one,
and the normal one is recessive. The Mendelian
expectation therefore is that when two extracted
normal persons marry, or when an extracted normal
person marries a normal individual, that all the off-
spring shall be normal. Is the Mendelian expectation

VIRILE SENTIMENT 87

, tulfilled in this case, too? The answeris Yes. When-
ever normal parents have married—and in this
family inter-marriages between extracted normals
have occurred—the offspring is always normal.
There is altogether an offspring of one thousand six
hundred and sixty-three normal individuals derived
from the marriages of normal parents, and not a
single abnormal person has occurred. As far as
human investigation can be concerned, nothing can
be clearer than the meaning of such a record. The
segregation of the normal character, once it has
occurred, is complete, notwithstanding that inter-
marriages between extracted recessive individuals
have occurred. And there are cases within this
family where this pure breeding has extended con-
tinuously for seven generations. There is nothing
to suggest that the recessive character will not con-
tinue so to breed for indefinite generations.
When we examine the records of the offspring
derived from the marriage of abnormal with narmal
persons (that is, marriages of the type DR«x Rf R),
we find the Mendelian expectation fulfilled in that the
expected two types, 7.e., the night-blind person and
the normal person, are present. But, however, the
expected equality of the two is widely departed
from. There are three hundred and sixty-four
persons in the disease-bearing branches of the family,
and it is expected that half of these will show the
disease, and that the other half will be healthy.
The expected proportion is, therefore, in round
numbers 182 : 182. The actual result is 135 : 229,

88 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

or thirty-seven per cent. of night-blind persons
instead of fifty per cent. Too much stress must not
be laid upon this numerical difference. It must be
remembered that segregation and gametic purity
can exist notwithstanding that the proportions do
not accurately accord with expectation. Factors of
which we have no knowledge may be at work, dis-
turbing these proportions in some families or genera-
tions, and leaving them undisturbed in others. No
one with any real experience of living organisms,
including human nature, doubts it is a fact which
should be constantly held in view that living gametes
within a living zygote are not marbles in a bag.
The latter can be shaken up to ensure an uniform dis-
tribution of the black and white ones, but gametes
and human nature cannot be so treated ; we must
accept them as Nature listeth they shall be. And
this particular case is instructive, for there are good
reasons to believe that the number of abnormals
recorded does not represent the true number. The
chief of these reasons arises from the promptings of
a natural human weakness, 7.e., a reluctance to admit
the existence of physical defects, and additionally
there is upon the part of the women a very laudable
desire not to jeopardise their chances of becoming
wives and mothers. For the learned Curé who is
familiar with the living descendants of this stock,
and who has contributed to the construction of the
pedigree, says: “It is considered as prejudicial to
the establishment of children” to be afflicted with
this disease, ‘‘ and it is therefore apt to be concealed.”

VIRILE SENTIMENT 89

There is, indeed, one somewhat remarkable case
where a woman kept her husband in ignorance of her
condition for twenty years. Human nature being
what it is, we must expect some deficiency in the
numbers of the afflicted in this and other pedigrees.
The next case that I have to deal with is one for
which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Drinkwater
for his permission to use. It is a case of congenital
asthma. There are altogether twenty-three indi-
viduals in the pedigree. The case is typically
Mendelian. One individual extracted from a line
in which the disease is present is free from it, and
he married a normal person and had all normal
children, three in number. The other extracted
normal persons have not married. But four of those
suffering from the disease have married normal
people. The asthmatic condition is shown by the
history of this pedigree to be dominant. We shall,
therefore, expect in the offspring of these marriages
an equal number of asthmatic and normal persons.
There are, in fact, ten of each. Thus in the complete
segregation of the normal and asthmatic characters,
in the breeding true of the extracted recessive (normal)
character, and in the proportion of the two kinds of
ofispring from pairs of parents one of which is asth-
matic and the other normal, the case is a definitely
Mendelian one. It is of some interest to note, in
passing, that of the members who have married
from this family four of them (two brothers and
two sisters) are affected, and one only (a brother) is
normal. This is a fact of some importance to students

90 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of Eugenics, especially when it is additionally re-
membered that, in regard to another disease, phthisical
persons tend to marry early. It is significant because
physical defects seem to be no hindrance to marriage,
but apparently, in “this case, rather a recommenda-
tion.

The last case that I have for your consideration is
one, it seems to me, of great importance, because it
is very significant in many features. It not only
affords us an example of hereditary transmission,
but it gives us a concrete case where social sentiment
and philanthropy having interfered, we can arrive at
a definite judgement as to the pernicious effects of
this interference. It is not an academic case that I
have laboriously hunted for in the Archives of the
Clinical Department of a great hospital, or in the
volumes of a library. It is a case of the present
time, that was reported in the Morning Post of May
25th, 1907; it is one that illustrates the prolific
growth of unfitness when fed and watered by the
mistaken kindness of the fit. It appeared in an
appendix to the Ninth Annual Report of the Children’s
Committee of the Metropolitan Asylums Board.
It is written by the Medical Officer to that Board.
I ask you to note that fact, because medical men are
largely responsible for the birth and promulgation
of the modern sentiment which we are now con-
sidering. The general tone of the Report, especially
the last paragraph, implies the possibility of con-
verting inherent unfitness into fitness by a suitable
environment. The parents in this particular case

VIRILE SENTIMENT 91

demanded the return of one of their children from
the Wandsworth Home of the Board, and the Medical
Officer has appended the recommendation that
“This is one of those cases which suggest most for-
cibly the advisability of having the control of children
of this mental condition for a fairly long period.”
And he adds: “It will be interesting to follow his
case 1n the future, and see whether his mental con-
dition improves or deteriorates.”” Why does the
Medical Officer recommend that this child shall be
under his control for a “ fairly long period” ? Is it
expected that any control, however prolonged, is
goiig to transform the processes of heredity, or
turn aside by a hair’s-breadth the immutable processes
of Nature? Let us examine the case and see how
futile is the hope.

The father of this family had phthisis, and was
insane; the mother was laid up for four months
before the boy’s birth with spasmodic paralysis, and
alterwards lost the use of her legs for some months.
The paternal grandfather died of phthisis, and the
paternal grandmother, who 1s still alive, is in an asylum
with mania and religious fancies. The maternal
grandmother died of consumption (phthisis). Nothing
appears to be known of the maternal grandiather,
but, since the mother suffered from paralysis, it may
be that it was transmitted from her father. Now
let us examine the children of these parents, first
pretacing our statement with the remark that menin-
gitis in this case is a form of phthisis not attacking
the lungs, but the membranes of the brain. No. 1,

92 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

a son, is said to be strong. No. 2, a daughter, suffers
from meningitis, epilepsy, and tubercular (phthisical)
knee joints. No. 3, a son, is afflicted with severe
headaches. No. 4, a son, suffered a severe nervous
illness, the nature of which is unknown. No.
5, a son, has had meningitis and paralysis, and is
mentally dull. No. 6, a son, has had St. Vitus’ dance.
No. 7, a daughter, has sufferea from meningitis, and
is very irritable and subject to headaches. No. 8
(whether son or daughter is not stated) has suffered
from paralysis and other nervous diseases. Nothing
appears to be recorded of No. 9. No. 10, a son, is
dead, and had paralysis in the legs.

No. 6, the boy who is afflicted with St. Vitus’
dance, is the one whom it is recommended should be
cared for out of public monies, by public officials, mn
public institutions.

Now we are chiefly interested for the moment in
the Mendelian aspect of the heritage of this family.
If we take a general view of the case we shall notice
that we can reduce the pathological factors in the
family history to two, if we express them in a general
way. There is the tubercular taint manifested by
phthisis, tubercular knee-joint, and meningitis. There
is the nervous lesion indicated by mania, religious
fancies, St. Vitus’ dance, severe headaches, paralysis,
and epilepsy. We may therefore say that we are
dealing from the Mendelian standpoint with two
pairs of alternative characters, 7.e., the tubercular
condition and physical normality as one pair, and the
nervous lesion and nervous normality as the other.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 93

A possible Mendelian prediction for such a case
is that four kinds of individuals will be present in
the offspring. We may state them in the following
manner :

1. Suffermg from tubercular taint and nervous
lesion.
2. Suffering from tubercular taint, but no nervous
lesion.
3. Suffering from nervous lesion, but no tuber-
cular taint.
4. Normal in both features.
And the proportions in which these four types may
be expected are, in the order in which they are given :
94+343+1. That is, in a family of sixteen indi-
viduals, only one normal person is expected! And
his normality will not be better than the normality of
his race. In this family of ten only one is normal ;
the others all indicate some nervous lesion, or mani-
fest both a tubercular condition and a nervous lesion.
And thus far this case shows a resemblance to a
Mendelian mode of inheritance. There is segregation
manifested in the case of the normal son, in the pro-
duction of individuals showing only nervous symp-
toms without tubercular ones, and in the appearance
of both tubercular and nervous pathological features
together in other individuals. But in a complex
case of this kind many factors must be considered,
and a larger number of families examined, before any
degree of positive statement is justifiable. It is
sufficient for the present that there is some indication
of a Mendelian mode of inheritance, and that in other

94 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

human characters this mode has been clearly shown
to exist.

Before we leave this case let us consider its
social aspect. The fact of the hereditary trans-
mission of the defects of this family is perfectly clear.
That, at any rate, admits of no dispute. There is
not an environment on earth that can make this
stock other than what it 1s. Every effort that is
made to save it, or to prolong it, so that the period
of procreation of its individuals may be reached and
lengthened out, is an effort which results in an increase
of persons to whom life is a miserable and unclean
burden. Every penny which is wrested from the
earnings and productions of fitter citizens in order to
rear an army of officials and palatial edifices for the
maintenance of these unfit is by that amount reducing
the number of persons to whom life means more or
less of happiness and contentment. It cannot be
otherwise. The penny cannot be spent upon both
the unfit and the fit, any more than we can “ eat our
pudding and have it too.” And it is interesting to
note that what the child thinks of the pudding the
philanthropist believes of the penny. Both suffer
from a delusion, but the child is soon undeceived.
His is a concrete matter, demonstrated in a few
minutes. The philanthropist’s problem is more
superficially complex, and the avenging hand does
not strike until as a warning it comes too late, because
with its warning it also brings destruction.

Let us remember that in this family the paternal
grandmother is still alive, and that the parents have

VIRILE SENTIMENT 95

ten children. These two facts are important, because
they demonstrate that physical and mental unfitness
and civic uselessness are not necessarily accompanied
by infertility, nor low fertility, nor shortlivedness.
Indeed, there is here high fertility and longevity.
When we bear in mind that there is good reason to
believe that fertility is a character which is heredi-
tarily transmitted, we have to recall the possibility
that the grandparents on both sides may have ten
children, that is, twenty altogether. And if these
twenty marry, as the unfit always do, and they marry
their “likes,” as they also nearly always do, and if
each of these twenty pairs of parents have ten chil-
dren, we are faced with the appalling possibility that
from this family alone there are living in our present
generation two hundred individuals carrying or mani-
festing the tubercular, paralytic, and epileptic diatheses!
And if we go forward to the next generation there may
be two thousand of them, and in the third generation
twenty thousand of them! An army of epileptics,
paralytics, and tuberculates !

It may be asserted that I am indulging in wild
and sensational alarms, and that this sort of thing has
never occurred and can never happen. It is so easy
for any nation to play the part of the traditional
ostrich, for the sands of self-delusion are loose and
soft. And it is hard to be brave when problems that
can be put off for some one else to solve call upon us
to solve them now, before they become so bad that
their remedy must be heroic. They who assert that
these things can never happen, and that a great army

96 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of useless citizens cannot be reared in a short time,
have either never troubled to ascertain the facts or
have ignored them. There is the well-known German
case, for instance. In this example seven hundred
and nine descendants of a particular woman could be
traced. She was a drunkard, a tramp, and a thief.
Of her descendants, seventy-six were convicts, seven
were murderers, one hundred and eighty-one of her
female descendants were prostitutes, one hundred
and forty-two were tramps and beggars, while sixty-
four lived on charity and one hundred and six were
illegitimate. In the course of three generations this
woman and her descendants cost the State, in trials,
prisons, and workhouses, a quarter of a million of
money! There is another case of a like nature, from
Canada. On the Upper Hudson some generations
ago there existed a child of the “ gutter type.” She
ultimately became a “ prolific mother of a prolific
race.” Besides a large army of idiots, imbeciles,
drunkards, paupers, and prostitutes, the country
records show two hundred of her descendants who
have been criminals. -

And this is all that our philanthropy and modern
social sentiment achieves! Itrears great armies of unfit
individuals, and it discourages through taxation and
in other ways the increase of the fit. While the use-
less are pampered the useful are harassed. While it
is becoming increasingly easy and profitable to be
unfit and yet live, it is becoming proportionately
difficult to be fit and yet enjoy the benefits of our
fitness. Freedom and licence are being granted to

VIRILE SENTIMENT oF

the lower classes, and liberty is being restricted for
the individuals of the classes above.

The whole-influence of this modern sentiment is
trending in the wrong direction. It sets out with the
belief that it can effect the salvation of the unfit by
improving their environment. It will end by achiev-
ing the destruction of the fit, without having even
gained the salvation of the unfit. It commenced its
operations by creating an army of grand-maternal
officials to guide the footsteps of the weak, the stupid,
the inane, the imbeciles, and the physical and moral
wrecks. It will end—indeed, it has begun to end—-
by the creation of an army of lower-grade officials who
are rapidly degenerating into petty tyrants, who seek
to restrict the successes of better citizens that have
achieved what they could not, and have excited alike
their cupidity and their vanity. And this, it appears
to me, is the social aspect which the case of the
Metropolitan Asylums Board presents to us. Through-
out history every effort to save the unworthy has
reacted to the detriment of the worthy. It is time
we looked more seriously both at the teachings of
History and Biology.

A popular impression exists that by marriage it
it possible to minimise in the next generation the
evil qualities of one of the two partners by the good
qualities of the other. It is a belief which is based
impliedly upon the conception that underlies what
is termed blended inheritance. Its faith is rooted in
the assumption that the offspring represent a blend of

their two parents, and of their more distant ancestry,
G

98 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

too, through the channel of their parents. It is
implied that the evil propensities of the one will be
diluted, in the processes of heredity, by the goodness
of the other. It seems, however, to be forgotten
that, even if it be true, the goodness is diluted too.
But if the processes of segregation and gametic
purity are operating in Man, there is an end of this
belief. For no marriage of fit with unfit, of virtue
with vice, of truth with falsehood, of courage with
cowardice, and of physical vigour with physical
weakness will result in any diminution of the alterna-
tive bad qualities. Marriage will merely procreate
and multiply the individuals who manifest them.
When Friedrich Nietzsche, in his “Thus Spake
Zarathustra,’ wrote the three following paragraphs
in the chapter “Of Child and Marriage,” he was
nearer than he imagined to the truth, and he antici-
pated, in a few words, the EKugenic doctrines of the
present :—

“Worthy and ripe for the significance of earth
appeared this man unto me, but when I saw his wite
earth seemed unto me a madhouse.”

“Yea, I wish the earth would tremble in convul-
sions whenever a saint and a goose couple.”

“This one went out for truths like a hero, and at
last secured a little dressed-up lie. He calleth it his
marriage.”

The follies and impulses of youth are proverbial ;
even the youth who ultimately may blossominto genius
or to a high degree of civic worth, and in his maturity
may aspire to high ideals, is not free from the errors

VIRILE SENTIMENT 99

incidental to his age and temperament. Students of
the Divorce Courts are familiar with examples that
serve to illustrate the disastrous consequences that as
often as not follow in the train of early folly. Whena
youthful member of a noble family, forgetting, in his
ardent impulses, the traditions and glories of his
stock, marries a ballet girl; or when a young man of
impulsive moods but of good parts otherwise, and
descended from a family of good social position, and
who will later develope all the aspirations that belong
to his social class, accepts a partner without any solid
qualifications and who has temporarily ascended from
a lower social level, and will manifest the instincts and
inherent defects of her class; or when a young man,
who because of the stock from which he springs, will
later on in life become a more serious citizen, marries
.a “ dressed-up doll”; or when a woman, yet in the
vernal stage of life and of refined instincts, consents
under parental pressure to marry a rich man of coarse
habits whose years are strewn with the sere and
yellow leaves, no Heaven-made conception of the
nature of human marriages can avert the inevitable
consequences. It is a serious question for the student
of Kugenics whether a youthful error of judgement in
marriage, by which “ a dressed-up lie ” and “ a goose ’
is chosen as a mate, should be visited with permanent
and lifelong punishment. The time has passed when
the dogma of “ heaven-made marriages” should be
allowed to operate to the detriment of much that is
best or good in the community. No marriage that
declares by its results its obvious inequalities and

>

100 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

disastrous disabilities should be permanently main-
tained. If one of the two partners is capable and the
other grossly incapable, if one is intelligent and thrifty
and guided by high ideals, and the other is foolish,
thriftless, and incapable of rising above the lowest
aspirations, then the marriage, as in a part of the
days of Rome, should be possible of mutual dissolu-
tion. For to permanently bind a good citizen to a
bad one is waste of the good civic material.

I am aware that the problem is a complex one,
and it is not simplified by the possibility that the
incapacity to make a good judgement in the choice of
a mate may be an inherent quality, and not always a
passing aberration of youth, and will be therefore
hereditarily transmitted. But in spite of that,
perhaps it would be wiser to give an individual at
least one opportunity of rectifying a youthful mis- ,
judgement.

I am treading, I know, upon dangerous ground,
and I hope that I shall not be misunderstood. I trust
that nothing which I have said can be construed into
implying any sympathy with those ideas of pro-
miscuous marriage that in certain quarters are being
preached by men whose fanaticism or desire for
notoriety is greater than their knowledge of either the
history or nature of mankind. I, for one, repudiate
all such ideas. But the sanctity and holiness of
marriage may be destroyed when earthly considera-
tions and ideals are ignored by a dogma that has no
justification in true belief or in truth.*

* See Appendix, pp. 113 and 114,

VIRILE SENTIMENT 101

If now we take a general survey of all the cases
which we have considered, we shall agree, I think,
that the evidence is pretty clear in regard to some of
the qualities of man that there is segregation in their
hereditary transmission from generation to genera-
tion. There is reason to believe that future investi-
gation will widen the number of human characters
which so behave. There is no reason to believe that
the mental and moral qualities of man are trans-
mitted in any way different from the physical
characters. Indeed, the evidence indicates that they
are hereditarily handed down in the same way that
the physical ones are. Without citing more recently-
investigated cases, it will suffice to pomt out that it
is a historically-known fact that the eloquence of
Marcus Antonious was a hereditary gift, and that
the high ability of Brutus’ family extended through
many generations, and was manifested in the dis-
charge of the duties of the many great posts which
that family occupied during successive genera-
tions.

If, then, it shall be ultimately shown that segre-
gation of alternative characters and gametic purity
is the rule of man’s hereditary processes—if the clear
indications of the limited cases already known become
a generalised expression of a general process—and
justify us in saying that segregation and gametic
purity express a natural law of man’s heredity, what
bearing will this have upon all social questions and
upon questions of even wider moment ?

Looking over the cases which we have already

102 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

considered, and substituting for such physical
characters as short fingers, curly hair, and stationary
night-blindness certain bad civic qualities such as
those which characterise the loafer, the wastrel, the
congenital drunkard, the habitual criminal, the con-
genitally tuberculous, the mentally deficient, the
thriitless and generally incapable persons, and others,
how will the problem work out? When we recall
with what persistency the peculiarity of stationary
night-blindness and_ short-fingerness passed on
through the generations—passed on for two hundred
and seventy years in the case of the former character,
and in the latter case for about one hundred and
eighty-nine years—without any known alteration, it
is time that we began to consider what types of
citizens our philanthropy and charity are breeding.
It is time we faced the problem. It is time we
learned how little environment can do, and how
much the inborn qualities determine all for us. In the
multitudinous efforts which are being made for social
reformation it is to be hoped that the beauties of
character will not be forgotten, and that the road to
success will not be made too easy, nor the road to
destruction too difficult. If by our social efforts we
are breeding, rearing, and accumulating an un-
desirable stock that cannot or will not work, that
cannot or will not tend its children, that cannot or
will not be sober and thrifty, that cannot or will not
educate and feed itself, that cannot or will not attaim
an intellectual and moral level that is necessary for
social life, then we are advancing along the road that

VIRILE SENTIMENT 108

brings destruction to the fit in order that the salvation
of the unfit may be attempted.

There can, I think, be no doubt that those circum-
stances which are attendant upon the workings of a
democratic state of society tend to create and to fan
into larger size a flame of emotional sentiment that
becomes wildly excited over the imagined or exag-
gerated suffermgs of the weak, incapable, and
generally unfit. We have only to listen to the hust-
ings speeches of the politicians, especially to those of
the type delivered by Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr.
Lloyd-George, to see how pernicious are the workings
of democracy when the leaders are unworthy of their
position.

The same type of morbid sentiment and craven
fear that gave the mob of Rome its free circuses and
free bread, that gave to the Athenian multitude
expensive theatrical shows free of cost to themselves,
and placed needy adventurers and profligate dema-
gogues of the type of Chares in positions of executive
and legislative power, is to-day in our own community
increasing the privileges and rights, and decreasing
the civic responsibilities of the lower classes of society,
and simultaneously is placing power in the hands of
men who either represent these classes or are sprung
from them. Greece and Rome possibly fell in ignor-
ance. There may have been none among their
counsellors who saw the importance of the facts of
heredity, or, even more probably, did not recognise
that such facts were part of the operations of Nature.
If England has reached her zenith it cannot be said

104 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

that her decline is due to ignorance. Rather, it must
be said that it is comcident with a period of great
activity and advance in biological knowledge. To-
day the truth of Evolution, the Processes of the
Survival of the Fittest, and the fundamental facts of
Heredity are clearly grasped and understood by
biologists. At no period in human history has
knowledge been so extensive, so accurate and so
carefully generalised as now. No one acquainted
with human life and with lower animal life doubts the
identity of the natural processes that act upon both.
Man’s ethical and esthetic qualities are not new
creations—only elaborations of qualities present in
the living kingdom long before he came. And beneath
his ethical and esthetic nature lies the animal. In
the long run the animal instincts, hunger and pro-
creation, determine man’s conduct. We need only
recall the French Revolutions to remind us of the
fact. Let us not forget the guillotining until the
headsmen sank worn out ; followed by the fusillading
of little children—* the wolflings”’ of Marat, “ who
might grow to be wolves ”—and of women with chil-
dren at the breast ; of wholesale drownings, of women
stripped naked before they were drowned, and of
mothers dragged to the guillotine to witness the
slaughter of their innocent children. Truly did
Carlyle say, ‘“‘ Cruel is the panther of the woods, the
she-bear bereaved of her whelps ; but there is in man
a hatred crueller than that.” The angelic gloss on
man is but a surface-coat painted in times of peace
and prosperity, but cast off in times of distress and

VIRILE SENTIMENT 105

hunger. We must not forget the recorded facts of
ship-wrecked and starving men casting lots for their
next meal, and feeding upon him whom chance had
marked. Neither must we forget the County Courts,
nor the now historical episodes of the Marshalsea.
“Give me the pound of flesh which is due to me, or
die for aught I shall care,” is the general formula that
designates the doings of mankind, even in normal
times. Ido not regret that itis so. Ido not, in even
small measure, denounce Shylock. I have come to
recognise that the weak demand the “pound of
flesh” from the strong whenever they can, no less
than the strong demand it of the weak. Be careful,
therefore, philanthropists and social sentimentalists,
that in your frantic haste to procreate and preserve
the civically unfit you are not bringing into being a

74

great herd whose demand for its “‘ pound of flesh ”
shall be none the less emphatic because it cannot
earn the value of that pound, or, having earned it,
finds that others, stronger and fitter, have already
consumed it. It is a dangerous problem, this of the
multiplication of organisms, with that philogamic
passion at their rear ever unresisted, driving onwards.
It is dangerous even if the multiplication is that of
the fittest. But if for a while you shall aid the
maintenance and increase of the unfit and unfittest
it means ultimately an annihilation on a scale passing
beyond all comprehension and transcending all con-
ception. It is therefore wise to heed how far the
hour may be distant when by the voice of the great
shipwrecked herd the casting of the lot may be

106 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

demanded, and in spite of your philanthropy and
mistaken kindness you shall serve as food, to stay for
a moment the hunger of that wretched and helpless
mob that your misguided sentiments called into a
larger existence. For, as Vergniaud said of the
execution of the Girondins: ‘‘ The Revolution, like
Saturn, is devouring its own children,” so it may be
said of your sentiment that it will devour you and
yours.

If, in defiance of the teachings of biological science,
modern sentiment persists in breeding and rearing a
helpless race that cannot by its own efforts satisfy its
hunger, or if it will persist in rearing a race that mani-
fests criminal and brutal instincts; if, in order that
the lower democracy may be appeased, the unfit,
the sluggish, the lazy-rapacious, and the cunning
demagogues are in turn extolled, bribed, and main-
tained in life at the expense of the fit and worthy,
then England, in spite of her greater knowledge, has
commenced to follow the path that led to the destruc-
tion of Rome and Greece.

If the ruling classes of this country, the Aristoc-
racy, have forgotten their duties, which is to face and
enforce the truth of their generation, or have lost
their courage, then it must fall to the more vigorous
and less esthetic portion of the Intellectual Classes
to take their place. The danger is clear and eminent
enough. With the Lower Classes increasing their
birth-rate, while the Middle and Upper Classes are
remaining stationary ; with certain well-intentioned
but mistaken members of the higher social classes

VIRILE SENTIMENT 107

making remarkable efforts at much personal sacrifice
to lower the infantile mortality of the lowest strata of
society ; and with workhouses, infirmaries, and
lying-in hospitals using baby incubators to fan back
into existence the weakly lives that benign Nature, in
the noblest interests of her race, demands shall perish,
there is no need of a vivid or expansive imagination
to picture the end of a nation that has become thus
far decadent. It seems that we, as a nation which
have so long professed a belief in a merciful and loving
God, have forgotten the old cry of resignation, “* Thy
will be done,” that brought comfort, courage, and
virility to Englishmen of the past when the processes
of Nature eliminated their weak and sickly. They
understood not these processes, and in ignorance
resigned themselves in a noble faith that all was work-
ing towards a beneficent end; and, in their resigna-
tion, found their salvation and that of their race.
. The generation of to-day believes it understands these
processes, and in the arrogance of its belief has played
the coward and traitor to its heritage. In its senti-
mental interference with the workings of Nature it is
leading the community to its destruction. In its
attempts to be superhuman it has become inhumane.
In its efforts to save life it has increased the number of
individuals to whom existence means misery and pain,
and is decreasing those to whom life means health,
happiness, and progress. It recalls to my mind some
of Wordsworth’s lines in “ The Excursion ” :—

“ Vain-glorious Generation! what new powers
On you have been conferred? What gifts, withheld
From your progenitors, have ye received,

108 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Fit recompense of a new desert? What claim
Are ye prepared to urge, that my decrees

For you should undergo a sudden change ;
And the weak functions of one busy day,
Reclaiming and extirpating, perform

What all the slowly-moving years of time,
With their united force, have left undone ?

By Nature’s gradual processes be taught ;

By story be confounded! Ye aspire

Rashly, to fall once more; and that false fruit,
Which, to your over-weening spirits, yields
Hope of a flight celestial, will produce

Misery and shame. But wisdom of her sons
Shall not the less, though late, be justified.”

The generation in which we are living seems to be
fond of poetry of an emotional kind. Let me address
to it a few more lines of a type of poetry which is less

sentimental, but more truthful :—
“The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.”

It would be well if we endeavoured to understand
the real significance of these lines in relation to the
doctrines of modern sentiment. In more than one
way it points to us the irrevocable consequences of-
every attempt that is made to interfere with the
beneficent workings of Nature. The “ Moving Finger
writes,” and then ‘“‘ Moves on,” is but a poetical way
of warning us that for every committed act, social as
well as individual, there are both immediate and
multiplied remoter consequences,-the misery entailed
by which cannot save us from their inflexible opera-
tion, nor all the tears engendered by them wash out a
single punishment which they inflict.

We all remember as children reading of the
traditional King Canute, who, at the instigation of
his flattering courtiers, sat on the sea-beach and bade

VIRILE SENTIMENT 109

the tide recede. He bade the immutable processes of
Nature that determine how and when and to what
extent the tides shall rise and fall to cease. But no
decree of man or king can alter by the fraction of an
inch the rising of the tides. It would be well if we
recognised that human life is controlled and deter-
mined by processes that are as immutable and as
merciless as those which govern the tides or determine
the movements of the planets. We can learn to
understand them and to obey them, but we cannot
destroy or diminish them.

Unfortunately there exists to-day a Canute who
is not traditional, but figurative. We may regard
him as the symbolic emblem of modern sentiment.
He sits upon the sea-shore of current deeds, and,
looking forth upon the rising events of Futurity,
demands that they shall cease to rise! The hour of
his disillusionment is not far off ; it is nearer than he
imagines, for the shore upon which he sits shelves less
than he believes. By not the fraction of a second
will the. tide of Nature’s processes be delayed or
hastened in its rise upon the Future of the Nation.

What we sowed yesterday is to-day germinating,
and will be reaped to-morrow. There is time, even
now, to dig up the sprouting tares before their harvest
shall have destroyed the wheat. Who, with hoe
and rake in hand, will go forth and lead the way ?
Will the natural rulers of the Nation, the Aristocracy,
do it, or must the more vigorous and virile of the
Intellectual Classes—the Upper Middle Strata of
Society—ignoring its poetically esthetical section,
usurp their position and discharge their functions ?

110 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

APEENDEX.
Added February, 1909.

Note to p. 68.—By “ Genetics ” is understood that
branch of Biology which studies the phenomena of
heredity. Quite recently, owing in part to a redis-
covery of Mendel’s generalisation and in part to the
large and increasing volume of experimental evidence
in corroboration of it, the study of heredity has now
for ever emerged from the chaos which marked its
previous condition. An appeal to accurately con-
ducted experiments is the soundest and safest method
by which the problems of heredity can be solved.
It may be urged, indeed has often been urged, that
we cannot apply the experimental method to man.
But so far as he is concerned, experiments on a vast
scale have already been performed. It is not the
want of experiment that we lack, but the proper and
accurate recording of the results. Blue eye with
blue eye, brown eye with brown eye, and brown eye
with blue eye have been mated together in numbers
that dwarf our most colossal experiments—even
those of Prof. Bateson with an offspring of twelve
thousand five hundred chicks—and yet the only
accurate analysis and record of these facts which
has been made is that by Mr. Hurst of quite recent
date. North American Indians and negroes have
been crossed with Europeans many hundreds of times
and their progeny have intermarried and _ been
married back to the original European or coloured
stock still more frequently, and yet nowhere is there

VIRILE SENTIMENT 111

to be found a scientifically recorded statement of
the facts. The material exists, but 1t wants scientific
analysis and recording. If this address should be read
by any persons of leisure, or by medical men, who
may at any time be resident in Canada, and who may
become acquainted with families where intermarriage
between Europeans and Red Indians has occurred,
they may render services of the greatest value by
taking photographs, both full-face and side-view, of
the grandparents, parents, offspring, and of as many
collaterals as possible, and recording as carefully as
can be the colour of the skin (both that exposed and
that protected), the colour of the eyes, and the colour
and nature of the hair of each individual. More
valuable still would it be if a lock of the hair of as many
persons as possible were obtained. If it is not possible
to obtain complete pedigrees, then partial ones will
serve the purpose, provided that the nature (whether
half-castes or otherwise) of the different individuals
is accurately ascertained. A letter addressed to me
at the London Hospital Medical College, London, E.,
will always reach me. In the same way marriages
between negroes and Kuropeans and the various
marriages of the mulattoes could be recorded. In
the case of mulattoes, quadroons, and octoroons it is
desirable, if possible, that observations as to differences
in tints in each class should be recorded. It is also
very essential that not only skin colour, but hair
colour, hair texture (whether European or woolly),
and eye colour should be recorded. Other facial
features will, of course, be recorded in the photo-

112 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

graphs. The results of crossing albino negroes with
normally pigmented members is also urgently
required. The same considerations hold with regard
to human albinism generally. Much of the published
records are incomplete and not precise enough. The
case of Josephine Chassot described on p. 77 is an
example of this. She is described in the original

4

publication as “affected with albinism,” as having

“pink eyes (pupils),” but “with peculiar lilac-

6

coloured irides,” and as having a “ very white skin.”
But nothing is said about her hair colour. When
described in comparison with her sister, who is stated
to be dark, she is said to be fair (blonde). Such a
description may mean that her hair is flaxen or white.
The other albinoes in this pedigree are simply des-
cribed as “albinoes,” or as being “affected with
albinism.” But as to whether they are complete
albinoes having no pigment at all, or are so-called
partial albinoes having flaxen hair, we are left to
infer.

Note to p. 68.—A definition of “ Kugenics ” by its
author, Mr. Francis Galton, may be found in
“ Nature,” Vol. LXX., p. 82,1904. “ Hugenics is the
science which deals with all influences that improve
and develope the inborn qualities of a race.” The
essential basis upon which “ Eugenics” is founded
exists in the consideration of certain postulates which
all will accept, z.e., “that it is better to be healthy
than sick, vigorous than weak, well-fitted than ill-
fitted for their part in life. In short, that it is better
to be good rather than bad specimens of their kind,

VIRILE SENTIMENT 113

whatever that kind might be.” “The aim of Eugenics
is to represent each class or sect by its best specimens,
causing them to contribute more than their propor-
tion to the next generation ; that done, to leave them
to work out their common civilisation in their own
way.”

Mr. Galton thinks that learned and active societies
desirous of promoting Eugenics might proceed by the
following methods: “ (1) Dissemination of a know-
ledge of the laws of heredity so far as they are surely
known, and promotion of their further study. (2)
Historical enquiry into the rates with which the
various classes of society (classified according to civic
usefulness) have contributed to the population at
various times, in ancient and modern nations.” Mr.
Galton then adds: ‘‘ There is strong reason for believ-
ing that national rise and decline are closely con-
nected with this influence.” ‘‘ (3) Systematic collec-
tion of facts showing the circumstances in which .
large and thriving families have most frequently
originated. (4) Influences affecting marriage. (5)
Persistence in setting forth the national importance
of Kugenics.”

With reference to the third and fourth of these
proposals—and which may also partake of the nature
of a note to pp. 99 and 100—I would like to add that I
have for some time now been endeavouring to collect
facts bearing on the causes of what we may call
“unhappy or incompatible marriages,’ and I am
desirous of obtaining further information from those

who are in a position to give it. Names are not
H

114 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

necessary, and all information will be regarded as
confidential. There is reason to believe that in some
cases these marriages are the result of an inherent
incapacity upon the part of one of the two partners
to make a felicitous choice. | An inherent incapacity
of this sort would, therefore, because it is inherent
or congenital, run through members of the same
family, and would be manifested by that family
having a larger proportion than usual of such unhappy
marriages. If any one of my readers is acquainted
with families of this kind, I shall be glad if they
will communicate with me.

In other cases, my present information suggests
that these marriages are the result of a too early
union. Ata certain age, say, from twenty to twenty-
five, a pair of individuals may possess temperaments
and capacities that are more or less compatible and
could harmoniously exist together. But at a certain
later age, let us say about twenty-six to thirty, one
or both individuals undergo a change in temperament,
character, and ideals, perhaps as divergently as it is
possible to conceive, and the marital state becomes
incompatible and impossible. In this connection, it
is a fact of some interest, which I have no doubt
others have observed, though perhaps they may have
given it no more than passing consideration, that
there exist people who instead of becoming wiser with
experience, become more foolish, and who instead
of becoming more proficient become less so, as
they pass on towards their primal years. If such per-
sons passably discreet, tactful, and proficient at the

VIRILE SENTIMENT 115

time of marriage, for the positions which their youth-
ful years are likely to occupy, are married to partners
who improve in all qualities as time advances, it is
clear that the barrier of incompatibility must widen
with the passage of each year. I do not suppose
that these cases are very numerous, but still they
exist.

And it seems to me a very important matter,
because I think that these changes of which I speak
are inherent or inborn in their nature, and can no
more be avoided than the appearance of the antlers
and of the fighting instincts of the stag when it has
reached its maturity ; and cannot be commanded to
stay their appearance any more than can _ those
sexual instincts and secondary sexual characters
which inevitably appear in human beings at a certain
stage in their developement. This appearance of new
characters and new qualities at different stages in the
lives of individuals, and of one kind for one person and
of another kind for another, is of far wider social
import than its application to married life. Its very
existence vitiates a great deal of the medical evidence
that was given before the Committee on Physical
Deterioration and Degeneration. This latter question
is not so much a medical one as it is a biological one,
and the medical evidence, though valuable, is not
the most important that can be adduced, and, in fact,
in many of its conclusions it is erroneous and in its
nature entirely misleading.

Note to pp. 102, 104, and 106.—While this address
has been passing through the press, four events of some

116 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

significance have happened. One of these is the
earthquake of Messina and its attendant incidents.
Among these incidents there is one which is, in
history, of such ordinary occurrence that in our
familiarity with it we treat it with an altogether un-
deserved indifference. I allude to the fact that
among the stricken and starving inhabitants, “ fierce
fights with knives for bread” occurred. And, after
some seeming order had been restored, the distribu-
tion of food by the authorities took place in the pres-
ence and under the protection of an armed guard.
Where hunger presses and it cannot be satisfied,
blood will inevitably flow.

The second incident is the occurrence of a fire at a
cinematograph exhibition in the East End of
London. It was apparently quite a simple and
not very dangerous affair. The cinematograph
film caught fire and .made a flare altogether
out of proportion to its possibilities of danger.
According to the newspaper reports of the
operator’s statement of the accident, the cinemato-
graph machine was enclosed in an iron box. None
the less, a panic seized the audience, and the women,
in their frantic endeavours to save themselves, trod
down the children, and the men trod down both
women and children in their equally frantic efforts
to save their threatened lives. . “ Each one for him-
self and destruction to the hindmost,’” expresses this
event. And within the past two years there have
been a succession of similar events.

The third incident is a “ nine-days’ wonder.” It

VIRILE SENTIMENT 117

ought rather to be an iconoclastic fact ever fresh in
our memories. Whenever it is recalled it will
probably be spoken of as the “ Tottenham slaughter.”
Posterity quickly forgets. In a twelve-months’ time
the affair will have sunk into oblivion, in company
with a great many more unpleasant facts that ought
likewise to be remembered. Let me, therefore,
record its essential details. A Russian outlaw had
sought the hospitality and protection of English laws.
He had lived in this country apparently for some
months, but for a fortnight of this time he had been
employed in an English factory at Tottenham, but
gave up the work “ because it was too hard.” During
the interval he had learned that the wages for the
employés were brought from the bank in a motor-car
at half-past eleven o’clock every Saturday morning.
On the Saturday morning of January, the 23rd, 1909,
this outlaw, in company with a companion, who was
similarly an Anarchist outlaw from Russia, waited at
the appropriate hour outside the entrance to the
works. Both men were armed with revolvers and
with pocketfuls of cartridges. Their intention, there-
fore, was quite clear and premeditated. As soon as
the messenger had alighted from the car with the bag
of money, it was seized by one of the desperadoes,
and in the struggle which ensued the messenger was
fired at and wounded. ‘The assassins then made off,
and endeavoured to clear a path of escape for them-
selves by indiscriminate and wild firing, right and
left of them. The hue and cry was raised, and chase
was given. Some of the pursuers were on foot, some

118 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

on horseback, and some in a motor-car. The pur-
sued were chased for a distance of five miles, making
their way towards Epping Forest. In the course of
their reckless flight, they boarded an electric tramway,
fired at and wounded some of the passengers, and one
of them compelled the driver to proceed at a rapid
pace by holding a revolver at his head. While this
one was thus engaged at the front of the car, the other
was at the rear, and in an indiscriminate fashion was
firing right and left. At a certain point they left the
car, which they then believed to be nearing a police-
station, and boarded a milk-cart, which they drove
in another direction at a furious pace. This they
ultimately left, and then took to the fields. Soon
alter this one of the two was brought to bay, and he
shot himself, but not mortally; he was taken
prisoner, and subsequently died from meningitis in a
hospital. The other effected his escape by an almost
superhuman effort, and finally took refuge in a small
house. Here he was at last shot by one of the police-
men who had taken part in the chase and who had
borrowed a revolver.

In the course of this bloody fracas, a policeman
and a small boy were shot dead and twenty-three
persons were wounded. One important moral we
may draw from this event: The civically unfit under
an autocratic régime are similarly unfit under a
democratic one, even though it be pervaded with a
benevolent sentiment. But the autocratic régime
knows how to get rid of them, and the democratic

one how to receive them.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 119

Here, then, in our midst, modern sentiment allows
a type of criminal not only to exist, but also to breed ;
and this type is one so devoid of all sense of civic
responsibility and so destitute of the rudiments of
social instinct, that the individuals which constitute
it are deliberately prepared to ruthlessly and indis-
criminately murder all who shall endeavour to frus-
trate their criminal desires; and even children are
not excluded.

Do not let us delude ourselves by believing that
only Russian Anarchists can perpetrate these deeds.
This type of criminal is a mutation common to all
nations and to all races of mankind. They are not
the product of any social conditions any more than
the short-legged and long-bodied ram which gave rise
to the Ancon race of sheep was the product of special
farm conditions. They are germinal mutations, and
as such will breed true to their mutant character.

The fourth event occurred on Monday, the 11th
of January, 1909, at half-past seven o’clock in the
morning. The Democracy of France has been per-
meated, in common with other Western European
nations, with the spirit of sentimental regard for
all types of civic unfitness which we have been con-
sidering. “ And France has been paying the penalty.
For, encouraged by the knowledge that this morbid
sentiment would protect murderers from the guillo-
- tine, and would only send them to expiate their
crimes beneath the genial climes and the cocoanut
trees of French Guiana, with a profusion of tobacco to
smoke and of abundant leisure, a gang of desperadoes

120 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

had terrorised the North of France by a great number
of motiveless and ruthless murders. The leader of
this band had committed two hundred and fifty such
murders, and he was tranquilly playing cards and
contemplating the happy hours he would spend under
the cocoa-palms, when he and his companions, three
in number, learnt the fact that even the stupidest
sentiment must some time come to an end. For at
last, craven fear had attained what common-sense
could not, and these murderers were condemned to
death. An enormous crowd assembled to witness the
execution. Throughout the proceedings the crowd did
not cease to raise shouts of “ Death, death!” The
“delighted,” “‘ exultant,” and “ excited.”
France has, through the agency of her sentiment,

crowd was.

bred her criminals and unfit, just as we are doing,
and now she must meet the situation by a ruthless
vengeance and wholesale destruction, just as we shall
have to, or herself sink into “death vomited in
great floods.” Lasser favre, which leaves all unfitness
to reap its own destruction as fast as it arises, achieves
the end more humanely and much quicker.

I have appended these four cases in order that we
may be reminded what will be the conduct of the
human multitude when the day of adversity and stress
arrives. Unless a nation is composed of reliant and
self-supporting individuals this day of adversity is
inevitable. For so soon as our morbid sentiment has
reared a shipwrecked horde of helpless incapables
of such dimension that the fit cannot or will not any
longer bear the burden of its support, then the day of

VIRILE SENTIMENT 121

reckoning will be with us, and “ all our piety and wit
and knowledge will not cancel by half a second ” the
casting of the die, nor all our tears, nor lamentations,
nor unspeakable anguish of our womenkind and our
children will avert by a single drop the streams of
blood that will wash the streets of our great cities.
It is not well to forget Nantes of the 14th of December,
1793. The Girondins came to regenerate a stricken
France. They were men of talent, of courage, of
constitutional principles, but the great impotent herd
of the Sansculottes guillotined them by the verdict
of a “ Patriot Jury ” of “ terminer les débats ” for their
services to their country. Are we sure that we are
not breeding a race of Sansculottes who will demand
license for themselves and terror and destruction for
every good citizen? The beauty, courage, nobleness,
and unspeakable pathos of Jeanne-Marie Philipon as
she appeared before the blood-besodden crowd of the
lower French Democracy did not save her, nor will it,
under like circumstances, save the best and highest
of our women from similar bloody and blindly venge-
ful deeds, when once our sentiment has called into
being a multitude that is helpless to live by its own
efforts and meets all resistance to its demands for the
confiscation of the property of worthy citizens by
bloody and ruthless executions. It does not matter
whether the adversity which excites these deeds is
due to the corruptions of a Royal Court, to the
impotence of a brutal multitude, or is the product of
an excitable and morbid sentiment. Adversity,
cupidity, and hunger are not altered in their nature

122 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

or their effects by the method of their origin. And
the lower the social class we rear and pamper, the
more animal and the more hemal will its instincts
and its acts become.

England, then, should beware of that fatal
lethargy which rests on the belief that evil and
destruction cannot visit a nation that was once—
and may yet remain if she so wills it--the greatest
of the recorded Ages. Upon the walls of her Temple
the inscription of her doom is being written. Shall
it be erased before it is completed, and in its place
the motto of vinlity inscribed: ‘‘ England shall be
Fit and Strong?” If that is the nation’s desire,
the day of preaching is done, and the hour of deeds
has come. For, on the dismembered Empires of the
Past, the Warning Angel of Historical Experience
stands, pointing the way to England’s safety. The
admonitions that rise anew from the ruins of Greece,
of Rome, and of Venice, bid us desert the road of
a too widened Democracy, and turn to that which
leads towards a wise, an understanding, and a
broadened Oligarchy.

Never to any country came the opportunity
that lies at England’s feet to-day. With an Artizan
Class unequalled for skill by any rival; with com-
mercial organisers of great resources, subtlety, and
boldness of methods; with a Middle Class eager for
enterprise and gifted with productive capacity ; with
a Literature studded with gems as precious as any the
world contains, and the names of whose poets and
prose-writers are honoured in every seat of culture

VIRILE SENTIMENT 123

throughout the world; with a Scientific Hierarchy
the greatest of its Age; with a Landed Gentry, the
blood of whose sons has been shed in their country’s
welfare on the torrid deserts, fertile plains, and
frozen snows of every Continent, and whose deeds of
valour, codes of honour, and conceptions of duty
have furnished an example to every age that shall
look back to them for inspiration ; with an Aristocracy
that has succeeded beyond all others in the govern-
ment of diverse peoples, England is blessed with
that combination of qualities that should render her
invincible against the world. And yet, mighty
though she inherently is, sound in sinew, strong of
intellect, and prolific of wealth, she hes prostrate
before the fetich of a lower caste Democracy ; her
splendour sullied, her energies paralysed, her culture
forgotten, her knowledge neutralised, and her tradi-
tions ignored, amid the blatant din of government by
untruthful mural posters, by uncouth and pyrocephalic
demagogues careless of veracity, and by newspaper
placards that shamelessly and ostentatiously offer bribes
to the lowest and least worthy of Englishsociety. Truly
the hour and its running sands call for leaders who,
like Pitt and Wellington, the Aristocrats, shall think
of country before salary, of honour before the acclama-
tion of a multitude, of principle before expediency,
and of the preservation of the Fit, not the bribery
of the Unfit ; who shall put Biology before Sentiment,
and, wedding the former to History, shall build anew,
with the aid of a more virile people, the foundations
of a yet greater Empire. But if she is to accomplish

124 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

this, then in the immediate self-denial of a mistaken
sentiment and in the struggle with the errors of to-day,
she must sow the seed that shall ripen into the glory
and the welfare of to-morrow. The biological and
historical hour-glass alike warn her, that the sands
of her greatness have nearly run their course. Is
England still great enough to stem the Tide and turn
back the Flood? Hf so, her rejuvenated but
broadened Oligarchy shall proclaim the answer.

MENDELISM AND SEX.

An Address delivered to the Mendel Society,
29th March, 1909.

Bs

THE question of the determination of sex is an old
one. It is a problem which has been much debated
along various lines of inquiry. Until recently it not
only eluded all solution, but gave no promise of
solution.

Recent Mendelian experiments, commenced about
the year 1900, had not, however, been very long
in operation before the conclusions to which they
led afforded clear suggestions that the problem of
sex could be investigated by the same methods
and with the aid of the same directing principles.
Mendelism, in fact, has provided the key by which
the question can be accurately and experimentally
answered. Much however remains to be done,
for the knowledge which we now possess is to be
regarded as in the nature of a right beginning rather
than as a final solution.

Until quite recently it was generally believed
that external conditions determined the sex of

126 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

individuals. It was assumed that if we knew
these conditions we should be able to decide at
will the sex of the unborn young. Acting under the
influence of such a_ belief, several investigators
designed and carried into operation various experi-
ments that were intended to show the part which
different factors in the environment played in the
determination of sex. The well-known experiment
of Yung with tadpoles was of this class. In
this experiment, certain tadpoles were fed on very
nutritive and abundant food, while others were
fed on less nutritive and limited material. It
was found that there was a larger percentage of
female frogs derived from the former and of male
frogs from the latter. The conclusion thus suggested
itself that females were determined by excessive
anabolic or building up process of nutrition, and
males by that antithetic process in which anabolism
only just keeps in excess of the katabolic or breaking
down processes. But there were several sources
of error in such an experiment. The most serious
one is indicated by a similar experiment with the
caterpillars of certain butterflies. In this experiment
it was ascertained that under-feeding did not result
in the production of an excess of males, but in the
elimination of the females. There being a heavy
mortality among the females, it is a natural con-
sequence that there appears to be an excess of
males. But it is apparent and not real. -It is,
therefore, in reality, not a case of sex-determination
by environmental influences, but one of survival

MENDELISM AND SEX 127

of the fittest. The males are more resistant to the
harsh effects of a low nutritive diet than are the
females. Moreover, the interesting case of the
bee should have been sufficient to expose the fallacy
of the belief that the environment can determine
sex. The queen bee lives under special and uniform
conditions, and she is fed on highly nutritive material.
If conditions determine sex, then she should produce
offspring definitely predominating in one direction
with respect to sex, for it should be mainly feminine
or mainly masculine. Moreover, if high nutrition
determined the formation of females, then the
parthenogenetic eggs of the unfertilised, but specially
fed, queen bee should be mainly or wholly female.
But the reverse is the case. The unfertilised eggs
all produce male bees or drones, while females or
workers are alone produced from the fertilised eggs.
The simple fact that the act of fertilisation thus
determined the sex of the individuals arising from
fertilised eggs is by itself sufficient to show that sex
is determined within the germ-cells, and is not
dependent on environment.

It is recognised now, by those who are engaged
in the experimental investigation of the question
of sex and of cognate problems, that sex itself, like
other qualities, is predestined in the germ-cells,
and is definitely determined by fertilisation. And,
when it has thus been predestined and determined,
external influences cannot alter it. It is, however,
possible that in particular cases the proportions in
which the sexes may appear are determined by

128 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

environmental influences. In the case of the butterfly
caterpillars mentioned above, certain conditions
associated with semi-starvation, while they do not
determine sex itself, do determine the proportion of
males and females, by unduly eliminating the latter
without influencing the former. But this difference
in the resisting powers of the two sexes is
probably exceptional, and, as a rule, the sexes are
similar in their inherent responsive powers towards
special environmental conditions.

In the majority of cases, where we are in possession
of sufficiently accurate statistics, it appears that as a
general fact the sexes are produced in equal numbers.
This is so for Man, for the lower animals, and for
unisexual plants. The production of the two
sexes in equal numbers is a_ significant fact
from the Mendelian standpoint. It had no meaning
whatever in pre-Mendelian days; but now its
interpretation is clear. The individual distinct-
ness of the sexes is also a significant fact. It
indicates the complete segregation of maleness
and femaleness. This segregation of the sexes and
their occurrence in equal numbers at once suggested
the well-known Mendelian ratio of 1:1. This ratio
is the result of mating a Mendelian hybrid* with an
individual carrying the recessive character, and it
indicates that one of the two sexes is a dominant
to the other. If we use the symbols which have
been previously described,* and if we tentatively
regard the female as a dominant hybrid and the

* For definition and explanation see pages 63 and 67.

MENDELISM AND SEX 129

male as a pure recessive, or vice versd, then they
will be respectively symbolised as DR and RR.
A reference to the table of matings on page 69 will
show that the expected offspring from a D R parent
mated with an R R one, will consist in equal numbers
of D R’s, which in this case will be females—if we
regard the female character as dominant—and of
RR’s, which will be males. Thus far, then, the
two general facts already known to us, namely, the
segregation and numerical equality of the sexes,
strongly suggest that sex is predestined in the germ-
cells and is hereditarily transmitted in accordance
with the Mendelian principles of gametic purity and
segregation.

It was not however until quite recently that experi-
ments specifically designed to answer the questions
presented by sex have, by their results, extended the
suggestion into proof. Among the most important
and interesting of such experiments we must place
those of Professor Correns with two species of the
Bryony plant. In the species known as Bryonia
dioica female flowers are found on one plant
and male flowers on another; the two sexes are
borne on different individuals, so that any particular
plant is either male or female, and not hermaphrodite
like the majority of plants. The other species,
named Bryonia alba, has the sexes borne on different
flowers but on the same plant. Each individual
plant is therefore hermaphrodite, bearing both male

flowers and. female flowers. When the flowers of a
J

130 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

female B. dioica are crossed with those of a male B.
dioica, the offspring consist of a mixture of male and
female plants.

The most interesting crosses, however, are the
reciprocals between the hermaphrodite plant of
B. alba and the two unisexual plants of B. dioica.
When the flowers of the female plant of B. dioica
are crossed with the male flowers of B. alba, all the in-
dividuals in the offspring are female plants.* But
the reciprocal cross, strangely enough, gives a very
different result. For, when the female flowers of
B. alba are pollinated with pollen from the flowers
of a male B. dioica, the offspring consist of male

and female plants in approximately equal numbers.

Correns endeavoured to interpret these results
in the following way. Let us take first the cross
of male B. dioica with female B. dioica. The result,
as we have seen, Is a mixture of males and females
in equal numbers. We will for the moment assume, as
Correns did, that maleness is dominant ; that the male
plants are Mendelian hybrids and therefore carry two
kinds of pollen-cells in approximately equal numbers,
one half bearing the character of maleness and the
other half that of femaleness; and that the female
plant, being recessive, must be pure with regard to
femaleness, and all its egg-cells will therefore carry
femaleness alone. It is clear that a cross of the

*A few exceptions—2 males with 589 females——are said to occur,
and a few of the females bear occasional male flowers.

MENDELISM AND SEX 131

nature which we are now considering will resolve
itself into the simple Mendelian one of DR by
Rk.* The DR here represents the male plant
and the RR the female plant. The symbol D
in this case stands for maleness, which is dominant,
and R for femaleness, which is recessive. Since the
female plant bears only “ female” egg-cells and the
male plant bears both “male” and “female” pollen-
cells in equal numbers, it must happen in the random
meetings resulting from pollination that one-half of
the “female” egg-cells will be fertilised with “* male”
pollen-cells which will give us D# offspring, and
one-half with “female” pollen-cells which will
give us RR offspring. And, since maleness is
dominant, then the individuals which result from a
fertilisation of R egg-cells by D pollen-cells will
be hybrids and will be visibly male. Thus there
will be produced equal numbers of hybrid males
(D F’s) and of pure females (R #’s). So far, then,
the Mendelian interpretation is in accordance with
the experimental facts, and it gives them an in-
telligible unity.

Let us pass next to consider the crosses between
the two different species. As we have already seen,
they resolve themselves into crosses of the two
following kinds :—

NATURE OF CROSS.

Bryonta Droica. <x BRYONIA ALBA. RESULT.
(Unisexual). (Hermaphrodite). OFFSPRING.
(1) Flowers of female plant x Male flowers = All females
(2) Pe a nee-Tnieehe » Female flowers = Males and females

132 THE MENDEL JOURNAE

Now, as we have already pointed out, the in-
dividuals of Bryonia alba are hermaphrodite, bearing
both male and female flowers. In other words, as
individuals they are not differentiated with regard
to sex. We here meet with a new kind of cross,
different from that between the unisexual individuals
of B. dioica. When the unisexual individuals of
this latter species are crossed with each other, we
are really dealing with the crosses of two differentiated
individuals, in each of which the one sex has segregated
from the other. But in the cross of B. dioica with B.
alba we are dealing with one where a sexually
differentiated individual is crossed with an un-
differentiated one. The results show that we may
regard differentiation and non-differentiation (absence
of differentiation) as definite characters capable of
hereditary transmission. Hence we are here dealing
with a cross between a differentiated unisexual plant
and a non-differentiated hermaphrodite one, the
unisexual character beg apparently dominant.

Let us first consider case No. 2 in the table above.
Some of the pollen-cells of the male flower of B. dioica
are carrying maleness and others are carrying female-
ness. The egg-cells of the female flowers of B. alba
are carrying undifferentiated hermaphroditism. In
a cross of the kind we are considering, two
results may happen. For both the male and female
carrying pollen-cells of B. dioica will meet the
ege-cells of B. alba carrying the hermaphroditic
character. In the former case there will be pro-
duced fertilised egg-cells bearing the characters of

MENDELISM AND SEX 133

maleness and hermaphroditism. These cells when
they develop into individuals will produce unisexual
males, because both unisexuality and maleness are
dominant. The second possible result will be
attained in the latter case, when fertilised cells
having the composition of femaleness and _her-
maphroditism are formed. These cells will give
rise upon development to unisexual female in-
dividuals, because unisexuality is dominant over
hermaphroditism. Thus two kinds of individuals
are expected on this interpretation, unisexual males
and unisexual females. And the experimental results
do, as ‘we have seen, confirm this Mendelian ex-
pectation.

Now we will take the reciprocal cross as shown in
case No. 1 in the table. Here again we meet with
the undifferentiated hermaphroditism of B. alba,
but now carried in its pollen-cells. In this cross,
then, only one result, and not two, as in case No. 2,
will occur: the egg-cells carrying femaleness alone
of B. dioica will be fertilised by the pollen-cells of
B. alba, which are carrying hermaphroditism alone.
And since unisexuality is dominant to hermaphro-
ditism, all individuals produced by this cross will
manifest the unisexual female character. Hence,
our Mendelian interpretation expects females only to
result from such a cross. And experiment has
shown that such is the case.

While the Mendelian interpretation devised by
Correns does undoubtedly enable us to give an

134 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

intelligible statement of the probable processes at
work, it is not altogether free from objection. The
assumption of the undifferentiated nature of both
the pollen and egg-cells of B. alba, with the further
necessary assumption that these have a com-
position different from those of B. dzovca, is one
that would require a great deal of evidence in its
favour before we should be justified in finally ac-
cepting it.

But there is a simpler interpretation which quite
as adequately fits the facts and does not involve
the serious assumption necessitated by Correns’
theory. It is the interpretation of Professor Bateson.
In his scheme we regard not the male, but the female,
as being dominant. ‘The pollen-cells of B. dioica are
regarded as homozygous carrying maleness alone,
while the pollen-cells of B. alba are also regarded as
homozygous but carrying femaleness alone. The
female or egg-cells of both species are regarded as
heterozygous. Individuals of both species will possess
two kinds of egg-cells, and these will occur in ap-
proximately equal numbers. One half of them will
carry maleness and the other half femaleness. We
shall then expect that when the egg-cells of B. dioica
are fertilised with the pollen-cells of the same species,
there will be produced equal numbers of male and
female offspring. For when a pollen-cell which carries
maleness meets an egg-cell which, as we have
postulated, carries maleness alone, clearly the
resulting ofispring from such a fertilisation must be
male. But when the second kind of egg-cell, that

MENDELISM AND SEX 135

which carries femaleness, meets a pollen-cell carrying
maleness, it is clear that if femaleness is dominant,
- the resulting offspring will be female. But whereas
the male is pure maleness, the female is a hybrid,
carrying both maleness and femaleness.

Similarly, the offspring resulting from fertilising
the egg-cells of B. dioica carrying either maleness or
femaleness with the pollen-cells of B. alba carrying
femaleness alone, are expected to consist of hetero-
zygous (hybrid) females and homozygous (pure)
females in equal numbers. That is, so far as visible
characters are concerned—for we cannot distinguish
these two kinds of females by inspection—the offspring
are expected to consist entirely of females. And
experiment shows that such is the case.

In the reciprocal cross of the egg-cells of B. alba
carrying either femaleness or maleness fertilised with
the pollen-cells of B. diovca carrying maleness alone,
it is expected that one half of the offspring will be
heterozygous females and one half homozygous males.
And again experiment confirms our expectations,
in so far that the offspring does consist of an
equal number of males and females.*

The application of Mendelian methods and inter-
pretation to the consideration of the experimental
results does, therefore, give us an intelligible and
consistent statement of the ascertained facts. No
previous theory has ever accomplished that. And
we may, I think, feel assured that at Jast we are
on the right road towards the elucidation of this
difficult but interesting problem.

*It would be interesting to know whether B. alba when self-fertilised produces
female plants as well as hermaphrodites, as it should do according to this scheme,

136 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

There are reasons for believing that the different
factors which determine the hereditary characters
of organisms are carried by certain nuclear bodies
called the chromosomes. In form they are some-
times rod-shaped and sometimes horseshoe-shaped,
and they make their appearance within the nucleus
just before cell division is about to occur. They stain
very darkly with certain dyes and their presence is
thus rendered more manifest. For the imdividuals
of a given species, the number of chromosomes
present in the nuclei of the cells is constant. But
the number of chromosomes in the body or somatic
cells is, however, twice that in the germ-cells or gametes
of any individual. Consequently, when at fertilisa-
tion two germ-cells, paternal and maternal, unite, the
resulting cell, out of which a new individual will
arise by cell division, contains the higher or somatic
number of chromosomes. Thence during all the
cell divisions which occur as the new individual
developes from this fertilised cell, this higher or
body number is retained in all the somatic cells
which result. But, at a certain stage, the individual
forms its germ-cells, and during the process the num-
ber of chromosomes becomes reduced to one half.

Now there is clear evidence, derived from the
study of these chromosomes in certain insects,
phylloxerans, and aphids, to show that in some
way sex is directly determined, or its determination
is correlated with, the presence of an accessory
chromosome in certain of the paternal cells.
That is, if the egg-cells contain five chromosomes

MENDELISM AND SEX 137

then one half of the sperm-cells or spermatozoa
will also contain five, but the other half will contain
four only. There are thus two kinds of spermatozoa
developed. We owe this interesting observation to
the investigations of Professor Wilson, Professor
Morgan, and Miss Stevens. Between them they have
examined about a hundred species of insects and
other animals, and in all of them they have found
this double form of spermatozoon present.

Now it is very clear that if there are two kinds
of spermatozoa in certain animals, the one
kind approximately equal in number to the other,
and there exists only one kind of egg-cell, in
random fertilisations one half of the eggs will be
fertilised by one kind of spermatozoa and the other
half by the other kind. And from the fertilised
eggs, fertilised by two different kinds of spermatozoa,
it is to be expected that there will arise two kinds of
individuals. Let us illustrate this by reference to
the following diagram (Fig. 1). In this diagram
A represents the spermatozoon carrying only four
chromosomes, while B represents the other form of
spermatozoon, that which carries five chromosomes.
We may speak of the fifth or odd chromosome as
the accessory one. The egg-cells are all of one type
and carry five chromosomes; they are represented
in the diagram by C. Now when A and C unite it
is clear that the zygote or fertilised cell D! will
contain only nine chromosomes, or one less than the
zygote D*. This latter, which is formed when
B and C unite, contains ten chromosomes. The

THE MENDEL JOURNAL

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MENDELISM AND SEX 139

former zygote will be a male, for the observations of
the three investigators just mentioned have shown
that the somatic or body cells of the males investigated
by them contain one chromosome less than the
body cells of the females. The latter zygote will
be a female, since it contains the full complement
of chromosomes.

If these observations prove to be of general
application, then it would appear that sex is
determined by the presence or absence of the paired
condition of the accessory chromosome. If it is
paired in the zygote, femaleness results; if it is
unpaired, then maleness results. But, whether the
zygote shall contain the paired or unpaired accessory
chromosome depends upon the kind of spermatozoon
by which fertilisation is effected. The male is
the arbiter which decides the result.

These interesting discoveries in connexion with
the chromosomes of cells enable us to frame explana-
tions of several things which were previously in-
capable of any satisfactory or consistent statement.
We may therefore next turn our attention to the
new interpretation of old facts which these dis-
-coveries enable us to frame.

As is well known, the eggs laid by the queen
bee are some of them fertilised and some not. But
both sorts of eggs develop. The unfertilised ones,
however, give rise to the male drones, while the
fertilised eggs produce the workers, which are im-
mature or imperfect females. In order to understand

140 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

this result we must first consider another fact in con-
nexion with the chromosomes of germ-cells. We have
already seen that in certain insects there are two kinds
of sperm-cells or spermatozoa ; one of these carries an
accessory chromosome and its union with the egg-cell
produces a female, while the other kind is devoid of
the accessory chromosome and the egg fertilised by it
developes into a male. Now, if we suppose that some-
thing happened by which all the latter kind of sperm-
cells became destroyed, it is obvious that male offspring
would never be produced. The product of fertilisa-
tion would be females always, and this we know
is the case, not only with the fertilised eggs of the ~
bee, but also of the green-fly (Aphis), of a water flea
(Daphnia), and of a certain genus of plant-lice
(Phyllozera). Is there then any evidence that this
seemingly improbable selective destruction .of a
particular type of sperm-cell does actually occur ?
Such a hypothesis appears to be exceedingly
fanciful. None the less, it expresses an actual fact
which has been ascertained by careful observation.
For Professor Morgan has observed that in a Phyl-
lovera one half of the sperm-cells are small in
size and do not contain the accessory chromosome,
and ultimately degenerate; they therefore can
take no part in fertilisation. But these are the
cells which determine maleness in the offspring
which arise from the eggs fertilised by them. There-
fore, fertilisation being effected only by the other
kind of cell, females alone are produced. Miss

MENDELISM AND SEX 141

Stevens has observed a similar condition of
degeneration of those sperm-cells which are devoid
of the accessory chromosome in another genus
of plant-lice, Aphis. And in bees the degener-
ation of one half of the sperm-cells has also been
observed by Meves.

In this way our knowledge of the behaviour
of the accessory chromosome, while rendering it
certain that sex is a gametic differentiation, that
it is a quality not depending upon environmental
influences, also enables us to explain the phenomenon
that in bees, plant-lice, and water-fleas, fertilised
egas develop only into females. For femaleness,
as has been shown by Professor EK. B. Wilson in the
insect Protenor, and by Professor Morgan in certain
species of Phylloxera, is characterised by the presence
in the body cells of the full complement of chromo-
somes, while maleness is characterised by the absence
of one or two of these.

It may therefore be accepted as a demonstrated
fact that in certain insects and in certain phylloxerans
and aphids the body cells of the females possess
one—or in some cases two—chromosomes more
than those of the male. ‘It is also a fact that in some
insects, phylloxerans, and aphids there are two kinds
of spermatozoa, one kind, which is smaller than
the other, containing one or two chromosomes less
than the larger kind. The smaller ones, which are
the carriers of maleness, degenerate, and leave,
therefore, only the larger ones, which are carriers of

142 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

femaleness, to effect fertilisation. It therefore fol-
lows as a natural sequence that from fertilised eggs -

only females are produced.

These being the facts then with regard to insects,
phylloxerans, and aphids, and, further, it being
known as an observed fact that in the bee one half
of the spermatozoa undergo degeneration, we may be
justified in believing that the same explanation 1s
applicable there. We may feel fairly certain that when
the case of the bee has been adequately investigated
we shall find that the reason why all its fertilised
eggs produce females only is because the male-
bearing spermatozoa are the ones which degenerate.

We pass next to consider why it is that in the bee
the untertilised eggs—that is, the virgin or partheno-
genetic eggs

always give rise to drones, which are
male individuals. Here again we must seek our
interpretation by appealing to facts which have been
ascertained in phylloxerans and aphids. We have
already seen that Professor Wilson and Professor
Morgan have observed in certain insects (Wilson)
and in phylloxerans and aphids (Morgan) a certain
difference in the number of chromosomes in the
body cells of the females and males. In the males
of insects and aphids and in some phylloxerans there
is one chromosome less than in females ; but in other
phylloxerans there are two less. Morgan has quite
recently shown that there are two kinds of partheno-
genetic eggs, one containing a pair of accessory
chromosomes and the other not; that is, one kind

MENDELISM AND SEX 143

contains two more chromosomes than the other
kind. And, moreover, he has shown that in Phyl-
loxera fallax this internal difference is correlated
with a difference in size, the egg which contains the
accessory pair of chromosomes being larger than
the one without. And he has further observed that
the large parthenogenetic egg produces females and
the small one gives rise to males. Now this difference
between the two kinds of eggs arises in the course of
maturation, for previous to this they both contain the
higher number of chromosomes. But at the forma-
tion of the polar body, twelve chromosomes remain
in the large egg, but only ten in the small one. It
is clear then, that in the former case there has been
no extrusion of the pair of accessory chromosomes
during the formation of the polar body, while in the
latter case they have been extruded into the polar
cell. In other phylloxera and in aphids only one
and not two chromosomes is thus extruded.

We thus see that those parthenogenetic eggs
which are destined to give rise to males have one or
more chromosomes eliminated from them. We may
suppose this is also the explanation why the partheno-
genetic eggs of the bee produce males alone. They
apparently are all of one kind, and have had their
accessory chromosome extruded during their matura-
tion. They therefore carry the reduced number of
chromosomes characteristic of the male somatic
tissues.

The next case of sex-inheritance we may consider
is that which results when the currant moth (Abraxas

144 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

grossulariata) is crossed with its lighter coloured
variety lacticolor. Before the series of experiments
which we are about to describe were made by Mr.
Doncaster, lacticolor was known to occur only in
the female form, for males were unrecorded. When
lacticolor female is crossed with grossulariata male,
the offspring consist of the grossulariata form alone,
there being males and females in approximately
equal numbers. It is clear from this result that
lacticolor 1s recessive, since it does not appear in
the F, generation. With regard to the dominance
of one sex or the other, we may for simplicity
regard the female as being dominant and as carry-
ing maleness recessive, as we did for Bryonia (supra
p. 134). The appearance of both males and females
in the /, generation is then quite consistent with
that assumption. Let us now see how the other
possible crosses fall into line with such a scheme.

If this representation is right, then the F,
grossulariata males- will be all GL? ¢* and all
the females will be GZ° 9S. The grossulariata
character being dominant, both these forms are
visibly grossulariata, but the male character being
recessive can only manifest itself when femaleness
is absent ; hence the first form is a pure male and
the second is visibly female, but carries male recessive.
It is necessary before we go farther to make another
working assumption. It is, however, not only ade-
quately supported by the facts of these particular

* Where G=grossulariata, L=lacticolor, 3 = male and 2 = female.

MENDELISM AND SEX 145

experiments, but by other experiments in sweet
peas. The assumption which the experimental facts
compel us to make is, that between the grossulariata
character and femaleness there is repulsion, as a
consequence of which the two are neyer carried
in the same germ-cell.

Let us summarise the position before going
farther. The grossularvata character is dominant
over the lacticolor one; femaleness is dominant and
carries maleness recessive, and as a_ correlative
outcome of this maleness is therefore recessive and
pure; between the grossulariata character and
femaleness there exists repulsion. Accepting these
premises, we expect, on the basis of Mendelian
principles, the following results when the crosses
indicated below are made :—

Visible Nature of Cross. j Visible Olaeactar of Offspring.
io x Go . =) ee Se

cr
Gchyo « G(L)d = Go-Go Sul
fe x G (Lyd = Go +G¢6 +19 4+ Ld
Bs x GE (L)9 = Gd + Lo

Now these expectations are fulfilled by the
experimental results, for the above table is but an

*TIt should be borne in mind that the Jacticolor character is not mani-
fested when grossulariata is also present, and the recessiveness of the former
is indicated here by enclosing it in brackets. It should also be remembered
that all females are carrying maleness recessive and therefore not mani-
festing it.

K

146 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

epitomised statement of them, as well as being a
tabulated expression of Mendelian predictions.

For the information of those who desire a full
statement of the zygotic and gametic composition of
the parents, and the zygotic composition of the
offspring, the following table is appended. The
four crosses here represented are the same as those
given in the table above, and they are placed in
the same relative order.

Zygotic Gametic |
Composition Composition | Zygotic Composition of Offspring.
of Parents. of Parents. |
LLos ro aoe |
x = G Lod = Gui
GG33 Gd | G9 Got
* a \
G Les GS +L9 } = GGdd + GLdd+
| Ga
G36 GOphd TN) s@alioe + Lbgs
G Q
Lios Ieg+l3d ||l= @Lloéd + Gidss
x f GQ Gs
GLS¢ GS4Lé ||| - LLod - ie
| L¢ Lg
* * * |
GLod God +Lo |
x = GLEs ~ ites

SC Le | Gé 1.9

* It is one of the working hypotheses that this individual in forming its
germ-cells cannot carry the grossulariata character and femaleness in the
same germ-cell or gamete, since these two characters are assumed to repel
each other. But they can of course be carried in the same individual or
zy gote.

+The symbols in smaller type represent the visible character of the
offspring. Those in larger type represent their estimated composition.

MENDELISM AND SEX 147

The scheme by means of which we have thus
endeavoured to give a consistent statement of the
seemingly remarkable and apparently incoherent
experimental facts 1s one which we owe to Professor
Bateson and Mr. R. C. Punnett.

One feature of a general but very important
nature remains to be considered. The grossulariata
individuals used in the experiments were taken
wild. And in the cross of the male of this with
the female Jacticolor variety, all the offspring, as
we have seen, were grossulariata. This fact indi-
cates that the wild male grossulariata is pure with
regard to that character. But quite recently,
Doncaster has made the _ reciprocal cross,
namely, wild female grossulariata with certain male
lacticolors bred in the course of the experiments.
The offspring consists of males grossulariata and
females lacticolor. As Professor Bateson points out*
this is a striking result, and is not only a confirmation
of the validity of his scheme of interpretation, which
was framed before this fact was known, but it leads
to a most important and far-reaching conclusion.
Because clearly it means that the wild female grossu-
larvata moths living in districts where the lacticolor
variety is unknown, are in reality hybrids of lacticolor,
carrying that character recessive. The males, as we
have seen, are pure grossularivata. For hundreds of
generations, possibly, the lacticolor variety has been
in existence, hidden recessive in the females of the

* Mendel’s Principles of Heredity—Cambridge.

148 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

wild grossulariata. And it has not been manifested
because the males are pure and the grossulariata
character is dominant. Some light is thus thrown
upon the nature and origin of variations. We
may be justified in believing that the lactecolor variety
became a manifest one by a germinal change in one
or more of the eggs of a wild female grossularvata,
resulting in the elimination of the factor which
produces the larger spotted condition that chiefly
distinguishes grossulariata from its variety lacticolor.

The first individuals, like the later ones of the
variety, would be all females, and these would
necessarily have to cross with the wild male grossu-
larvata in order to perpetuate their race.

Fundamentally similar to the sex-inheritance of
the characters we have just considered in the currant
moth, is that of the black-eye in the “green” or
the yellow canaries and the pink-eye of the
cinnamon canaries. Miss Durham has shown that
the pink-eye condition of these latter birds applies
only to the early days after hatching, for, as they
grow older, pigment of a chocolate colour appears.
Although the pigment in the eyes of adult cinna-
mon canaries is really chocolate, yet 1t appears to
be black, owing to the degree of concentration in
which it occurs. The pigment in the eyes of the
“green”? and yellow canaries is really, and not

apparently, black.

The chief feature of general interest which is
manifested by these experiments is of the same

MENDELISM AND SEX 149

order as that we have just considered in the currant
moth. For Miss Durham’s experiments seem to show
that while the male black-eyed canary* is pure with
regard to that character, the female is hybrid and
carries the pink-eye (or, in reality, the cinnamon
character)f recessive. It will be remembered (supra
page 147) that among moths the male grossu-
lariata was similarly pure with regard to the lacticolor
character, while the female was hybrid.

In canaries the existence of this remarkable
condition is shown by the different nature of the
offspring in the reciprocal crosses. For when male
_ “black eye” is crossed with female “ pink eye,”

all the offspring are black-eyed, both the males
and the females. But when male “ pink-eye”’ is
crossed with female “ black-eye,” then among the
offspring all the males are black-eyed and all the
pink-eyed are females.{ The result is thus one which
follows from a mating of the ordinary Mendelian
kind, namely, DR x R giving 1 DR +1 RR (see
table of Mendelian matings, page 69). In this case
the female black-eyed bird is the D&, and the
pink-eyed male is the RR. The black colour of the
eye is dominant = D, and the pink-eye, or absence
of blackness, is the recessive = R.
The new fact which these experiments reveal is

* It does not matter whether the black-eyed canary is a “ green ”
or a yellow one. ‘The result is the same

} In addition to the eye characters the cinnamon further differs
from green canaries in having light brown (cinnamon) markings
instead of black ones. This colour is due to chocolate pigment.

{ Four exceptions occurred in which the hens were black-eyed,

150 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

what in past days we should have called the corre-
lation or coupling of the pink-eyed condition with
femaleness. Now we regard it not as a coupling of
femaleness and pink-eyedness, but as a gametic
repulsion existing between femaleness and_black-
eyedness. It is important to bear in mind that this
repulsion exists in the gametes (germ-cells) only,
and that the female is a dominant and a hybrid
with regard to sex. That being so, hen birds may
be black-eyed; but it must be remembered that
while the zygote (the individual) manifests femaleness
and black-eyedness, all its germ-cells which carry
femaleness will only carry pink-eyedness. Its visible
femaleness combined with black-eyedness is due
to the fact that both these qualities, as well as
maleness and pinkness, which are both recessive,
were brought in at the fertilisation of the egg-cell
from which it has developed.

We may tabulate these facts and their associated
hypotheses as follows :—

Zygotic Gametic

Composition | Composition of Zygotic Composition of Offspring.

of Parents. Parents.

PPos | Po + Po
x | | =. BPed 4: Beers
BB3s | Bs | *

Bo Be
PEP SG P3
x | = BPSS + P Pog
BEPC S diem eine Bs P?

* See Second note, page 146,

MENDELISM AND SEX 151

Since the pink-eyed condition is really due to
the absence of black pigment, we may regard the
alternative factors as being blackness = B and
absence of blackness = 6. In such case, we should
substitute the symbol 6 for that of P in the table
above. Similarly we may reyard (infra page 156)
maleness as simply a condition which is left when
femaleness 1s withdrawn. In other words, maleness
is simply absence of femaleness.

The two cases, namely, the currant moth and the
canary, which we have last considered, are instances
of what may be described as sex-limited inheritance:
that is, a certain character in its inheritance is trans-
mitted by the germ-cells which are carrying either
maleness or femaleness, but not by both. There is
thus conceivably a process of repulsion between
this particular character and one of the sexes, when
the factors which determine both are brought into
association, in the ripening germ-cells. In both
the cases we have just considered it is femaleness
which exerts this repelling influence upon the par-
ticular character.

There is one further case apparently similar
which came under my notice in the course of some
experiments with poultry. Certain recessive white
fowls carry the hidden factor which, meeting colour,
produces grey-white feathers barred with blue-black.
This ‘“‘ barred ”’ character is spoken of in the “ fancy ”’
as the “cuckoo” character. When recessive white hens
carrying ““cuckoo” are crossed with black cocks, the off-
spring consist simply of “cuckoo” cocks and black hens.

152 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

And the facts of the experiments may be in-
terpreted by assuming that the “‘ cuckoo” factor is
repelled by that for femaleness, so that the two
can never occur in the same germ-cell. Hence all
germ-cells which carry femaleness will be devoid of
this barring-factor. The case, indeed, seems to be
similar to those which we have already more fully
discussed.

We pass on now to consider sex in Man. From
the general fact which has been obtained from
statistics derived from various sources, that the
number of males and females are approximately equal
at birth, we may say that in Man, too, the inheritance
of sex 1s probably Mendelian, and follows the scheme
DRxRR. We have no reliable evidence at
present which will enable us to say whether maleness
or femaleness in Man is dominant. We may, how-
ever, tentatively infer that in Man, as in moths,
canaries, and fowls, the female character is domi-
nant, and therefore hybrid with regard to sex, since
occasionally masculine .secondary characters may
appear in women. The appearance of such characters
is, presumably, indicative that they are carried by
woman, though usually not manifested.

Quite recently a book on Sex in Man, written
by Dr. Rumley Dawson, has appeared.* It does not
deal with the subject from the Mendelian standpoint,
—indeed, the author is apparently not acquainted

with Mendelism. But he formulates a remarkable

* A review appears on page 212 of this Journal.

MENDELISM AND SEX 153

and striking hypothesis, in support of which he
describes a number of interesting facts.

To put them briefly, the principal points in his
theory are these: The male exercises no influence
at all in the causation of sex ; this influence is wholly
exercised by the female. From various clinical data
he arrives at the conclusion that the female produces
both male and female ova. This conclusion is
interesting, since it is one which is quite Mendelian,
but is arrived at by different methods from those
employed by the Mendelian, and by one who is
not apparently acquainted with Mendelism. But
the feature of greatest interest in his theory is his
assumption that the right ovary produces male ova
and the left ovary female ova. He then further
supposes that only one ovary is active and ovulates
each month, the other not discharging any eggs.
They thus alternately ovulate every other month, so
that one month the right ovary is discharging male
ova and the next month the left ovary will discharge
female ova.

From these premises he proceeds to show that
in normal cases, 1f we know the sex and date of birth of
the first child, the sex of the following children
can be predicted for any particular month, and,
therefore, a boy or a girl can be begotten at will.
The author produces some good evidence in favour
of his theory, but it cannot yet be regarded as fully
tested.

He tests his theory by considering the families
of some eminent people. If ovulation occurs every

154 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

twenty-eight days, there will be thirteen periods of
ovulation in each year. Consequently, in every
succeeding twelfth month, the sex of the offspring
will be the opposite of that in the first month. If in
any October a baby girl was born, then if a birth
should occur at the following October, the expectation
is that it will be a boy. The author considered the
date of the births of the children of various Royal
personages. Taking Queen Victoria’s family, we
find that the Empress Frederick (Princess Victoria)
was born in November, 1840, and King Edward VII.
in November, 1841. In the case of the Duke of
Edinburgh’s family, a son was born in October,
1874, and a daughter in October, 1875. With the
Duke of Connaught’s family, a daughter was born
in January, 1882, and a son in January, 1883. The
family of the Tsar of Russia is interesting, since
there are five children. Princess Olga was born in
November, 1895, Princess Tatiana in June, 1897,
Princess Maria in June, 1899, Princess Anastasia in
June, 1901, and Prince Alexis in August, 1904.

So far, these instances and many others that
might be quoted do support the theory, since pre-
diction is fulfilled by fact. But Mr. Mudge has |
recently sent me the case of an Irish family in which
two out of six predictions are falsified. I give it in
a tabulated form on the next page.

The symbols with a cross appended to them
indicate the cases where the prediction is not fulfilled,
since two daughters were born where sons were
expected,

MENDELISM AND SEX 155

Prediction. | Sex of Children. ~ Date of Birth. | Year.
| Daughter | May 31st. | 1880

eo * is November 20th. | 1881
x o . March 27th. | 1883
a M June 4th. 1884.

= fg November 29th. | 1885

3 Son | December 28th. | 1889

* O = female, and ¢ = male.

A theory must not be judged too severely upon
the basis of a few exceptions. Ovulation may have
been suspended or irregular, or other disturbing
causes may temporarily have disturbed the normal
sequence. And if a large number of families, taken
at random, in general confirm the theory, the excep-
tions to it must be regarded as exceptional. But
still there are certain theoretical objections to the
theory, into which we cannot now enter. Further
it appears that the author’s assumption, that the
male does not influence the determination of sex,
is Inconsistent with a number of facts. For, as we
have already seen (supra page 139), in some cases
the male is the arbiter of sex; and, in all cases,
by virtue of his definite gametic composition, he
may be said to exercise as much influence as the
female in the determination of the sex of his offspring.

If we now briefly summarise the facts and con-
ceptions which we have considered in detail, we
may say the evidence is clear that sex is pre-
destined in the germ-cells, and is determined at the
moment of fertilisation. It is highly probable, too,

156 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

that sex is due to a germinal factor, and there seems
to be but little doubt that it is inherited in accord-
ance with Mendel’s law.

We have however to recognise the possibility that
the females and the males of different organisms in the
animal and vegetable kingdoms may be differently
constituted. The evidence shows that in Man,
canaries, fowls, possibly in rabbits, and in some
insects, the female is apparently a Mendelian dominant
hybrid, carrying the character of maleness as a
recessive, while the male is a Mendelian recessive
hornozygote, and is therefore pure for maleness. —
On the other hand, in many insects, and possibly in
lobsters and crabs, it 1s the male which is apparently
the Mendelian dominant hybrid, carrying femaleness
as a recessive.

The existence of these two types of sex leads
us to suppose that in sex-heredity we have one
more case in support of the “ presence and absence ”
theory of Mendelian characters. In this newer
scheme by which experimental results are sym-
bolically represented, we still retain the original
terms of dominant and recessive used by Mendel,
but they are applied in a different way. When a
pure grey rabbit is crossed with a black one, all the
offspring are grey. Mendel would have spoken
of the grey colour as being dominant to black which
would be regarded as recessive. In other words,
he would have looked upon the pair of alternative
characters as being grey versus black. But we do
not now so regard them, We believe the facts are

MENDELISM AND SEX 157

better represented by constituting the alternative
characters as presence of greyness versus absence
of greyness which gives blackness.* The presence
of the character is thus dominant to its absence.
So that presence of greyness is not said to be dominant
to the presence of blackness, but to the absence of
greyness. In the sense that the terms dominant and
recessive are applied to the manifestation or non-
manifestation in the zygote of the two unit-characters
of an alternative pair, the terms are still used in the
way in which Mendel employed them. But, as we
have just seen, the conception of the nature of
alternative characters has been modified. Dwart-
ness, for instance, is not now regarded as another
quality to tallness, but simply as that condition
which results from absence of tallness. Add the
factor which determines tallness to dwarfness, and
tallness is manifested. And similarly in respect to
sex. We may conceive that femaleness is due to a
germinal factor which determines the manifestation
of that sex. It is something which is added to
maleness, and in its absence maleness is manifested.
The two alternative unit-characters of sex are there-
fore presence and absence of femaleness.

This conception of sex seems to be applicable to
all cases which have yet been investigated, and it
enables us to give a consistent interpretation of the
facts in the two types of sex-inheritance which we
have studied. Thus, if we let F represent femaleness
and / its absence, then in man, since the female

* Grey being epistatic to black which is hypostatic.

158 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

seems to be a dominant hybrid, the female zygotic
composition may be represented as / f. But man,
the male, is pure with regard to maleness, and
since this is simply absence of femaleness, his zygotic
composition may be symbolically represented as f f.

And with regard to the other type of sexual in-
heritance, that represented in certain insects where
the male seems to be the dominant hybrid, we have
already seen (compare Fig. 1) that the male somatic
cells carry one chromosome less than the female. In
other words, femaleness is due to the presence of
a chromosome absent in the male. In both types
of sexual inheritance, therefore, femaleness may be
said to be due to the presence of a factor absent in
the male, as recently pointed out by Professor Castle,
of Harvard University.

We may, therefore, regard the female as of
more complex organisation than the male. And,
in that sense, the female may be said to be physiolo-
gically the superior sex. We may thus further con-
ceive that either the female is an extra-developed
male, and has arisen by the addition of a new
factor to maleness, or, perhaps more probably, that
the male has arisen as a defective variation from
the female.

METHODS AND RESULTS.“

BY “ARDENT MENDELIAN.”

(1) The Present Position of the Mendelians and
Biometricians.

THERE exists a Guild of very active and strenuous students
which is known to science and to others as the Biometrica]
School. Its devotees and exponents are noted for the
number and diversity of their pilgrimages and expositions,
for they are prepared to apply mathematical methods to
any problem, ranging from the infinitely little in the
realms of Biology and Pathology to the infinitely great
in the stellar domains of Astronomy.

It is true that when at last, after a weary journey
over thorny paths, they reach the temple of their respective
pilgrimages, the reception extended to them is not
always gracious. For the gods of Anatomy, Biology,
Medicine, Astronomy, and, we regret to say, even some
of those of Mathematics, do not always anoint the pilgrims
with unctuous and fragrant oimtments, for too often
that which is expected by them to be balm is rendered
escharotic by the gods.

With regard to the organisation of this Guild we are
led to infer, on the analogy of the maxim of “ your corn
in my bushel,’ t that the Biometrical School is organised
on the lines of a field army, and that its constitution
comprises at least a supreme ‘“ field-marshal,” a “ staff-
corps,’ and a “rank and file.” We believe at the
mobilisation of this scientific army martial law was pro-
claimed, and that it has not yet beenreclaimed. We may

*Under this heading the various questions of discussion that may arise,
or which have arisen, between the Mendelians and Biometricians will be
considered from time to time.

+ “ British Medical Journal,’’ March 13th, 1909, Letter by Professor
Pearson,

160 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

further infer, therefore, that the discipline of the army
is very severe, and perhaps this may throw some light
upon the constant reappearance of the figure 0°5 in
relation to the size of some of its artillery equipment.
We believe further, from certain information which the
dispatches of the “ Field-marshal” reveal,* that the
army has also its ambulance corps, consisting of ‘ higher
consultants’ and “general practitioners.’ We have
not the slightest doubt that such a militant organisation
has urgent need for an ambulance branch, and that
its duties must be incessant. And, when we review
the many battles with the gods in which it has been
engaged, and we recall their disastrous results, we find
an explanation of the anomaly, that whereas other
armies are content with “general practitioners,” the
biometrical one finds it necessary to retain “higher -
consultants.”

In some respects it is a very fine army, and it is
certainly an imposing one upon parade. It is led,
officered, and manned by men of transcendent intellect,
of whom any country may be proud. It is an army
which in some domains may have achieved some eminent
victories for truth; but in other domains we are afraid
our judgement compels us to say it has but obscured
the topography and geography of the country of its
invasion by the smoke of battle, produced by the burning
of its ‘‘ correlation’ gunpowder, and that it has failed
to capture the Temple of Truth by the errors of its
strategy and the ineffectiveness of some of its weapons
of attack.

Opposed to the Biometrical army is the Mendelian.
More recent in origin, less martial in organisation, but
very vigorous, the Mendelian army has already turned
the flanks and pierced the centre of the older one opposed
to it. For signs of surrender on one wing, and of
retreat, very skilfully covered, on the other, are visible
in the biometrical ranks. The broken centre, encouraged
by the boldness and coolness of its eminent Field-marshal
—who like the kings of old personally fights on the
battle-field—is making a rally on the high grounds to
the rear. These hills are marked on the Mendelian

«« Biometrika,” Vol. VL, p. 348.

MENDELIANS AND BIOMETRICIANS 161

map as very rugged and difficult of ascent, not to be
rushed by brilliant cavalry charges, but not impregnable
.before the persistent, slow, and methodical onslaught of
a courageous and patient infantry ; they are named the
hills of *‘ Masked Segregation.” On the biometrical map
they are marked as impregnable, when once occupied and
entrenched, and are named “ Continuous or Fluctuating
Variations,” or, in their more recent maps, as
“ Intermediates.”

The great battle of the future is that which will be
fought along this rugged range of the “ Intermediates.”
The task of the Mendelian army is to take it. And,
already in the plains below its brigades are begin-
ning to deploy, and are making those initial dispositions
which indicate that the assault is being prepared. At
the same time, far away on the enemy’s flank, in the
valleys of Copenhagen, a great turning movement is
being developed, and the brigades of the “ pure lines ”
are preparing for their march along the dip-slope of
the range, in order to strike the Biometrical army in
its rear at the moment when the main Mendelian army
unfolds its frontal attack up the rugged face of the
escarpment.

Meanwhile, along the crest of the range, the concen-
tration and entrenchment of the shaken centre of the
Biometrical army is apparent. On the right, its wing
which defended the village wherein the long tradition
that evolution was almost wholly a matter of continuous
variation, and that segregation of discontinuous variations
played but little part or none at all, has been hopelessly
shattered. For everywhere that advancing and ardent
left Mendelian wing has shown the evidence of such
discontinuous variations and their segregation in the
kingdoms of plants, animals, and Man. On its left,
the Biometrical wing has been rolled back, and the
position which defended the propositions that. problems
of inheritance can be solved by reference to one only
of the two parents, that the characters of the offspring
are determined by the summation in a regular series of
ancestral increments, and that an advance in knowledge
of heredity can be gained by an indiscriminate massing
together of zygotic characteristics, has been carried by

L

162 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

assault. The right and left are in possession of the
Mendelians, the centre has been reconnoitred and the attack
is beginning. But it is here that the conflict must.
be necessarily prolonged, on account of the difficult
nature of the country to be conquered. For it is
here that the great challenge must be made and
accepted, as to whether evolution is wholly a matter
of that organic advance which would result from the
blending in successive generations of minute, barely
perceptible variations, existing simultaneously in large
masses of individuals; or whether it is wholly a matter
of more or less irregular advance, sometimes small,
sometimes great, due to the spontaneous appearance in
a single individual of a mutational character or “ sport,”
and which in its inheritance, through succeeding genera-
tions, segregates cleanly and definitely, from its opposite
or allelomorphic factor, already present in the race;
or whether evolution is partly due to the one and partly
to the other. The existence of selection and elimination,
without which there could be no evolution, by either
method, is defended by both armies.

The battle of the future which is to be fought between
these two armies therefore turns upon the nature of
‘“ Intermediates.” And it is along this range of biological
hills that the Biometrical centre is concentrating.
Do these intermediate stages between the two
extremes of a character necessarily manifest the
existence of gametic blending, or do they represent
simply a series of segregable grades? That there do
exist phenomena which at a first examination and in the
absence of any extended experimental knowledge would
justify us in the belief that they indicate the existence of
blended characters is not denied. But the Mendelians
assert that the appearances are false, that they need
re-investigation by experimental methods, and that our
present knowledge renders it easy for us to conceive of the
existence of segregation without there being any obvious
manifestation of its existence. The Biometricians impliedly
maintain that the existence of intermediates between
any two extremes of a character is inconsistent with the
segregation of those two extremes, and also with the
segregation of the intermediates themselves. And,

SKIN COLOUR 163

wherever they find the existence—or the alleged existence
—of these intermediates, there they raise their standard
and issue their challenge. They have done so, for instance,
with regard to the colour of the Shirley poppy petals,
of the colour and markings of mice, of the grades of
single combs in fowls, and of the grades of skin colour
in crossed races of Mankind. It will be our pleasant duty
from time to time to comment upon their efforts in the
pages of this Journal. And we proceed to do so at
once by dealing with their recent publications on the
two latter subjects, in the notes which follow.

(2) Skin Colour in Human Hybrids.
A Mendelian Reply, including a New Mendelian Hypothesis.

In a recent number* of ‘ Biometrika,’ Professor Karl
Pearson has a “ Note on the Skin Colour of the Crosses
between Negro and White.” Those of us who are
familiar with the published works of Professor Pearson
will be impressed by a significant absence of that militant
note which characterised his earlier attacks upon
Mendelism. We no longer read the uncompromising
assurance “that nothing corresponding to Mendel’s
principles appears in these characters for Man.”’+ In
its place we are glad to note a chastened tone, and we
are informed, not that the evidence which he has adduced
in this note is destructive of Mendelism, but simply that
“In view of the opinions [ have cited above, I think
the suggestion that skin colour ‘ Mendelises’ should not
be vaguely made until some very definite evidence in
its favour is forthcoming.” And, so much has the
uncompromising attitude been modified, that Professor
Pearson further thinks it conceivable that such qualities
as the negroid lip, the crimped hair, the characteristic
ale nasi, and the peculiar negro temper, would fit the
Mendelian theory closer than skin colour.t And he thinks

* Part IV., Vol. VIL, March, 1909.
{ ‘‘ Biometrika,” Vol. II., pp. 214 and 215.
{ Ibid, Part IV., Vol. VI., p. 352.

164 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

also that these characters “offer better material for a
possible * Mendelising’® than skin colour.” For it to be
admitted that negro qualities may conceivably fit a
Mendelian theory, and that possibly ‘‘ Mendelising ” may
yet be found, is indeed a great admission from one who but
recently proclaimed “that it is too early to assert that
Mendelism holds for man or even for any plant or animal.’’*
These sentences from Professor Pearson’s note almost
read as though the study of his own material had, in a
prescient mood, warned him that the forthcoming of
“favourable evidence’ for Mendelism is but a matter
of time, if, indeed, it is not already contained in his
present note.

We will proceed to analyse this note with Mendelian
eyes. The information in it has been obtained, Professor
Pearson informs us, by communication ‘‘ with a medical
man who has spent his whole life in the West Indies and
knows its people and their ways very intimately.” The
method adopted by Professor Pearson in obtaining this
information was to put certain questions to his medical
correspondent. Now, as every barrister knows, questions
are of two kinds, those which lead and those which do
not. In some instances, Professor Pearson’s .questions
seem to us to be of the essential nature of leading questions
of a subtle kind. We do not, of course, for one moment
suggest that Professor Pearson desires to be unfair,
or that the nature of the question has in the smallest
degree influenced the answer. We accept the evidence
quite unreservedly. But we do wish to protest against
the imputation to Mendelians, direct or implied, of
assumptions and statements which they have never
uttered. For instance, in the second question to his
medical correspondent, Professor Pearson frames his
query thus: ‘“(2) Mulatto x white gives a quadroon.
Is or is not the quadroon a blend? Theory says that
the quadroon class should consist of half ‘whites and half
mulattos.” And, again, question 3 is put in a similar
way, thus: ‘ (3) Mulatto x negro. Is this a blend rather
darker than a mulatto or not ? Theory would say that
50 per cent. of the offspring were mulattoes and 50 per

* Discussion at Royal Society of Medicine. Heredity and Disease.
London, 1909, p. 57.

SKIN COLOUR ~ 465

cent. negroes in skin colour.” And question 4 is, from
the Mendelian standpoint, even more objectionably
framed, for here we pass from an abstraction called a
“theory”? to concrete persons called “theorists.”
It reads thus: “ (4) Mulatto x mulatto. Does or does
not this cross usually give a mulatto in colour? The
theorists say that 25 per cent. should be pure white
skins, 25 per cent. pure black skins, and only 50 per
cent. mulattoes.”” The unconscious prejudice which such
a mode of questioning tends to create is manifested in
the correspondent’s fourth answer: “This statement
of those whom you call the theorists is the most ridicu-
lously incorrect of the lot.”” The imputed “ theorists ”
are thus at once condemned as “ridiculous people.”
They are not even heard in their own defence.
Fortunately, as we shall see presently,. the real
‘theorists ’»—‘‘ the most ridiculous persons ’—are not
Mendelians but Biometricians in a hurry to frame
too simple formule. Between Professor Pearson in
‘* Biometrika ” and popular writers in daily newspapers,
the poor Mendelian, upon whose _ shoulders the
burden of unwarranted assumptions has been placed,
must be already cursed with a reputation in the West
Indies that will ensure his due execution without trial
when he makes his appearance in that country.

Now, who are the “theorists” ? If by this term
is implied the Mendelians, Professor Pearson, as a man
of science, will know there is a canon extant in science, that
is as the “law of the Medes and Persians,’ which
requires the full reference to the authority who has
been quoted. Will he be good enough to quote the
actual words of any Mendelian who uttered such state-
ments as those impliedly attributed to him in the questions
above ? We may say at once, for the information of
our readers and for the future guidance of Biometricians,
that no Mendelian has ever made any such predictions.
In effect, what the Mendelians have said is this: (1)
That we have not at present before us evidence which
has been sufficiently analysed to justify a statement
one way or the other. (2) That since in human eye-colour,
in white hair tufts, and in some pathological or abnormal
traits, Mendelian principles have been clearly demonstrated

166 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

to be operating in Man, there is no reason to believe
that when the offspring of mixed races are adequately
analysed, it will be found that Mendelian principles
are not also operating among them, whether in respect
to skin colour or other characters. (3) That we cannot
formulate a prediction of the results which will follow a
crossing of an European and a negro, and of the subsequent
matings between the hybrids in their different degrees,
until we have first ascertained the nature and the number
of the gametic factors which determine skin colour in
the negro and the European. This last consideration
is the essential basis of all Mendelian predictions, and
these factors have not yet been ascertained in regard to the
transmission of skin colour in mixed races of Man. And,
therefore, no Mendelian—whatever a Biometrician may
be inclined to do—will be so “ ridiculous’’ as to make
predictions until he has first ascertained his essential
facts. If it is necessary for the purpose of what we have
been told is a “‘ most exact and purely descriptive science
of Biometry ” to call in the aid of working hypotheses—
just like any mere Biologist—then please let the Bio-
metrician inscribe them on his own banner and not impute
them to us.

We may pass now to consider the evidence of Professor
Pearson’s correspondent, and see whether it does not
indicate some of those signs that we associate with
segregation. Perhaps it will be best if we give in a
summarised form the actual results of the matings, as
far as they are described in Professor Pearson’s note.
We may then subsequently proceed to ask ourselves what
results we should expect if the hereditary transmission
of skin colour in mixed races is a process of blending
and not one of segregation. Having arrived at some
decision on that point, we can then compare our expecta-
tion with Professor Pearson’s evidence, and note to
what degree they coincide or diverge. If the comparison
is indefinite and _ inconclusive, we may further
proceed to consider certain possibilities which at once
suggest themselves to the Mendelian, but which
appear to have escaped the Biometrician. Having
stated these possibilities we shall then consider

SKIN COLOUR 167

whether their influence is likely to mask the mani-
festation of segregation, and if so, to what degree.
We may then compare these purely tentative Mendelian
expectations* with the existing evidence, and consider
whether they do not better fit the facts than those which
logically flow from the hypothesis of “ blending.”

To come then to the facts as they are described in
Professor Pearson’s note. It appears that the ofispring
from a marriage of an European with a negresst is a
“definite blend,’ producing a coloured type known
as the mulatto. Two classes of mulattoes are known.
There is a “ brown mulatto,” having his skin the “ colour
of mahogany,” and a “yellow mulatto,’ whose skin
colour fs that of a ‘“ well-cleaned, nearly new brown
boot.” In the West Indies, the mulattoes are comprised
of about 85 per cent. of the brown type and about 15
per cent. of the yellow type; this statement of pro-
portional numbers is only an approximate one, and is
based upon the impressions of general experience. The
existence of two such apparently widely divergent coloured
types of mulatto is an exceedingly interesting fact, and
it has a Mendelian significance. It is a fact which is
worth emphasizing now, but we defer its consideration
until later (infra page 172).

We may next deal with the nature of the offspring
which results from a marriage of mulatto with mulatto.
As far as we can understand the answer of Professor
Pearson’s correspondent, it appears that when two
brown mulattoes marry, the offspring is a brown mulatto
like the parents. When two yellow mulattoes marry,
the offspring are similarly like the parents and are yellow.
The correspondent does not state this definitely. But
comparing the answer with the question (which is the
No. 4 alluded to above), we feel that is what it is intended
we shall infer. But we are quite definitely told that
“no pure black skins nor pure white skins come from

* We are led to advance those purely tentative speculations in order
to show how different some Mendelian expectations may be from
those which have been imputed to Mendelians by persons anxious to disprove
Mendelism.

+Apparently the unions are nearly always a male European with a
negress. The reciprocal union between a white woman and a negro is
much rarer,

168 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

mulattoes married to mulattoes.” We are informed —
that this “can be stated quite dogmatically.” There
is, however, one important qualification which we may
notice. It is the statement that among the offspring
of mulatto parents “there are now and then slight
variations from the usual mulatto brown or mulatto
yellow.” Then, in another part of his correspondence,
where the correspondent is dealing with the question of
reversions to the negro type, he writes: “‘ Of course, in
families of the mixed breed you will often see a difference
in colour [the italics are his] pure and simple; this is
not at all wncommon [the italics are ours], and I would
make a marked distinction between this phenomenon
and that of a throwback to the negro.” And Professor
Pearson adds to it by remarking that: “‘ I take it my cor-
respondent is here referring to the continuous variability
within the family.” Now we will not further, at this
point, comment upon this fact further than to emphasize
the existence of variations, apparently not only in depth
or intensity of tint, but also in colour, and that these
variations are not at all uncommon. And, we will at
once dissent from Professor Pearson’s assumption that
these variations are manifestations of continuous varia-
bility. There is no evidence for that assumption ; and
his correspondent’s own emphasizing of the important
fact, by italicising the word “colour,” that there exist
actual differences, not merely of tint, but of colour,
among mulattoes, directly points to the conclusion
that we are dealing with discontinuous variations and
with segregation. In other words, with a Mendelian
phenomenon.

We come next to the offspring resulting from a
cross of mulatto with an European. It appears that
the quadroon which thus results is “invariably -
lighter in colour than the brown mulatto, and in 90 per
cent. of the cases is whiter than the yellow mulatto.
Pure white skins do not occur’ in quadroons. This
statement is dogmatic and true.’ We need make one
comment only now. There appears to exist the same
sort of variation among quadroons that there does among
mulattoes, as is shown by the implication that about
10 per cent, are darker than the rest.

SKIN COLOUR 169

The offspring of the mulatto (which type is not
stated, but we infer it is the common or brown one) and
the negro is a “‘sambo,” “having a deep mahogany
brown skin colour.” ‘“‘ The sambo type is very distinct,
and there is no reversion either to the white or black
races.” There is appended to this description of the
‘““sambo”’ a pedigree of a sambo family. Now this
pedigree appears to us to be the most important statement
of fact in Professor Pearson’s note, and seems to be the
key to the whole problem. Let us consider it. The
father is a mulatto and the mother a negress. There
are four daughters, one son, and a grandson. The
colour of two of the daughters is described as “ paler
mahogany,” another one as “dark mahogany,” while the
remaining daughter and the son are described as “ very
dark, but plainly not a negress or negro respectively.”
Now here we have apparently three degrees of colour
in the one family from the same parents; there are
(1) pale mahogany, (2) dark mahogany, (3) very dark
mahogany. If this be not segregation, will Professor
Pearson tell us what it is? He, himself, is apparently
surprised at the remarkably wide range of colour mani-
fested, for he remarks that: “In this case the range of
colour is fairly wide, and it is open to those whom it
pleases to divide this or any other family into two halves,
containing the lighter and darker members respectively.
The difficulty of such a classification is that the dark
mahogany members are quite distinct from negroes and
the paler mahogany from mulattoes.”’ Now this difficulty
is really not one at all, except to the biometrical
exponent of the hypothesis of blending, and to him it
is fatal. It is, however, well to remember that the
question of distinctness between some negroes and some
samboes and between these and some mulattoes has not
yet been investigated by those familiar with the details
of Mendelian phenomena.

Before we turn the first lever in the problem with
the Mendelian key, let us see first how well or badly the
biometrical key will fit it. This key is the hypothesis
of blending. All the questions set by Professor Pearson
to his correspondent strike that note; almost, indeed,
pray for that consummation. What result then shall

170 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

we expect when “black” and “white” are crossed if
gametic blending is the process at work? The result
so far as colour is concerned may be anything. In the
absence of actual information, and basing our expectation
only upon analogy, we should equally expect the colour
of the mulatto to be green, or blue, or violet, as that
which it actually is. For in a combination of two bodies
by blending, the colour of the separate factors may not
count. When they blend, the properties which each
possessed separately, may in the combination be
profoundly altered, or even replaced by new qualities
altogether. We have an instance of this in the action
of silver nitrate upon living tissues. Both of these are
colourless, but a person who has been drugged with
this substance for a certain period will develope a livid-
blue or lead-coloured skin. The question of skin colour
is essentially a chemical one, and chemical combinations
produce substances having characters which have no
relation to those possessed by the constituent substances
which enter into the combination before they are
combined. Hence the fact that the negro’s colour is
black and the European’s is white, by itself gives us
no basis of expectation as to the colour of the offspring.

But there is one result which we should expect if
these two qualities are permanently combined or
blended in the sex-cells. Within narrow limits of varia-
tion, we should expect an uniform result. For instance,
we should expect that all the germ-cells of the father
and all those of the mother would in each case carry one
condition only of skin-colour. That is, the father and the
mother would in respect to this character each carry only
one kind of sex-cell. And, consequently, since all their
children will develope from fertilised germ-cells of
the same kind, we shall expect that their skin colours
will be the same. Such expectation is not in accord
with the wide rarge of variation revealed by Professor
Pearson’s evidence. The evidence of variation, not only
in tint, but in colour, appears to be fatal to the hypothesis
of blending. In answer to this, Professor Pearson
cannot urge that his general evidence does not relate
to families but to a community. Such a plea only carries
the question one stage farther back. For the blending

SKIN COLOUR 171

which occurs in a family is but a repetition in a small way
of a much larger blending which antecedently has occurred
in the community as a whole if the blending hypothesis
has any meaning at all. Professor Pearson has himself
endeavoured to convince us by his biometrical instruments
that a man’s ancestry ten generations back is merely a
sample of his race or community.* If this biometrical
abstraction is true, then Professor Pearson’s general
evidence as to the community of mulattoes, quadroons,
octoroons, and samboes holds equally cogently for single
families of such classes or vice versa. In a few alternative
words, we may state the problem thus : On the hypothesis
of blending we should expect not only the individuals
of separate families to manifest considerable uniformity
in skin colour, but under certain conditions we should
not expect any large variation in skin colour in the
community of mulattoes and the other hybrids as a
whole. The chief of these conditions would be, of course,
that the Europeans who originally married to the negroes
in a given island should have been members of the same
community. For even on the blending hypothesis, it is
conceivable that the factors determining French skin
colour may be different to those determining English or
Danish, or Spanish or German colour. But even that
condition does not carry usfar. For the breeding together
of the mulattoes within a circumscribed islandic area
would soon produce an uniform result if blending be true.
Professor Pearson does not tell us which particular island
of the West Indies his evidence relates to. But we are
probably not far wrong in assuming that so far as the
nature of the population is concerned, it has remained
approximately stationary for the past 250 years. That
will give us something like ten to twelve generations of
inter-breeding of mulattoes. This is as long a time as is
required to give us an uniform race, on Professor Pearson’s
own calculation. And, since that racial uniformity has
not resulted, it is, as far as it can be legitimately carried,
adverse to the hypothesis of blending.

But apart from any considerations of this sort, there
remains the clear and definite family of samboes which
we have already described (supra page 169). Such large

* Grammar of Science. Second edition, p. 456,

172 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

variation as is shown among its individuals, all five having
the same father and mother, can find no explanation on
the hypothesis of blending.

Another fact which it is difficult, if not impossible,
for this hypothesis to explain, is the existence of two colour
classes of mulattoes, the ““ mahogany ”’ and the “ yellow.”
It is admitted at once, that this problem has yet to be
investigated, and the factors producing the difference yet
to be ascertained. We cannot be quite sure from Pro-
fessor Pearson’s note what the yellow mulatto is. Is he
only produced when an European marries a negro, or
does he occasionally come when a brown mulatto marries
a brown mulatto, or when a yellow marries a brown one ?
The first answer (supra page 167) of the correspondent leads
us to infer the first of these alternatives, but his fourth
answer (supra page 167) further leads us to suppose that the
other alternatives are also possible. _ It is most desirable
that we should definitely know what is the nature of the
offspring when one parent is a brown and the other is a
yellow mulatto. And it is also very much to be hoped
that some information concerning the proportion of the
yellow mulattoes to the brown ones, in the past, will some
day be forthcoming. Is the “ yellow ” race a disappearing
one or a stationary one ?

Tf it should happen to be the case that yellow mulattoes
are sometimes the offspring of brown mulatto parents,
then it is evidence of segregation, and is inconsistent with
the conception of blending. Any such variation is
necessarily incompatible with the existence of gametic
blending. Unless the yellow mulattoes represent only
the offspring of certain European marriages with negroes,
or the marriages of yellow mulattoes inter se, their exist-
ence is fatal to the blending hypothesis. For when we
consider the very large number of illegitimate births,
which in the British portions of -the Islands range from
53°9 to 79-2 per cent. of the general births, and that in the
past it has been much higher, and we try to form some
idea of the extent of the promiscuity which this represents,
we find it difficult to believe that in 250 years the yellow
and the brown mulattoes, if they have intermarried, have

SKIN COLOUR 173

not become completely merged, if the blending hypo-
thesis expresses a_truth, and Professor Pearson’s calcula-
tions can be accepted. But it is all quite conceivable
on the basis of gametic segregation. Indeed, such varia-
tion would be a manifestation of segregation.

If we come now to the results of crossing negroes with
mulattoes, we at once acquire a singularly interesting
fact. It is one which throws a significant light upon the
difference in the methods employed by the Biometrician
and the Mendelian. The former deals in masses, and in
essence he seeks for the mean of the colour of the offspring
and of the parents; for the coefficient of correlation of
the negro fathers or mulatto mothers, massed in classes,
with the sambo offspring, also massed in classes; and
for the deviations of some or all the members of the negro,
mulatto, and European ancestors from the type of their
respective classes, and of the members of the sambo off-
spring from the type of their class. And, when all this
has been ascertained, at the cost of very great labour,
what reward is gained, but descriptive statements of the
most general and widest kind, and which, while interesting
in themselves, fail to throw any clear light upon the
processes of inheritance? If we are prepared to rest
upon these statements, it is possible to believe that
inheritance is merely a matter of blending, for we have
placed the whole problem into the biometrical melting
pot. But it so happens that in this case the influence
of the Mendelians’ past work has been felt, even in the
biometrical camp, for on page 351 of Professor Pearson’s
note we recognise a typical Mendelian method, 7.¢., a
definite and single pedigree to examine. It is the one
we have already described, and it indicates the nature of
the sambo offspring derived from a male mulatto married
to a negress. Now whereas, by the biometrical methods,
we learn nothing which is inconsistent with the supposition
of a blending process in inheritance, yet the moment
we examine the solitary pedigree, and note the specific
details—that is, adopt a Mendelian method—we begin
to see some evidence of segregation. We have already
commented upon this pedigree and pointed out that the
existence of three colour groups of samboes, in the offspring

174 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of the same parents, is quite inconsistent with the concep-
tion of blending, but is intelligibly explained on the con-
ception of segregation. Thus while the biometrical method
masks the truth and may even lead us to erroneous con-
clusions, the method of the Mendelian leads us to the
clearer understanding of the nature of the problem, and
renders apparent that which exists.

With regard to the offspring when both parents are
mulattoes, there is nothing in the evidence provided by
Professor Pearson that is inconsistent with the process of
gametic blending. And it must be admitted there is
at first sight, and for the present, very little that is indi-
cative of segregation. But the evidence is far from com-
plete, as Professor Pearson himself intimates, and on
some points it is very indefinite. For instance, to which
type of mulatto do the two parents belong? Since,
according to the correspondent, the brown type constitutes
about 85 per cent. of the mulattoes in the West Indies, we
infer that the statements as to the offspring apply to that
type alone. But it is necessary to know something more
about the matter. As the ‘“‘Mendel Journal” will be dis-
tributed to the West Indies, and it is possible that it may
fall into the hands of persons who feel an interest in
advancing the knowledge of the subject, perhaps we may
take the opportunity of briefly indicating some of the
observations it would be of advantage to make and
record. The editor of this Journal will gladly publish
at its expense, any authentic observations and
photographs relating to the subject which may be
sent to him. It is very desirable that some information
as to the details of the offspring of separate families born
of mulatto parents should be forthcoming. Particularly
it is desired that the degree of difference in tint or in
colour should be indicated. If one son is light mulatto,
a daughter is dark mulatto, and another son medium
mulatto, it should be stated, after careful comparison.
The slightest difference in colour especially, as well as
in tint or intensity, should be noticed. Another observa-
tion which is very much desired, is the nature of the
offspring when the father is a yellow mulatto and the
mother a brown one, or vice versa. In all cases, differences
between the children of the same parents should be

SKIN COLOUR 175

looked for and carefully noted. Particularly should it
be noted whether the colour of this offspring is a yellow-
brown, intermediate between the two parents, or inclining
more to one parent than another, or whether it is a new
colour, unlike that of either parent. A further feature
of some considerable interest is whether any sambo,
known from his parentage to be a sambo, and not merely
judged as such by his colour, ever resembles some mulat-
toes, or vice versa, whether some mulattoes ever resemble
some samboes. There is some reason to believe that this
may, now and then, be the case. In general, what is
desired, is a very careful and very detailed observation of
separate families of all kinds, and not of classes of hybrids.
The fuller the pedigree and the farther back it goes, the
more valuable it is. But even fragments of pedigrees
are of value. All kinds of pedigrees are required, and not
only those relating to mulattoes, but to all the various
crosses between the pure forms and the hybrids, which
are possible.

A review then of Professor Pearson’s evidence shakes
our time honoured belief in the existence of the process
of blending in the hereditary transmission of the skin
colour of the various hybrids resulting from European
and negro crosses. The facts are not altogether in accord
with what we should expect if gametic blending was
operating in these cases. We may therefore next con-
sider whether expectations based on segregation any
better fit the facts.

Now there are two possibilities arising from segrega-
tion. If the blackness of the negro is an elemental
matter, if it is simply blackness and nothing more, and
if the colourlessness of the European is merely absence of
negro colour, and if the colour factors, whatever they may
be, are of the same genetic nature in Europeansand negroes,
then the expectations will be those ascribed to the
“ theorists’ by Professor Pearson. But there is no
Mendelian who believes that this is probably the case.
Not only does our knowledge of colour inheritance in
animals and plants forbid us to believe that it is in Man
of any such elementary nature, but anthropological
knowledge of quite long standing would similarly prevent
us from falling into such a pitfall. Almost every coloured

176 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

race of Man manifests more or less considerable range in
its skin colour. It is markedly so in the case of the
North American Indians, in which it varies from pale
olive yellow to dark brownish yellow. And with the
negro the variation is even more marked still, for in the
Mozambique region alone, Froberville distinguished
the presence of as many as thirty-one different shades
ranging from dusky or yellow brown to sooty black.
Similarly, among the Arabs, as is well known, considerable
variation is apparent, and the existence of even jet-black
races* have been recorded.

We are not justified in the absence of chemical evidence
in believing that these various shades are simply expres-
sions of greater or less dilution or concentration of one
pigment colour. Analogy would rather lead us to believe
that each shade is a definite entity, due possibly to
different ferments or chromogens, or even to different
pairs of these in association with each other. And when
we bear in mind Froberville’s observation mentioned
above, and assuming that each of the thirty-one shades
is a definite chemical entity, how are we to know, in the
absence of genetic investigation and chemical analysis,
how many of these shades are carried by any one negro
of the darker hue of colour? If his colour is not an
elementary matter of one simple pigment, but is due to a
mixture of three, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, or thirtv
different pigments, obviously the problem is much more
complex than the Biometrician imagines. Unto him the
injunction might be uttered to remember that : “ There
is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in his
philosophy,” even though it is salted with a great
desire to formulate simple and easy predictions for
the Mendelian. And, similarly, if the Huropean is
equally complex in his colour constitution, and is carrying
a series of ferments and one chromogen, or a series of
chromogens and one ferment, of such a nature, that while
he is ‘‘colourless ” himself, he none the less possesses the
power of influencing the colour of his offspring when he is

*The shegya Arabs, south of Dongola, on the White Nile. On the
authority of Waddington.

SKIN COLOUR 177

mated with a coloured person, or if it is even more com-
plex, clearly then, Nature will have denied those rash
Biometricians, who imagined it was all so simple.

There is yet another feature which introduces a
further complexity, and is indeed, the key to the whole
problem. Let us try to make it as clear as possible.
There is good evidence to show that colour in animals and
plants is due to the interaction of two bodies, both
colourless. There is reason to believe that one of these may
be a ferment and the other a substance upon which the
ferment acts. It is possible that the ferment determines
the production of actual colour, and the other body—a
chromogen—determines whether the colour shall be black
or yellow, or some other hue. Colour cannot be produced
unless these two substances are simultaneously present
in the tissues of the individual, and the nature of the colour
and its intensity will depend upon the nature of these
bodies. An albino, for instance, may be carrying the
chromogens, but noferment or ferments. Consequently,
in the absence of these latter, the skin will be colourless.
Now the European skin is not of the nature of the albino
skin, and it may possibly carry both chromogens and
ferments, and the light coloured skin of the European
may be due to the nature of these, or to the
presence of colour-reducing or colour-inhibiting factors.
In the negro we may also assume that both chromogens
and ferments are present, and the nature of these
is such that his skin is darkly coloured. Now if the
chromogens and ferments of the European and the negro
can be brought, by hereditary processes, into chemical
contact with each other, they will modify the negro and
European colour, and determine some other sort of colour,
that of the mulatto.

Now the crucial point is this. If © stands for the
presence of a colour producer (ferment), and ¢ stands for
its absence, and if D! and D2 stand for the presence of
two colour determiners (chromogens), and d! and d? stand
for their absence in the negro, then € and e, D! and d?
and D? and d? are three allelomorphic pairs, so that
D! and d', and C and c, and D? and d?, cannot occur
as pairs respectively in the same gamete. But we
have postulated that the European is also carrying

N

178 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

colour determiners and a colour producer. Let D!
di, D? d? and Cc stand for the presence and
absence of these bodies respectively. Now if the pig-
mentary factors (determiners and producers) of the
European are allelomorphic with those of the negro, so
that C and c, or D! and d'! cannot occur in the same
gamete, then the expectations attributed to the
‘“ theorists’? by Professor Pearson are rational enough,
however numerous these allelomorphic pairs may be.
But if they are not, then that expectation is wholly
irrational.

This consideration brings us to the question whether
we are justified in believing that the pigmentary factors
of the negro are genetically of the same nature as those of
the European? Ought we to regard the one series as
allelomorphic to the other? Let us take an extreme
case. Should we expect the absence of blue pigment
= b in a sweet pea to be allelomorphic to the presence of
black = Bin a mouse? Of course, we cannot make such
a mating, but we desire to illustrate by an extreme case
. the point which seems to us to be one of the possible pivots
round which the problem of human hybrids may turn.
To take then the actual case, can we expect the absence
of the colour producer =c of the European to be allelo-
morphic to its presence € of the negro ? In other words,
is © of the European and € of the negro genetically the
same thing ? And is ¢ of the European genetically the
same as, or is it different from, ¢ of the negro? This last
question compels us to consider what we mean by the
“absence”? of a thing. Must we regard ¢ as a mere
symbolical negation, or rather should it not be regarded
as a negative quality associated with a positive base ? That
is, to take an illustration, the positive base may be regarded
as an ultra-microscopic chloroplastid, and the negative
quality as the absence of chlorophyll from the positive
base or plastid. In a generalised way we may state it
thus: the hereditary characters of-organisms are carried
in a physical base. When a character, let us say ©, is
present, it is carried by this base. When it is absent
=e, then the base is present, but its associated character
is not. The base, however, when without its character,
behaves as an allelomorph to the base which is carrying

SKIN COLOUR 179

its appropriate character. In other words, the base with
its character is allelomorphic to that without it. In mixed
races, such as the mulatto, we may be justified in believing
that C€ introduced by the negro, and c¢ introduced by
the European, may not be allelomorphic, and can there-
fore be carried in the same gamete. If we accept this
assumption, then the apparent breeding true of the
mulattoes receives an intelligible and consistent explana-
tion on purely Mendelian principles. And what is true of
C and ¢, will be so of D! of the negro and of d! of the
European.

Let us work out a hypothetical case. We will sym-
bolise the presence and absence of a colour producer
(=ferment ?) ina negro by C and ¢ respectively. Let
C and ¢ stand for the presence and absence respectively
of a colour producer in an European. Let D1, D2, D®
represent three grades of colour determiners in a negro,
and d+, d?, d® their respective absences. In the Euro-
pean, let D'!, D?, D® similarly represent the presence of
three grades of colour determiners, and d!, d?, and d*
their absences respectively.

Let us take the constitution of a particular negro to
be C D' d? D8, and that of a particular European to be
Cc D' d' d? D?. When such a negro is married to such
an European, the mulatto offspring will necessarily be
constituted as follows: € C c D! D1 d‘ d@ d? B® YD.
These mulattoes will then individually form the following
kinds of gametes :—

(l) © C Dt Di @ d@? ps D3
(2) © C Dt dt a2 d? De Dp?
Gy Ce) Dt DY wd? Ds D>
(4) © c D! di «2 gd? D® D3

Now, there are sixteen possible combinations between
these four gametes, and neither of them will produce
either a negro or an European. They will produce nothing
but mulattoes of varying tints. If we analyse the com-
position of the mulattoes produced by these sixteen
possible fertilisations, we shall find there are no less than
eight kinds of mulattoes. One of these will be identical
with the two parents, assuming them to be the same as

180 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

each other. Notwithstanding that there may thus exist
eight kinds of mulattoes in the offspring of a single
pair of parents, yet, owing to the fact that the differences
in their composition may be but slight, they will all
appear to be, within certain limits of variation, of one
kind, namely, that which has been called the mulatto.
That is, mulattoes may appear to breed true within
these limits of variation, and yet in reality there is no
breeding true, but gametic segregation.

There is, therefore, nothing at all in the evidence of
Professor Pearson’s mulattoes which is inconsistent
with the operation of Mendelian principles of inheritance
in the hereditary transmission of skin colour in human
hybrids. Indeed, the evidence of some degree of varia-
tion in the mulattoes’ colour is clearly not only consistent
with Mendelian principles, but actually is precisely what
these principles require. A glance at the constitution
of the four kinds of gametes formed by the particular type
of mulatto we are considering, shows that differences
in the tint and colour of mulattoes are to be expected, and
that these will be in some cases of a very minor kind,
and in others greater. And this is precisely what the
evidence adduced by Professor Pearson instructs us is
the case.

While this hypothesis which we have very tentatively
advanced gives a_ satisfactory interpretation of the
absence of European and negro skin colours among the
offspring of mulattoes, it apparently fails, in the light of
our present limited evidence, as adduced by Professor
Pearson’s correspondent, to explain why the sambo, the
quadroon, and the octoroon are all different in colour
or tint from mulattoes. But if future precise investiga-
tion, directed specially to the elucidation of this point,
shall show that there is a wider range in colour or tint
variation among mulattoes than we at present believe,
and that at one end of the scale some mulattoes resemble
some samboes, and at the other resemble some quadroons,
then this hypothesis will cover a wider field of fact.

Our own limited observations compel us to believe
that the variation among all classes of European-negro
hybrids, is wider than is commonly believed. We have
several times seen in Wimbledon, a family of three brothers

SKIN COLOUR 181

whom we judged to be quadroons. There were remarkable
differences of colour in the three. The eldest, probably
fourteen years of age, was quite dark and of a
brownish-black hue ; the youngest one, about ten years
of age, was much paler, and the difference was sharp
and at once obvious ; while the middle one, about thirteen
years of age, was perceptibly a shade paler still, and his
tint was almost that of a sallow European. The jaws
and the hair in all three were quite European, as far as
a cursory examination allowed one to judge. Their
nurse, on the other hand, while having only a sallow
European skin, had hair, eyes, and jaws fully negroid.
But the point we desire to emphasize is, that in some cases
at least, there is a considerable range of discontinuous
variation in the hybrid members of the same fraternity.
That is well shown in this case, and in that of Professor
Pearson’s sambo family. Upon this point more complete
and more precise information is wanted.

But for the present even Professor Pearson’s evidence
points to the existence of segregation, and not to blend-
ing, as the hereditary process at work in the transmission
of the skin colour of human hybrids. That is, Mendelian
principles are in operation.

But there exists more evidence than that adduced by
Professor Pearson. And it is of a different order. We
have, in the remarks we have made, accepted Professor
Pearson’s evidence that mulattoes never beget individuals
with European skins. The tentative hypothesis we have
framed is based on that accepted evidence. But can
we regard this evidence as complete or final? It applies
to the mulattoes of the West Indies, but does it necessarily
apply to mulattoes elsewhere ? Professor Pearson him-
self does not regard “the views of his correspondent as
conclusive.” He says “‘ they deserve great weight,” and
with that we agree, but we do not think this evidence can
be accepted as final.

Our reasons for this attitude are based upon two
facts. We will state them seriatim. OnSeptember the
24th of this year, we were passing a common boarding
house in the south-east of London, when we observed
a somewhat big, broad woman standing in the open
doorway. She had unmistakably the crimped negro

182 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

hair in profusion, the negro nose and negro jaw, and
thus far was a typical negress. But the skin of her
face, neck, and the whole of her forearm, was almost
that of an European. We have since examined her
more minutely, and she would certainly pass, at a
distance, as an European of the darker complexion. The
skin of her forearm was almost quite white, but in
contrast with an European it is possible to detect a
trace of colour in her face and especially on the back
of her neck. Now we feel little doubt of the negroid
ancestry of this woman. One of her two parents
may have been a mulatto, a quadroon, or an octoroon.
And yet in this woman we have clearly a_ segre-
gation of skin colour, still associated with typical
negroid characters, which Professor Pearson’s correspon-
dent asserts “ dogmatically ’” does not occur. =

For our second fact we are indebted to Colonel H. de
H. Haig, R.E., who spent many years in an island where
mulattoes and other degrees of hybrids were abundant.*
On page 24 of this Journal, under the heading of * The
Mendelian Collection of Human Pedigrees,” we have
published a pedigree of the offspring derived from a
marriage of a mulatto gentleman with an English lady.
And in the family of seven children, two possess un-
doubted European skins, and are described as very
beautiful European women. Here we have a very
perfect and clean segregation of the European skin colour.
And this case is a perfectly authentic one, inasmuch as
the family is well known.

When we combine the observation of Colonel H. de
H. Haig with the South-east London one, there can be
no doubt at all that European skin colour does segregate
from a coloured ancestry, and that it may be quite clean.

The divergency between the evidence produced by
Professor Pearson and that pzoduced in this Journal,
raises further questions. It suggests that the problem is
very complex. It is not impossible there may exist
several races of negroes in regard to the genetic behaviour
of their pigment factors. Or, more probably, there may
exist a large number of negroes having different zygotic

* We are not, for obvious reasons, permitted to mention the island.
It is not one of the West Indies,

COMBS OF FOWLS 183

pigmentary constitutions. Thus, a negro having a
composition of € c BD’ d' d* d*®, when crossed with any
European, would give a mulatto offspring, the members
of which, married to an European, would produce Euro-
peans as well as mulattoes. The divergency, therefore,
between the two sets of evidence is probably apparent
and not real. The mulattoes of the West Indies, it is
conceivable, may have one zygotic composition, perhaps
similar to that which we gave on page 179, while some
or all of those of the other island have another, similar
to that just given. In marriages with Europeans, the
one kind will not be expected to beget Europeans
among its offspring and the other will.

(3) Variation in the Single Combs of Fowls.

Some Mendelian Comments.

In a recent number of “‘ Biometrika’’* there appears a
paper under the joint authorship of Dr. Raymond Pearl
and Miss Maud Dewitt Pearl, entitled ‘‘ Data on Variation
in the Comb of the Domestic Fowl.” The authors have
propounded a number of questions, but the central thesis
turns upon the one question as to whether single combs
or their various grades breed true. And, if they do
not, to what extent do they vary. As the authors

point out, “nothing is more certain than that all
single combs are not alike in respect to any feature
whatsoever, even including their singleness.’”” While

we are not disposed to question the statements in
this sentence as a whole, the last clause of it calls
forcomment. It implies that there are forms of combs,
which are neither single, nor pea, nor rose, but a sort
of blend of single with pea, or single with rose. The
occasional existence of such apparently transitional
forms, is well known to the Mendelian, and the explana-
tion of them is given later in this article (infra p. 193).

eVoly EV., Part. IV.

184 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

As is generally recognised, there are many different
kinds of single combs, and some of them are illustrated in
the authors’ paper. Some are high, others low; some are
erect and others lop over to one side ; some are prolonged
backwards in the form of a spur beyond their attachment
to the skull and others are not, but end, more or less
abruptly, at the limit of their attachment ; some single
combs have many “ points” and others few; in some
the “ points’ are broadly triangular in form (Fig. 3), in
others the triangle is longer and narrower (Fig. 4), and in
others they are almost rectangular (Fig. 2).

The authors seek to know whether these different
varieties of single comb may be hereditarily transmitted in
accordance with Mendelian principles when individuals
bearing them are bred together. They also desire to
learn, “‘ how far from the normal in any direction the single
comb may be expected to depart in pure-bred birds ? ”

If these represent the objects which the authors had
in view when they commenced their investigation, we
feel forced to confess that we are a little sceptical as to
the utility or validity of the methods employed. They
are, of course, typically biometrical methods and are
orthodox to the last letter of biometrical law. But,
unfortunately, that does not make them adequate or
valid instruments of biological research. As biological
instruments they are now quite antiquated, for biologists
have a more fruitful and modern method, that of the
genetic analysis of individuals by breeding experiments.
But if these objects are after-thoughts, inscribed when
the investigation was completed, and perhaps traced out
by the omnipresent sword-point of the biometrical
“Field Marshal,” it will explain the existing imcongruity
between the objects and the methods.

The apparently real object of the investigators, that
with which they commenced their investigation, seems to
be contained in the following statement: “In this
paper we have endeavoured to give a clear and, as far as
possible, quantitative description of the nature and
amount of variation normally occurring in a homogeneous
pure-bred strain of Barred Plymouth Rock hens in respect
to the form and size of the comb.” Now if this is the
precise object of the authors, then the methods adopted

COMBS OF FOWLS 185

by them to achieve it demonstrates at once the wide
and inseparable gulf between the methods of the Bio-
metricians and those of the Mendelians. The object is to
ascertain the nature and amount of variation of the single
comb. Now to do this we must have perfectly homoge-
neous material in respect of the character which we are
investigating. We must be sure that the combs we
measure belong to one gametic entity ; they must be all
members of a definite, single gametic type. Otherwise,
we shall not be dealing with true variation at all, but
merely with an eidoscopic display of aggregated types.

Now Dr. Raymond Pearl has investigated the problem
with biometrical methods, and the appearance of his
paper in “ Biometrika’ must be accepted as evidence that
from the standpoint of the hierarchy of Biometricians it
is accurate in method and sound in conclusion. We are
not, therefore, commenting upon Dr. Pearl’s work in any
other sense than that we desire to examine the validity
or scientific utility of the biometrical instruments which
he has employed in his investigation. Could we assent
to his methods we might commend his results ; we can
admire his skill as a workman, while lamenting his tools.
We shall, therefore, consider his paper as a ripened
product of Biometry, and as one written by, shall we say,
“an ardent ”’ Biometrician.

The object then before us is a study of the range
and nature of the variation in the single comb of a certain
race of hens. Now it must be confessed that were we as
Mendelians about to undertake this investigation the
first thing we should endeavour to obtain would be a
homogeneous race of combs and not of hens. It is in
this matter that we think the Biometricians have invali-
dated at the outset the value of any conclusions they
may reach. They have endeavoured to obtain what
they call ““a homogeneous pure-bred strain of Barred
Plymouth Rock hens.” Now is it possible to obtain
such a thing as a homogeneous race of individuals? In
pre-Mendelian days—that is, previous to 1900—the term
pure bred had quite a different significance to that now
attached to it by Mendelians. And, in its older sense, it
is still employed by fanciers. We know now that a bird

186 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

can be pure bred in the old sense, can be bred for succes-
sive generations from a particular race, and yet not be °
homogeneous ; indeed, may be most markedly hetero-
geneous. Blue Andalusian fowls, for instance, may be
bred for indefinite generations from blue Andalusians
and yet not a single homogeneous blue Andalusian bird
will be obtained by the process. The Andalusian race
thus bred will, in fact, remain a most heterogeneous one,
throwing both black and splashed white individuals in
each generation. Such instances can be multiplied,
but this particular one will suffice.

The mere fact then that the Barred Biaoonea Rock
hens which form the material of Dr. Pearl’s biometrical
investigation “‘had been carefully and closely selected
in their breeding for more than 25 years ”’ is, by itself, no
guarantee of the homogeneity of the race, and still less
is it any guarantee of the homogeneity of the comb
characters. Neither is there any greater degree of
guarantee introduced by the fact that “‘ during the last
nine years they have been ‘ line bred ’—that is, no fresh
blood has been imported.” The statement therefore
that : “‘It would be difficult to find anywhere material
for the study of variation more homogeneous than that
dealt with here,’ has really no scientific meaning at
all. It has a fancier’s meaning, but nothing more.
There is no proof forthcoming of the homogeneity
of this material in the scientific sense. On the
other hand, the three plates containing 96 figures
of very diverse single combs, which illustrate the
authors’ paper, is an eloquent testimony to the hetero-
geneity of the material. We think these plates constitute
such clear evidence of this that there remains little doubt
in our minds “that it would be difficult to find any-
where ” more heterogeneous material.

Now what is it the Biometricians want us to under-
stand by the term “a homogeneous pure-bred strain of
hens” ? What is a homogeneous race? We doubt
whether any such thing exists. Are we asked to believe
that this race of Barred Plymouth Rock hens is homo-
geneous in all the multifarious characters of each indivi-
dual? Or that it is so only in respect of those characters

COMBS OF FOWLS 187

which have been selected by the fanciers? If it is this
latter alternative, then we imagine that the selection of
plumage, of size, of habit, of form, and other characters,
has played an equally important part, probably a more
important one, than that of the selection of comb charac-
ters. And, if this is so, the Biometricians are not justified
in believing that the single combs of this race—and it is
with this character that they are alone dealing—is any-
thing else than markedly heterogeneous. Even though
a special selection of comb characters on the basis of old
conceptions* and by old methods had been made, there
would, even then, have been no reason to regard the
material as homogeneous. But even this has not been
done ; for Dr. Pearl himself informs us on page 428:
“The drawings and figures here presented show that in
the absence of special selection, in regard to comb size,
the character shows a range of variation all the way from
the condition shown in large combed types in Leg-
horns to the very smallest of single combs.”’ It is clear
then, on the admission of Dr. Pearl himself, there has
been no special selection exercised in regard to one of
the characters of the comb, namely, size, the variation of
which he set himself the problem to measure and describe.
How, in the face of this admission, his material can be
described as ‘“‘ so homogeneous that it would be difficult
to find any material more so,” appears to us to be an
aberration of enthusiasm not perhaps difficult to com-
prehend. We are therefore compelled to dismiss as
untenable the claim that this biometrically chosen mate-
rial is homogeneous in any but the fanciers’ sense of
the term.

Let us pass to a further consideration of the problem.
We will take one only of the many characters exhibited
by the single comb, namely, its size. Now whatissize? A

* The old conceptions alluded to here are those which flow from the
belief that the visible body characters are a true and trustworthy criterion
of gametic constitution. We now know that in the majority of cases this
is not so. The old methods alluded to are those which are based on this
old belief, and which consist in selecting individuals because of their external
or visible body characters. The Mendelian or newer biological method is
to select them because of their gametic constitution, which is judged of
by their genetic behaviour, manifested in the course of experiment.

+ The italics are ours.

188 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

thing which has size possesses length, height, and width
(= thickness) ; it has three dimensions. What evidence
has Dr. Pearl that each one of these dimensions is not a
biologically independent variable ? In other words, the
length, height and width of a single comb may be separate
gametic entities, each segregable from the other. Or, on
the other hand, they may of course be coupled together.
Before we can be assured that this material is the “‘ most
homogeneous possible,” we must not only consider the
comb, but each one of its separate characters. Points like
these have to be considered and the homogeneity of the
material proved, not by massing heterogeneities together,
but by genetic experiment, before we have any real basis
upon which our judgement as to the homogeneity or
otherwise of the material can be formed.

We must now consider another source of error in this
biometrical treatment of the subject. It is the implica-
tion that the ordinary or older method of selection by
inspection of the visible or somatic characters will enable
us to fix a homogeneous race. This older method of
selection is based upon an old conception. In _pre-
Mendelian days it was generally believed that the external
or visible body characters were a true and trustworthy
criterion of the gametic constitution of an individual.
We now know that in the majority of cases which have been
investigated this may not be so. We know, for instance,
that two races of white sweet pea, which so long as each
race is bred within itself will produce only white-flowered
individuals, but yet when the two races are crossed
purple-flowered individuals may result. Itis clear that the
visible and somatic white character of the flowers of these
two races is not a reliable criterion of the hidden factors
which each race carries. Selection of these two races
because of their visible white character does not produce
a race homogeneous for whiteness. Again, we know it
is not possible to fix the jonquil character of canaries by
selecting the best jonquil canaries to breed from. And
we know also that we cannot fix the blue Andalusian
character of the Andalusian hen by selecting the best
blues and rejecting the black and splashed-white indivi-
duals. For many years blue Andalusians have been
selected by such a mode of selection, namely, that based

COMBS OF FOWLS 189

on the inspection of visible somatic characters, but it has
not resulted, and cannot result, in evolving a homogeneous
race of blue Andalusians. On the contrary, the race
maintained with steady persistency a heterogeneous
gametic constitution. It was not the biometrical treat-
ment of a few thousands of blue Andalusian hens which
advanced our knowledge of the matter, but that precise,
specific, individual gametic analysis that is the diagnostic
feature of Mendelian treatment which finally enabled
us within a couple of years to show that the blue Anda-
lusian was a heterozygote, and could be made at any
time by simply mating a black hen with a “splashed ”
cock or vice versa.

And the same considerations apply to the comb char-
acters of hens. We cannot by such somatic selection,
however long it may be continued, obtain a homogeneous
single comb in respect to any one of its characters, except
as the result of a happy and exceedingly rare accident. We
cannot, for instance, know by mere inspection that an
individual hen which bears a single comb prolonged
backwards beyond its attachment to the head into a
large spur is not forming gametes which carry another
type or types of single comb. To endeavour to fix a race
of hens which shall be homogeneous in one particular
character by breeding from a bird chosen by mere exter-
nal inspection is waste of time and money. And to
endeavour to investigate the question of variation of
the characters of single combs by indiscriminately massing
together a hundred or a thousand, or even ten thousand
hens which have been bred upon this principle of selection,
and to obtain the arithmetic mean, the standard devia-
tion and the coefficient of variation of their combs, appears
to us to be of the nature of “ love’s labour lost.” And
that which is true in this respect of the combs of hens
is true of all those multifarious questions of inheritance
and evolution which relate to horticulture, to agriculture,
and to Man. To believe that an inherently black body is
white because it is externally painted that colour seems
to us to be the highroad of delusion, the “ straight,
broad road” of biological science. And yet it is this
road which the Biometricians are traversing, notwith-
standing that nine years ago Professor Bateson called

190 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

their attention to its nature and to the goal of academic
destruction towards which it led by facile stages.

Now let us examine Dr. Pearl’s material with Men-
delian eyes. Even a cursory examination of the ninety-
six figures which illustrate his paper leads us to believe
it possible that within this so-called “‘ homogeneous and
continuously variable material ”’ there conceivably exists
at least four types of single comb, so far as teeth
characters alone are concerned. And, it is. also
conceivable that they represent gametic types.
We will endeavour to enumerate and describe these
groups. In so doing we would desire it to be under-
stood that we are only indicating in a_ general
way some of the considerations a Mendeiian would
formulate who contemplated undertaking an investiga-
tion into the variation and transmission of. the

Possible gametic types of single comb. Selected from the 96 figures
illustrating Dr. Raymond Pearl’s paper in ‘‘ Biometrika,” Vou. VI.

Fig. 1 to 4 indicate the types of our four hypothetical groups.

Figs. 10, 22, 50, and 96 indicate the number of the figure in Dr. Pearl’s
paper, from which those here figured are copied.

(Reproduced with the kind permission of the Publishers and Editors of
“* Biometrika.” )

characters of single combs. The type comb of our
Group | is illustrated in Fig. 10 of Dr. Pearl’s paper,
and in our Fig. 1. Around it the combs illustrated
in his Figs. 1, 35, 36, 42, and 44 fluctuate in one
direction or the other. This group is characterised

PLATE ITI.

See : 7 i
37
62
50

Beck. OS

71
Biometrika v) ; 54

This Plate has been reproduced with the permission of the Editor
and publishers of «§ Biometrika,” from the three plates of 96 figures

which accompany Dr. Pearl’s paper. For expl ti
appended to this article. ue eer espe Mice

192 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

by the low form of comb; the serration is not pro-
nounced, the teeth tend to run together, and the
apices of the teeth are acute. In our Group 2 we
find the type illustrated in Dr. Pearl’s Figs. 88 and 96,
and in our Fig. 2, and around them those shown in his
Figs. 11, 64, 67, 76, 77, 78, 86, and 90 fluctuate
in one direction or the other. This group is characterised
by having the teeth somewhat in the general form
of a parallelogram, they tend to be indented or
spurred, and their apices are sub-acute. In our
Group 3 the type is illustrated in Dr. Pearl’s Figs.
50 and 92, and in our Fig. 3, while a lower form of
comb of the same type is illustrated in his Figs. 24
and 63. The group is characterised by its well defined,
triangular large teeth with acute apices. Our Group 4
is shown in its typical condition in Dr. Pearl’s
Figs. 13 and 22, and in our Fig. 4, with his Figs. 7,
71, and 73, and others fluctuating around them. This
group is characterised by its well defined, somewhat
long-narrow, triangular-shaped teeth with sub-acute or
obtuse apices. A form of comb like that figured in
Dr. Pearl’s Figs. 69 and 85 and some others are probably
to be regarded as heterozygous ones, and carrying
some two or more of the above four groups.

We must once more intimate that we do not commit
ourselves to the positive statement that these four
groups are actual gametic entities ; experimental breeding
alone can decide that. But we do assert that Dr. Pearl’s
figures appear to us not to form a continuous series
without some perceptible gaps, and that it is possible
to believe at least four distinct gametic types exist
within the class of single comb in the Barred Plymouth
Rock hen. In the investigation of such problems
the only method that can be of any avail is that of
the Mendelian. We must, for instance, take the two
most diverse types, such as our Group 1 and Group 3,
and breed them together. In other words, we should
endeavour to see whether such a comb as that shown in
Dr. Pearl’s Fig. 10 or 36 clearly segregates from such a type
as that shown in his Fig. 50 or 92. When that has been
adequately attempted, we shall then be able to claim a

COMBS OF FOWLS 193

real advance in knowledge. It is not a difficult experi-
ment, and it is one which any breeder of fowls who is
willing to do the work carefully and conscientiously
could quite easily undertake.

We have felt bound, though reluctantly, to comment
upon the conclusions and the methcds of Biometricians. We
have felt impelled to do so, because from the Mendelian
School—after years of experimental breeding, during which
more than 12,500 hens were bred and recorded by Pro-
fessor Bateson and Mr. R. C. Punnett, and to which
must be added the valuable experimental work of Mr.
C. C. Hurst and of Professor Davenport, there has issued
the conclusion that the characters of the combs of fowls
are hereditarily transmitted in accordance with Mendelian
principles ; and that the experimental results can be
adequately explained by supposing that the various
characters are determined by the existence of definite
gametic factors. The paper of Dr. Pearl which has
appeared in ‘“ Biometrika” is published ostensibly with
the purpose of casting doubt upon the Mendelian
conclusions. It is perhaps unnecessary to further con-
trast the difference in the method or the extent of the
work of the two schools. We need only compare
the 96 combs gathered * indiscriminately to the
biometrical mill, and remember that the parentages
of the individuals which bore them were unknown
or ignored, and the relation of one generation to the next
therefore was unconsidered, with that precise and
definite gametic analysis of each of the many individuals
chosen to constitute the breeding stock from the total
of the 12,500 hens which were bred in the course of the
investigation, and which is the essential attribute of Men-
delian methods, to enable us to arrive at a conclusion as
to which of the two Schools has its methods most
based on a lasting foundation.

There is one further point that requires some comment
here. On page 432 of their paper the authors lay great stress
upon the existence of “‘ intermediates’ between typical pea
combs and single combs. That fact has long been known
to Mendelians, and was described in the first report to the
Evolution Committee of the Royal Society, in 1901,
page 94. It would have been more in consonance with

M

194 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

scientific impartiality had some reference to the later
Mendelian work (Rep. Evol. Commt. iv. 1908, page 21)
been made either by the authors or by the Editor of
‘‘ Biometrika.” This later Mendelian evidence suggests
that these “ intermediate” pea combs are not due to im-
perfect dominance or to continuous variation, but to a
specific difference in the genetic nature of the single-
comb base upon which the pea constitutent of it rests.

To ignore deductions derived from experimental
evidence and to persist in maintaining conclusions based
on observations that are eight years old, and which have
been superseded by more recent and extended work,
cannot we think help the advance of knowledge. The
Biometricians still persist in believing that all single-
combs are genetically alike, in spite of their own standard
deviations and coefficients of variation, whereas the
Mendelian has already good evidence to show that
there exist several distinct gametic types. And the
existence of these explains the intermediate pea-single
type of comb.

NOTE.—After this article was in press, we sought the permission of
the Publishers and the Editor of *‘ Biometrika,” to the reproduction in our
pages, of four selected figures from Dr. Pearl’s three plates. The Editor,
while unable to see his way to grant permission for the reproduction of
the four figures selected by us, was willing to allow us to reproduce
any one of the three plates as a whole. At our further request the Editor
of *‘ Biometrika” very kindly permitted us to reproduce one of Dr. Pearl’s
plates together with the four figures. Hence the appearance of one
whole plate, to which there is no reference in the text of our article.
Doubtless, it is the desire of the Editor of ‘‘ Biometrika.” in fairness to Dr.
Pearl’s conclusions, that one series, at least, of his figures should be seen by
our readers, side by side, with the four selected by us. We very gladly
publish this plate. It is intended to show the existence of continuous
variation. To us there appear to be perceptible gaps. But even though
the blends or grades formed a perfect series, the fact still remains, that
the only reliable way to test whether gametic blending exists or not, is to
breed the extremes of a reputed blended character, and note the results.

MISCELLANEA.

Science and Democracy.

In an article in a daily paper of recent date there appeared a
statement which is as remarkable from the standpoint of imagina-
tion as it is erroneous from the standpoint of fact. After passing
certain comments upon a letter written by Sir Oliver Lodge, in
which the writer manifested a misunderstanding of the nature
and use of scientific hypotheses, he proceeded to pronounce the
following obiter dictum :—

“Tt is not the case that the public is incredulous with regard
to scientific assertions. The tendency is all the other way ; the
plain man accepts too unhesitatingly what he is told by the pro-
fessors. And there is danger when anything that claims to have
the authority of science behind it is too readily accepted. There
are physiologists and sociologists, for example, who would apply
the laws which speculation has formulated in other fields to human
life, though these laws may be nothing more than untested hypo-
theses or may have no application to man. Thus Mendel’s
famous law is valuable enough in dealing with plants, but in the
case of man it appears to break down. If it applied to the human
race, the progeny of every negro married to a white woman
should be in definite proportions pure white, pure black, and
mulattoes, and this, as is well known, has never occurred.”

We are not now concerned with considering the credulity or
incredulity of the public nor in asking whether it is true that the
“plain man accepts too readily what the professors tell him.”
For we have first to learn that the plain man, or the legislator, or
the politician, ever reads the scientific works of men of science.
Neither are we concerned in holding a brief for the so-called
sociologists. For, unfortunately, the great majority of those who
pass as such, are neither men of science by training nor by
instinct. They are perhaps not incorrectly described as dilettante
or vicarious philanthropists desirous of spending somebody else's
money in an attempt to secure the salvation of those whose salva-
tion, there is too much reason to believe, is beyond both prayer and
hope. With regard to the statement respecting the physiologists,

196 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

we can only express our surprise that a responsible paper should
have framed such an accusation without producing a particle
of evidence to substantiate it.

It is impossible to conceive of statements more calculated to
inspire contempt and hatred of science in the popular mind, or
to lead that mind astray, than those which appeared in this
article. The “professors” of science are by implication, but perhaps
not intentionally, denounced as charlatans, and the mature con-
clusions of academic physiologists, arrived at after laborious and
prolonged investigations, are lightly dismissed as ‘“ untested hypo-
theses having no applic ation to Man.” In the earlier days of scien-
tific history in this country, when she was fighting and making
headway against the forces of superstition and bigotry, the Canon
Wilberforces of the time were the open and avowed enemies of
science. It can be said that they were honest men for they drew
forth their sword in its unsheathed nakedness. But to-day, the
locus of this enmity—for anything which misrepresents is a virtual
enmity—appears to have extended and its form to have varied,
for it is now no longer open and avowed, but assumes the invidious
guise of putative criticism, uttered in an ostensibly friendly
manner. It is akin to the kind of attitude that our lukewarm
friends adopt towards us; it “ damns with faint praise.”

When we recall the fact, as the late Professor Huxley reminded
us, that it was not an Autocracy, nor an Oligarchy, nor even a
Theocracy, but a Democracy which condemned Socrates to death,
we may well begin to wonder, when we read articles of this
harmful nature—no doubt unintentionally so—addressed to the
people, whether history in repeating itself has not brought us
back to the days when rhetorical sophists swayed the civic
multitude of Athens, and by the institution of such a form of
government thereby inevitably wrought the national destruction.
It compels us to remember that there are not wanting the
signs that in the English life of to-day, mere orators, minor poets,
and tanners of the type of Lycon, Meletus, and Anytus occupy the
platforms in the market places, where sophistical, erroneous, and
inflammatory utterances find an appropriate response. And,
while this is so, the important conquests of science are either
passed by unheeded and her methods ignored, or they are mis-
represented and consciously or unconsciously held up to con-
tumely, as in the case now before us.

We pass next to consider the particular paragraph in this
article with which the Mendel Journal 1 is more directly concerned.
We are told by the writer “that if Mendel’s law applied to
the human race the progeny of every negro married to a white
woman should be in definite proportions pure white, pure black,
and mulattoes, and this, as is well known, has never occurred.”

SCIENCE AND DEMOCRACY 1ST

Now this is a remarkable statement, and it should not for one
moment be supposed that any Mendelian ever uttered it. We
should certainly be interested to hear the name of the authority
and the chapter and verse of the book where such an expected
progeny from such a mating is stated to be a Mendelian prediction.
The moment is perhaps opportune for a brief statement
of the real facts of the subject. Now one of the most significant
of these facts is that no Mendelian has ever made any prediction
as to the nature of the expected offspring between mulattoes
bred inter se, or between mulattoes and quadroons, or indeed
between any of the crosses that are possible between European-
negro hybrids. These alleged statements have been imputed to
Mendelians either by those who imagine such predictions are
orthodox, or by those who have got into a hopeless confusion
as to the real nature of “ intermediates’ or grades of characters.
It is unfortunate, as Mr. R. P. Gregory has pointed out in a reply
to the article, that people do exist who are sometimes too ready
to make unwarranted assumptions, which are then attributed
to Mendelians. If the public desires to know Mendelism, it should
of course, itself pass through the plains of Cirrha and climb the
hills of Cithzron, and accept it from the Mendelian Apollo alone.
The Mendelian attitude in the matter of Huropean-negro
hybrids is the same as that in all other questions of genetics.
It is, in effect, that we must first ascertain by breeding experi-
ments the nature and number of the primary gametic factors
which are concerned before we can make any prediction at all.
In this particular case the Mendelian requires first to carefully
ascertain the gametic factors which determine the blackness of
the negro’s skin and those which operate to produce the European
colour of skin. We need not pursue the question in detail here,
because we have already considered it (supra p. 163) in commenting
upon Professor Karl Pearson’s contribution to ‘“‘ Biometrika.”
But we desire to pass one more comment upon the remarkable
statement of the problem as it is given in the article we are con-—
sidering. To a Mendelian the error of the statement is of course
obvious at once. Assuming that Mendelian principles are operat-
ing in negro crosses with Europeans, and further assuming that the
negro blackness is an elementary character, not resolvable into
a series of factors, and that European “‘ whiteness’ is simply an
elementary absence of negro colour, it is even then erroneous
to say that we should expect “ the progeny of every negro married
to a white woman would be in definite proportions pure white,
pure black, and mulattoes.”’ For, as Mrs. Haig Thomas pointed
out in a letter to the paper in which this article was published,
the first generation cannot manifest the segregation of characters
which occurs in the invisible gametes of that generation. It is not

198 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

until the second generation of individuals have been born that
segregation can be seen.

We would like to add that if newspaper readers desire some
knowledge of biological matters, and they have neither the time
nor the desire to read scientific books, the best course available to
them is either to read articles which are written by men of
science and are signed by their authors, like that excellent series |
by Sir E. Ray Lankester in the Saturday morning’s issue of the
Daily Telegraph, or be content to leave science alone. For it is
better for any nation to abide in ignorance than to be led in error.

How pernicious such errors as these may be is well exemplified
by a subsequent letter which appeared in the newspaper in which
the article was published. This letter adverted to that article
and was signed by “ Jamaican.’ He appears to have lived
in Jamaica for fifty years, and he expresses “ astonishment that
such an idea as that a white child could be born of a black
mother could be maintained.” And well might “ Jamaican ”’ be
astonished! But the seriousness of the matter from the
aspect of science is that this error, having obtained a
start, may never be completely overtaken. It has gone
forth to the public that science has made a pronouncement,
which a part of that public, from its experience, knows is
erroneous. It has been promulgated that from a black
mother science has said white, mulatto, and black children
shall be begotten. And every person of the public who
may be in a position to judge knows quite well that it is an
erroneous statement. And the public which seldom or never
discriminates, will now associate men of science with palpable
errors, while the real transgressor may very possibly be regarded
as a god who has destroyed falseidols. Such neglect of scientific
accuracy in any widely circulated journal, is a matter to be
deplored.

It is only fair, however, to say that the newspaper in which
this article appeared, inserted in three different issues a correction
of the error which the article contained. And we have reason
to believe that had not the pressure upon its space, owing to the
political situation, precluded the possibility, a full statement of
the Mendelian attitude towards the question would have been
published in its columns.

Mendelism cannot long remain a wholly academic subject.
Already the influence which it is to exert in horticulture, in
agriculture, and in human affairs is manifest. Inevitably it
must come into more or less public view on that account. And,
we would like to utter an appeal for a fair treatment to be
accorded it. It is becoming an increasingly complex subject,

SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESES ~ 199

and already needs a specialist’s knowledge to accurately present
it to any audience.

The time has passed when science was solely an affair of
cloistered halls” and men of science lived in “‘ academic groves.’
Science has entered into human affairs, and is now an essential
part of them. Men of science are called upon by circumstances
to keep pace with the march of events. The old attitude of
exclusion from participation in these wider events is no longer
possible, if science is to be rightly understood and properly
appreciated by Englishmen as a whole. The danger arising
from that exclusion is manifested in the event which we are now
discussing. To be forewarned should be to be forearmed.

ce

The Nature of Scientific Hypotheses.

THE discussion on “ Speculation in Science,” which took place in
certain newspapers quite recently cannot fail to arouse wide-
spread interest in the subject which has been described as the
“scrap-heaps of science.”’

The full consideration of the matter at once raises the ques-
tion of the nature and use of hypotheses in science, and, it
is doubtless possible, by means of various analogies, to convey
some concrete idea of their nature and of the part they play in
the march of science to those who are not special students of
scientific problems.

The various hypotheses which have been formulated from
time to time, in order to attempt some sort of a description of
the nature of the xther, have been mentioned in the course
of the discussion alluded to above. And, the fact that
many of these have been discarded, or, as it was there
stated, “thrown on the scrap-heap,” is impliedly held to
be a rebuke to science. Now far from it being a matter
for rebuke, this “scrapping” of defective hypotheses is in
reality a great virtue. It is a sign of progress. Holding
fast to dogmas when they are no longer tenable is not progression,
but either retrogression or stagnation. The greatest victory that
science has won for the intellectual freedom of mankind is this
very right to relinquish exploded conceptions as soon as they are
no longer tenable, and to substitute for them others more in
accord with the knowledge of the day.

The discussion which we are now considering, may perhaps
have tended to create the impression that this destruction of

200 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

exploded hypotheses is something which men of science
regret and only reluctantly tolerate. But it’ is only just
to remember that scientific men themselves look upon
this relegation of untenable hypotheses to the scrap-heap
as a quite normal event in the affairs of science. And,
similarly, they regard the birth of new hypotheses even from a
frail parentage, so long as it be legitimate, as a normal event.
There is no danger in the existence of these hypotheses in the
world of science, because no delusion is there associated with
them; men of science understand them and appreciate their

nature. It is only when they pass into the hands of men who are
not scientific and who endeavour to use them to support their
own prejudices or desires that they become dangerous, because
they then become misapplied.

These so-called speculations in: science are never intended to
be infallible dogmas; no scientific man ever makes that pre-
tence. They are simply working hypotheses or necessary imple-
ments of work, without the use of which it is impossible to advance.
They are not Laws, but merely instruments of scientific research.
When the work which they are intended to fashion and to mould
is accomplished, these instruments of achievements—the working
hypotheses—are cast aside. They have fulfilled their function,
and science cannot be retarded by retaining implements which are
no longer capable of useful work. In Biology we see one such
derelict scientific tool in-the now almost generally discarded
hypothesis of the hereditary transmission of acquired
characters. This hypothesis in its time served a very useful
purpose. Had it never been called into use, biological science
in certain of her problems would have stood sixty years
behind the position she now occupies. In a tentative way
and to a limited degree, Darwin utilised it as a working
instrument, and his use of it ultimately led other biolo-
gists, and especially Weismann, to subject it to a searching
inductive and deductive analysis, based partly upon experiment
and partly upon verified observation. And as a consequence
of such work—the outcome, let it be emphasized, of the critical
use of a scientific hypothesis—the large majority of biologists
to-day feel justified in relegating this hypothesis to the “ scrap-
heap.’ We need no longer encumber our path and retard our
progress by futile discussions and unrewarded experiments on
the ‘‘ yea” or “‘ nay” of the transmission of acquired characters.
And when we pies ae the Tealm S Medicine—which is but
an immense impetus to
progress it must - fot medical inv Se and pioneers of
knowledge, scouting out into the unknown regions, to know that
this particular tool can no longer accomplish any useful work for

SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESES 201

them. It is a great thing to know that there is one less of the
useless tools for them to waste their efforts upon in a fruitless
handling. The regions of the Unknown and even the frontiers
of the Known, are strewn with such deceptive and futile tools, so
full of promise, but so unavailing when they are tested, and so
impossible to detect at sight from the tools of truer metal, that it
is imperative all within our range must be tried before a
real step in advance can be accomplished. Biology and Medicine
to-day owe a forward advance of at least sixty years to the fact
that Lamarck formulated this working hypothesis of the trans-
mission of acquired characters, that Darwin tentatively used it,
and that Weismann and others, using it yet more fully, tested it
thoroughly and found it wanting. Had this hypothesis never been
formulated, we should to-day on matters of the most profound
importance—questions for mstance that came before the De-
partmental Committee on Physical Deterioration and before the
Royal Commission on the Care of the Feeble-Minded—have been
sixty years to the rear of the vanguard of the knowledge of to-day.
And this important advance, so intimately affecting our national
worth, has alone been possible because a working hypothesis
“has been put upon the scrap-heap.”

We may speak of these exploded derelicts as scrap-
heaps if we like. In doing so, we are really describing
their real nature. There is a_ similarity between these
discarded hypotheses of men of science and the pile of broken,
rusted, and antiquated machinery of the manufacturer.
And it is not only important but just to remember that the
materials of a scrap-heap, historically or economically, represent
a value almost infinitely greater than that of “old iron.” The
value of an engine consigned to the scrap-heap is not measured
merely by its weight of metal at current prices, but in the history
of mankind it will be valued by the nature and quantity of the
work it accomplished in the days when it was the “ latest thing ”’
and was being worked at its highest expedient pressure. And,
similarly, in the history of mankind we shall not value sailing
ships by their worth to-day, and think that because they have
been superseded by ‘‘ Lusitanias’’ and other steam leviathans,
they have been useless in the service of man, or valueless in deter-
mining the present polity of nations or the present distribution of
human races. The value of sailing craft will not be historically
measured by what they are worth to-day as a means of transit be-
tween Europe and America, but rather by the historical con-
sequences that have arisen because they were the craft which con-
veyed Columbus and others to America and opened that vast region
to Europeans. In old days the corn was cut solely with the scythe,
but as an efficient instrument of the present it is now to a large

202 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

extent upon the scrap-heap; more efficient implements are
taking its place. Yet assuredly, in the days when it was
solely used, it was an incalculably valuable tool. So it
is with the working hypotheses of men of science; like the
scythes and the sailing ships, they are the efficient in-
struments for the work of the day. But men of science
know that to-morrow and at successive periods they will be
supplanted by a better instrument, until one is found which does
its work ideally. And when in Science such a working hypo-
thesis has been found—one which does its work ideally—it is
called a ‘‘ Theory,” or if very ideal a ‘“‘ Natural Law.”

These “‘ Natural Laws’’ will probably never be surpassed or
replaced. They differ from hypotheses in their permanence.
In Science there are very few of them. The conditions of their
existence are rigid, severe, implacable, and onerous. They are
tested by facts unlimited and time illimitable. We may count
the number of them upon the fingers of our hands. It will not
be amiss, by way of illustration, to mention some of them. In
the Physical World there is the “ Law of Gravitation,” the “ Law
of the Conservation of Energy and Matter,” and in the Realm of
Biology there is the “ Law of Evolution,” and the “ Law of the
Survival of the Fittest.”

Now what is it that a man of science understands by the term
“Law”? He does not understand by it the same thing that a
legislator does. It is not a written code asserting what shall or
shall not be, or stipulating what we may do or may not do. To
him it is merely a statement of the consequences or results which
arise as the outcome of natural processes at work. It is
a generalised expression which accurately describes all the
detailed and particular phenomena to which the “ Law ”’ applies.
In other words, it is only a general way of describing the relation-
ship of a large number of particular events or facts, which are more
or less remotely related to each other. The “Law of Gravitation,”
for instance, enables us to describe in uniform terms the falling ofan
apple and of a feather; but it also explains the rising of a balloon,
the floating of a ship, the swinging of a pendulum, the parabolic
path of a bullet, the motion of meteors, and the orbits travelled
by the moon, earth, and sun. The “Law of the Conservation of
Energy ”’ similarly enables us to describe in consistent and uniform
language the production of electricity by the burning of coal ;
the formation of coal forests from the energy of the sun that
shone millions of years ago; the production of heat and motion
in the human body by the consumption of oxygen and other
elements ; the conversion of a sugary solution into an alcoholic
one by the activities of the yeast plant ; the growth of a man or
a bean plant from a microscopic egg under the influence of the

SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESES 203

energies liberated from the sun, and a great many other apparently
diverse phenomena. ‘The “ Law”’ is but the description of the
fact that when coal is burnt and has apparently disappeared,
it is not really destroyed, but the energy of heat which has been
liberated by its oxidation or burning is merely changed into
some other form of energy, that of electricity or of motion, or of
both. And similarly, the sun’s warmth and light which falls
upon the growing animal and plant is not lost, but is merely
changed into that molecular unrest which constitutes life.

These two “ Laws’”’ will stand as long as the present order
of the Universe endures, for they simply describe in generalised
language the whole complex and ever-shifting phenomena to
which they relate. And while they thus describe in accurate
language the phenomena of Nature, they are not inconsistent
with—that is, they are not contradicted by—a single fact. And
yet, for fifty years or more, this “ Law of the Conservation of
Energy’’ has been tested by multitudinous, detailed, and varied
experiments conducted in every civilised country throughout
that period. And as for the “ Law of Gravitation,” who is ‘there
who doubts that its duration is coincident with that of the
Universe itself ?

And similarly with “ Evolution’’ and “ the Survival of the
Fittest.’’ They too describe the phenomena of Nature in the
domain of living organisms. They are consistent with all that
is known of organic life, including Man, and fifty years of hostile
criticism has left them strengthened, not weakened, impregnable,
not shaken.

But we should never confound in our thoughts or in our con-
versations, the fleeting ‘hypotheses’ which but represent
the accomplishing tools, with the permanent “‘ Laws,” or, as they
are better called, the formulated statement of the ‘“‘ Processes of
Nature,” which represent the finished product of the accumulated
labours of, it may be, many generations of men of science.

REVIEWS.

Heredity.—J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., Regius Professor of
Natural History in the University of Aberdeen. The
Progressive Science Series. . John Murray, London. Price
9s. net. Pp. 605.

Proressor J. ARTHUR THOMSON is the Ruskin of Biology. His
writings partake alike of the mellowness of Autumn and_ the
freshening vigour of the Spring. They are full of the hopeful
joys that arise perennially from the vernal freshness, and they
spread a golden hue over the pessimism that is eternally born
of all experience. As one reads his book, one begins uncon-
sciously to paint life as a resplendent far northern sunset, a scene
of purple hills and placid waters, lying bathed in their entirety
beneath a rose-red splendour that emanates from a silver sun.
This psychological effect is due not to the matter of the state-
ments but to the poetry of their utterance, for Professor Thomson
is far too accurate to lead us by his statements into that Utopia
which is born of dreamers but is demolished by Biology.

Most of us have to be content with the prosaic utterance that
‘“ the unfit among organisms are eliminated while the fit survive.”
But in Professor Thomson’s book it is given to us in the language
of imagery: “ Rotten twigs are always falling off the tree of
life. There is acontinual irrecoverable precipitation of incapables,
who thus ceese to muddy the stream.” In this way he paints at
once, on the canvas of the mind, a picture of the process of
Natural Selection. There can be none so uninstructed that they
do not at once grasp the meaning of this destruction from the
mental image thus called forth by analogy.

Now and then, Professor Thomson allows the golden sunset
to sink, and in the colder, if clearer light, of advanced dawn, the
ruggedness of life and its pitiless inexorableness, is allowed to
break upon our vision. Equally well timed and written is his
warning that: ‘‘ Besides the advance of preventive medicine, the
spreading enthusiasm for health, the awakening of a eugenic con-
science, the suggestions as to ‘marriage-licenses’ and other forms of
social selection, all making for the greater healthtulness of the

HEREDITY 205

human breed, we have, of course, to remember that our race
has not got beyond the scope of natural selection, much as we
try to evade it.” It is well that the large audience to which
Professor Thomson's book will appeal should be reminded that
the Stygian gulf of life cannot be crossed except by such who can
pay Charon his ferry fee. It might not have been amiss, perhaps;
if our author had pointed out that had we been brave enough in
the past to have left Natural Selection unfettered, we need not
to-day have burdened ourselves with “ eugenic consciences,”’
with amended “ marriage licenses,’ with costly schemes of
“preventive medicine,’ and a “spreading enthusiasm for
health.” To us, it appears preferable to see a community that
does not care whether the bacillus communis coli is in its corporate
intestines or not, to one composed of individuals always counting
their pulses and swallowing lactic-acid tablets! Picture the two
types: the one man spontaneously happy, vigorous, indifferent
to germs, while the other wastes the hours of life standing by
the brink of its waters shivering from fear and incapable of
plunging! And yet it is this latter type that our “ enthusiasm
for health” and schemes of “ preventive medicine ” are rearing
fast. Professor Thomson’s warning is in season, and it is to be
solemnly hoped that they who fecl “the glow of his golden sunsets
will not forget that upon the other horizon, under cover of the
rising darkness, a devastating storm is following the sun.

While, here and there, the author thus expresses a salutary
warning, not infrequently his hopes appear to be too much of
the ethereal order. When, for instance, he tries to persuade his
readers that it is possible to escape, in some measure, the inexor-
able hereditary persistence of congenital defects, by the same
mechanism that sometimes causes a desirable or favourable varia-
tion to be lost, he is approaching dangerously near to “ building
castles in the air.”’ That such a thing may be possible is not of
course disputed. But such negative variations are, as far as our
present evidence instructs us, exceedingly rare, relatively to the
number of times in which such characters persist. We have
only to recall such a pedigree as that of Mr. Nettleship’s stationary
night blindness, where a defect persisted through ten generations
for a period of 270 years, and still exists, to perceive that it is not
along that line of Nature’s processes we can hope for any
amelioration of human suffering. There is danger in arousing
such expectations and in building above earth. Careless readers
—and how many there are—will believe that it is possible to
stop the sun of heredity at noon-day, and to reverse its inevitable
onward, westward march. Alas! it is harsh, perhaps, but better
to emphasize the lesson that while there may be occasionally. a
tumultuous sun-spot on the sun, the relative motion of which may

206 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

be for a little while east, the sun itself goes on to the westward,
with given pace to its unalterable goal. Again, Professor Thom-
son’s allusion to Job’s utterance, “ Who can bring a clean thing
out of an unclean ?”’ in relation to the fact that out of a generation
of wheat plants susceptible to the “ rust,’’ some immune offspring
may be obtained, is apt to lead careless or emotional readers to
the contemplation of false beliefs and futile hopes. For Professor
Thomson asks the question, “ If it is possible among plants to
get a pure thing out of an impure, it may be that for domestic
animals and for man himself the purification of a tainted stock is
not a chimera.” It would have been more charitable to have
warned his readers that before the clean can be obtained from
the unclean, cleanness must first be put in. Professor Biffen,
during his experiments with wheat, did not waft a magician’s
wand over an unclean “ rusted ’’ generation, and lo and behold,
there came forth the clean! Not in this way are such things
accomplished. The immune—the symbolically cleanly—-was
first put in to the “ rusted ”’ generation, by the act of fertilisation.
Of course, Professor Thomson does not say that such wand-waving
feats are possible. But our experience of students and of general
readers—especially of social reformers seeking a justification for
their codes—leads us to believe it possible the passage may
be thus translated. All Professor Thomson desires to state
is that, given a stock which has become tainted, it may be possible
to breed out its taint. But this of course supposes that in addi-
tion to the taint there is some goodness. If the stock is all taint,
and we breed it away, nothing of the stock will be left. And, in
social affairs, we may be apt at the end, after we have paid for
the breeding away, to ask what we have obtained for our money !

We strongly recommend this work to all who are interested
in the momentous and interesting biological questions with
which it deals. Whether we are students, doctors, philanthro-
pists, Hugenists, social reformers, Salvationists, or politicians desir-
ous of the country’s welfare, we should read it, mark it, and in-
wardly digest it, from cover to cover. It is not too much to say
that he who does that will have gained a knowledge of biological
and medical problems and facts wider in their range than it is
possible to obtain in any other single book.

Many of the older conceptions, such as telegony and the
transmission of acquired characters, and the phenomena of rever-
sion, are considered and discussed. There is a chapter on the
history of ‘ Theories of Inheritance,’ another on ‘‘ Heredity and
Disease,’ one on ‘‘ Common Modes of Inheritance,” and a fourth
on the “ Physical Basis of Inheritance.” The more modern
aspect of the subject is described in a chapter on “ Statistical

STUDY OF VARIATION 207

)

Study of Inheritance,” and in one entitled the ‘‘ Experimental
Study of Inheritance.” In this latter chapter an account of
Mendel’s discoveries, of the theoretical interpretations flowing
from them, of the recent elaborations of Mendelism and the
practical bearing of Mendelian results, are given and discussed.
The problem of ‘“‘Sex’’ has a chapter to itself, and so also has
“ Heredity and Development.” This last chapter is essentially
a statement and discussion of Weismann’s theory of the Germ-
Plasm. The final chapter deals with “Social Aspects of Bio-
logical Results.”

There is appended a Bibliography, a Subject-Index to Biblio-
graphy, and an Index. There are forty-nine exceedingly good
illustrations and diagrams, and many of them are coloured.
They should help to render difficult conceptions clear and easy.

G.P.M.

Recent Progress in the Study of Variation, Heredity,

and Evolution. R. 4. Lock, M.A. John Murray,
London. 5s. net. Second Edition. Pp. 334.

THE object of Mr. Lock’s cleverly written book is to give an
account of the modern progress of knowledge relating to heredity,
and to attempt to.render the account intelligible to the general
reader as well as to the more scientific public. In this endeavour
Mr. Lock has admirably succeeded. His statement of some of
the many questions with which he deals, are the clearest of many
that have been written. Some problems are of such a nature
that they may be described in a most laborious fashion and
rendered more complex than they really are, by the treatment
they receive. Professor Johannsen’s theory of the “ pure lines,”
is one of this nature. An unskilful pen would render a statement
of it intolerably complex and hopelessly confusing. Mr. Lock’s
treatment of it recalls our nursery days when we lived in fairy-
land, and all our difficulties vanished by the touch of the fairy-
queen. We read his description and we grasp its meaning while
we do so. And it is the same throughout the book. Indeed,
the criticism we should feel most inclined to make, is that it reads
too easily. Readers are apt to imagine that they know more
than they really do, if they have gathered that knowledge with
too little effort.

The book gives an account of the evidences of Evolution and

of Natural Selection. And, although it is in large measure, a
‘“ Mendelian book,” the author has written an interesting account

208 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of some of the biometrical methods and conclusions, in relation
to variation, evolution and inheritance. A chapter is devoted
to the later aspects of the theory of Mutations and an account of
de Vries’ experiments with evening primroses and with ever-
sporting varieties is given. There is also an interesting chapter
on the work of the older hybridists, Kélreuter, Knight, Herbert,
Gaertner, Naudin and Millardet. These are names that Darwin's
“ Origin of Species ’’’ made familiar to the reading public. The
latter part of Mr. Lock’s book deals with Mendelism, to which
two chapters are devoted, and to the bearing of modern cytology
upon Mendelian problems, which occupies a third chapter.

The last part of the book considers the application of the
conclusions derived from biological investigations, to human
society. And, in this part the author gives an account of the
origin and meaning of the term “ Eugenics.’’ In the chapter
under the title of this term, Mr. Lock has done good service in
bringing before a wider audience Sir Francis Galton’s work on
“Human Twins.” This work was originally published in the
Journal of the Anthropological Institute in 1875, under the title
of ‘‘ The History of Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Powers
of Nature and Nurture.” It has unfortunately been completely
ignored in all discussions upon social problems where it should
have formed their base. It is difficult to believe that the Utopian
ideas, reforms, panaceas, social transformation scenes, or what
other name they may be known by, could have been seriously
preached in the columns of the medical press, in newspapers, in
pamphlets, before Royal Commissions, and before Parliament,
had Sir Francis Galton’s “ History of Twins” been known to
the promulgators and its full stgnificance grasped. Mr. Lock has
rendered a service of the greatest value in thus calling attention
to the existence of what we believe should be regarded as among
some of the most important facts relating to human life. Sir
Francis Galton himself propounded the question whether in
view of the facts revealed by this history of twins, we can believe
that nurture plays any part at all in the determination of the
qualities and conduct of men. For it is but too true that “ The
steady and pitiless march of the hidden weaknesses in our consti-
tutions, through illness to death, is painfully revealed by these
histories of twins.”’ And, as Mr. Lock points out, “‘ From this
evidence (the history of twins) it seems right to conclude that the
hereditary nature of a man is more important than his training
and circumstances in determining his adult mental and physical
equipment. You may educate generation after generation, and
yet the starting-point from which each individual has to begin his
struggle upwards may remain the same.”

ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 209

Mr. Lock concludes this chapter and the book, by quoting a
paragraph from a paper by Professor Karl Pearson, which we
recommend all to read. For, whatever may be the differences
between the Biometricians and the Mendelians, we rejoice in the
fact, that all are agreed, it is impossible by nurture to evolve
“golden conduct out of inherent leaden instincts,’’ which are
born of nature.

Mr. Lock’s book is well illustrated and it contains reproduc-
tions from the portraits of Darwin, de Vries, Galton, Kolreuter

and Mendel.

The Heredity of Acquired Characters in Plants.—By the
Rev. Professor George Henslow, M.A., .F.LS. John
Murray, London. Price 6s. Pp. 107.

Proressor HENsLow is one of the remaining few of a resolute
rearguard. While the large majority of English biologists have
followed Weismann, and have rejected the theory of the trans-
mission of acquired characters either as untenable or unproven,
there yet remains a small band of biologists who still maintain
that this theory is worthy of acceptance. Among these, Professor
Henslow expounds the theory from the botanical side, and
Professor Gadow and Mr. J. T. Cunningham from the zoological
side; and among botanists there are others who occupy a
neutral territory.

“The object of the present book is to prove that Evolu-
tion—so far as plants are concerned—depends upon the
inheritance of acquired characters.’ Professor Henslow
describes a large number of examples, which he believes demon-
strate “that new and changed structures in plants do arise as
acquired characters, and that they can be hereditarily trans-
mitted, and so become fixed as varietal or specific characters.”
He also contends that these examples prove the power of plants
to adapt themselves during their development by responding to
new conditions.

We are afraid not many biologists will accept Professor
Henslow’s conclusions, but before these are commented upon, it
is only fair to consider the merits of the book apart from the
particular attitude it assumes towards a once much debated ques-
tion. Itis a work which can be well recommended to every student
of nature. It is full of most interesting facts relating to the many

210 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

adaptations and responses of plants to a changeful environment.
The illustrative examples—which Professor Henslow of course
regards as “illustrative proofs ’’—of direct adaptation are culled
from a wide range of plants and plant organs. The structure of
stems, spines, and aquatic leaves; the habits and structure of
climbing plants, of succulent plants, of Alpine and Arctic plants ;

of epiphytes, parasites, and saprophytes; the habits and form
of swollen roots and tuberous organs ; the phenomena of degener-
ation, and the various considerations relating to the origin of
monocotyledons, are all called upon to produce their evidence.
There are many very excellent illustrations showing the differ-
ences produced in plants as responses to varying environments.
The type is large and clear and the paper good.

Having thus recommended the book as a statement of an
interesting series of facts, perhaps we may claim the privilege of
criticising some of the deductions. We will first consider Professor
Henslow’s main deduction. He asks us to believe that species
have arisen under “ the joint action of the two great factors of
evolution—variability and environment—without the aid of
natural selection.”’ He contends that plants directly respond to
changes in the environment and that in time these changed
structures or activities are hereditarily transmitted. He denies
in a quite unc ompromising manner that evolution depends at all
upon the elimination of “ unfit’ organisms and the maintenance
or persistence of the “ fit.” Granting for the moment, that plants
may become permanently modified by responding to the direct
action of the environment, and that this change may be hereditarily
transmitted, has Professor Henslow ever inquired how this capa-
city to thus respond came into being ? The wide plasticity of
plants is an obvious thing. But how did that plasticity arise
and how has it been maintained in the vast majority of plants ?
Are all plants equally plastic ? Plasticity is as much an inherent
quality of a plant as its chlorophyll, its scent, and its form.
And is not this plasticity—the capacity of responding to a
changing environment—itself the product of evolution by
Natural Selection, a matter of the survival of the fittest ? Let
us imagine two hypothetical plants, both at the seedling stage,
placed in a nearly sterile soil, and in a diffuse light. One of these
plants can respond to this harsh environment, and adjusts its
metabolism to the conditions. The other cannot, and its kata-
bolism goes on at a pace which is consonant with a richer food
supply than that available. Clearly the latter must perish,
while the former, stunted in growth, survives. The stunted
erowth is not an effect of the direct action of the impoverished
soil, it is merely the manifestation of the inherent capacity of the
plant to respond to external conditions. And this particular

ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 211

innate capacity, the evidence seems to us to show, is the product
of evolution by the action of Natural Selection. Professor
Henslow, of course, may reply that there does not exist any such
unresponsive plant. But we think if he will appeal to known
facts, he will find plenty of evidence demonstrating the existence
of unresponsive plants.

Let us illustrate the argument by an appeal to these facts.
The Sweet Woodruff is a British plant which lives in woods and
shady places. It is not uncommon, as an undergrowth, in some
beech forests. In such forests when thickly crowded, there is a
deep gloom or shade that would be fatal to other green plants.
But in this semi-darkness the Woodruff thrives quite well. That
which is a harsh or fatal environment to other plants is to it a
necessity of its existence. Now, when for commercial reasons,
some of the beech trees are felled, and the forest is cleared in order
to let in more light and air, what happens to the woodruff? If
Professor Henslow’s contention is true that it is a universal pro-
perty of living protoplasm to respond to direct influences of a
changed environment, then the woodruff should adapt itself
to the new environment of a stronger hight and more abundant
air, and survive under the changed conditions. But it does not.
It perishes. It is inherently unfit to survive these new conditions,
and it suffers elimination in consequence. It is the same with
the flax. It can live in the valleys, but if taken to the mountains,
where the light is stronger, it perishes. The plants now growing
in the desert of Kaits, in Ceylon, illustrate the same thing, but
more cogently. They have been hving under desert conditions
for thousands of years, but yet they have acquired none of the
characters that belong to desert plants, except a compactness of
habit. They do not show sunken stomato, thick cuticle, and
succulent parenchyma. And the only desert peculiarity which
they possess, namely, their dwarf stature, as shown by Helter-
mann’s observations, is lost when they are removed from the
desert and planted in garden soil. The influence of the desert
conditions has not changed the characters of these plants, for
they do not possess that combination of desert characters which
is the diagnostic quality of desert plants.

These phenomena and the whole range of responses which
Professor Henslow adduces in his book, including M. Ph. Eber-
hart’s experiments with woody stems, and Dr. Reid’s statement
concerning the Kauri pines of New Zealand, seem to us to be but
different manifestations of the one thing, the inherent capacity
which most plants have of responding to their changing environ-
ment. But all plants do not possess this capacity in the same
degree or in the same way. It is a character which has been

212 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

evolved by Natural selection operating through the medium of
spontaneous germinal variations. Those plants which have
mutated in the direction of acquiring this plasticity can live under
diverse conditions, because they can respond to them; those
which have not thus acquired it, like the woodruff and the flax,
can only live under certain limited environments, because they
cannot respond to wider changes in their surroundings.

In one part of his book, Professor Henslow asks us for the
evidence of elimination of the unfit. He asserts “ that Nature
does not produce seedling plnats possessing structural and func-
tional defects.’”’ We have not far to go to find it. Any seed of
Pinus will provide it. In this seed, at a certain stage of develop-
ment, there are from sixteen to twenty embryos. At the germin-
ation of the seed only one comes forth as a seedling. The others
have been eliminated ; their metabolism fell behind the pace set by
the victor, they were unfit, and they perished. Such illustrations
can be multiplied and can be culled from the Animal Kingdom too.

Those who are interested in these problems should of course
read the case for both sides. And, from the botanical standpoint
of the transmission of acquired characters, the reader cannot do
better than to carefully consider the facts described by Professor
Henslow in his book.

The Causation of Sex.—By E. Rumley Dawson, L.R.C.P.,
Lond., M.R.C.S., England. H. K. Lewis, London; 6s.
net, pp. XII. + 196.

THE problem of Sex has ever been one of the most fascinating
of biological problems. It has attracted to itself the attention of
both eminent zoologists and botanists, in this and other countries,
during the current and in past centuries. Around the relatively
few facts known concerning it, many hypotheses—too often
incorrectly called theories—have been woven. There are so
many of these that at the beginning of the last century it was
calculated more than five hundred of them had been framed
at one time or another. In the face of such an army of
hypotheses, one feels that Dr. Rumley Dawson's claim to have
framed a new one is courageous indeed. It is certain’ that it
departs from the great majority of the older hypotheses in that
it excludes the influence of environmental factors in determining
Sex, and falls back wholly upon the inherent structure of the right
and left ovaries of the female.

CAUSATION OF SEX 213

The older hypotheses were based upon various assumptions,
or upon limited evidence, and were born of a preconceived belief
that the influence of the environment was practically all-powerful
in the determination of Sex, as well as of other characters. The
influence of warmth, of geographical elevation, of quality and
quantity of food, of the relative age of parents, the freshness or
staleness of the germ-cells at the time of fertilisation, the social
rank and habits of the parents, the relative constitutional vigour
or sexual ardentcy of the father and mother, the number of
spermatozoa taking part in conception, and other factors, have
all been pressed into service in the attempt to explain the deter-
mination of Sex. But in this, as in other biological problems,
the day of the environmental dominancy is coming to its end.
It is becoming more clearly recognised that an organism is pre-
destined in its structure and its habits, for these latter are but
the manifestations of the hidden factors contained in the fertilised
egg-cell out of which the organism arises.

Dr. Rumley Dawson’s theory is in harmony with modern
investigation in so far as he ascribes the determination of Sex
to the inherent nature and structure of the egg-cells. But he
departs from our modern conceptions in that he affirms the
impotence of the male sex-cell to determine Sex at all. He
says: “ It will come as a serious blow to the vanity of man to
know that this question must be answered with a decided nega-
tive. Man, or the male, has nothing to do with the causation of
the sex of the future child.” He supports this conclusion by
adducing evidence which shows that certain women have
had only sons or daughters by different husbands, and that
certain female animals have had offspring all of one sex by several
different males. This evidence is certainly suggestive, but it 1s
hardly comprehensive enough to render it conclusive. On the
other hand, recent Mendelian experiments* tend to show that
the male does influence the determination of sex. It may be
possible that in some cases his influence is uniformly in one direction,
and it may be the peculiar structure of the female egg which
differentiates in the determination of Sex. But that does not
justify us in asserting “ that the male has nothing to do with
the causation of Sex.” To take a familiar analogy from domestic
life. It may be true that the mere man has no influence at all
in determining whether his wife's new dress shall be pink or
green, or striped purple, green, and white. That may be decided
wholly by the peculiar temper of the lady. But we imagine that
the cheque book of the husband does influence the possibility
of the lady having the dress at all. In the absence of a ae

*See Mr. C.C, Hurst’ S paper on “ Sendeien a Sex,” page 195 of this
Journal.

214 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

there is no dress of any colour whatsoever; and, similarly,
without a male there will be no offspring, either daughters or
sons. This part of the theory asks us to accept too much. It
asks us to believe that there is a fundamental divergence in the
nature of male and female sex-cells. We do not think that the
evidence as a whole lends any support to that assumption.

The central part of Dr. Rumley Dawson’s theory is that the
right. ovary of the woman forms egg-cells which carry the male
characters, while the left one forms egg-cells which carry the female
characters. Consequently, an individual who developes from a
right ovum must be a male, and one who developes from a left
ovum will be a female. He then further postulates that ovula-
tion occurs from each ovary on alternate months, so that if
conception occurs on one month a boy may be born, while if it
occurs the month after or the month before a girl will result. In
support of his theory he adduces a great deal of very interesting
facts, mainly of a clinical nature. And it can be said that he
has produced a strong prima facie case in its support.

But there are certain general considerations which tell against
it. The theory implies that there is a fundamental difference in
the structure of the right and left ovaries. It imphies a physio-
logical and structural asymmetry of a very primary nature.
it: may be true that such an asymmetry can be demonstrated,
because the right ovary is slightly larger than the left. But an
asymmetry of mere size does not necessarily imply the same
thing as one of diverse qualities. This latter asymmetry can only
be due to some early asymmetrical cell division in the develop-
ment of the individual. Are we justifiedan believing that such
an asymmetry is a normal event in the structure of woman? The
assumed existence of alternative ovulation is again another
hypothesis which involves this asymmetric physiological activity.
The evidence derived from lower mammualia does not to any great
degree support it. Dr. Rumley Dawson, however, raises woman
to a pedestal, and will not admit that her physiology is akin to
that of lower animals. Of course, the objection to the theory on
the ground of asymmetry is, it must be remembered, wholly an
a prior’ one. And very marked asymmetrical arrangements are
known, as quite normal affairs, in both Man and lower forms, In
birds and dogfishes there is only one ovary, and in the former only
one oviduct isae and, in Man, the functional speech centre in
the brain is situated in the left side.

The reader must, however, read the book himself, and con-
sider the evidence brought forward on behalf of the theory.
The author also considers various objections which have been
brought forward against his theory. He has collected a large
amount of clinical information, and has brought it together in

PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 215

the form of an interesting volume. Those who are anxious for
the advent of a son or a daughter should certainly read the book,
and see whether Dr. Dawson’s prophecies always come true.
For if his theory be true, it is possible to forecast the sex of the
expected child, and, therefore, by instituting adequate measures
to determine events in accordance with our wishes. If his theory
will pass successfully through the crucible of experience and careful
analysis, it is not too much to assert that it will be a theory of
very great importance in relation to some affairs of human life.

The Problem of Evolution. —Zrich Wasmann, S.J. Authorised
translation from the German. Kegan, Paul, Trench,
Triibner, & Co., London. 6s. net. Pp. 266.

Tuts is a book dealing with scientific problems and written by a
Jesuit Father. It is true that Father Wasmann claims also to be
a zoologist, and an authority on the parasites of ants and termites.
But it is clear that the theologian looms larger than the zoologist ;
the former stands in the background as far as possible, and this
is of the nature of a mountain range, the foreground being the
atmosphere, pervaded with a mist. The book has been written
with a purpose, one which is often designated by the title ‘* The
reconciliation of theology and science.’ The book appears to be
a publication of a series of addresses delivered in Berlin, before
an audience containing a number of scientific men. At the
completion of the series a discussion took place. The report of
this discussion forms the second part of the book.

The attitude of the author towards the doctrine of Hvolution
is indicated very early in the book. When dealing with the
various modifications of different parasites infesting different
species of ants and termites he comes to the conclusion as the
result of his personal studies that ‘‘ The principle of the theory of
evolution is the only one which supplies us with a natural explana-
tion of these phenomena, and therefore we accept it. But to
what extent are we to accept it? Just as far as its application
is supported by actual proofs.” Then the author proceeds to tell
us just how far, in his opinion, the evidence does extend. We
will indicate this extent in his own words: “ In the case of the
species of the same genus, the genera of the same family, and
often for the families of the same order—even for orders of the
same class, the probabilities are in support of evolution.” ‘“ But
the higher we ascend and the more closely we approach the great

216 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

chief types of the animal world, the scantier becomes the evi-
dence.” It is needless for us to indicate after this that Father
Wasmann raises Man above nature and refuses to regard him as a
product of evolution. He even denies that Zoology has any claim
to express a conclusion as to the origin of Man. Psychology
alone among the natural sciences has that right. And, beyond
Psychology, Theology only has a right to pronounce a judgement
“as to the way man came into being.” We are informed Psycho-
logy teaches us that “‘ the soul of man is not only essentially
different from the soul of an animal, but is a simple spiritual
being. Such a being can come into existence only by way of
creation. Therefore the soul of man cannot owe its origin to
evolution.” We are living in the rationalism and philosophy of
the 20th century, but this recalls to us the methods of the Scho-
lastics of medizval times.

Father Wasmann, who acknowledges the evolution of lower
forms, has overlooked the fact that the conclusions relating to
Man’s evolution are based upon evidence identical in its nature
with that which he admits is conclusive for these lower
forms. If this evidence is true for one it is as true for the other.
The introduction of an obvious prejudice, which is born of an
unjustifiable pride, into the problem of Man’s origin may be good
Theology but it is bad Science.

The book will, of course, appeal to many ; it will appeal to
those who seek for consolation and to whom Truth is only accept-
able when it is sweet. Those who desire solace in the contempla-
tion that ‘“‘ Man is a fallen Angel,” rather than in believing he
is passing upwards to a higher state and to nobler realms of intelli-
gence and morality, will find in this book the comfort which they
seek. But, for our part, we feel a nobler pride in believing that
the evolutionary Angel is to be the goal of our nobler future,
rather than that it has been the lamented loss of a wicked past.

In all countries and in all times, the Church—under whatever
denomination she may manifest herself—has high functions and
noble purposes to fulfil. And surely she must recognise that it is
better for her and for the populations she should guide, to con-
sider more exclusively these functions, rather aon to intrude
prejudice or dogma into realms that do not concern her, unless it
be to give her light and guidance.

We should like to discuss this book more fully were this a
fitting occasion. But the reader will find an interesting discussion
contributed to by distinguished members of Berlin Society in
the second part of the book. The reader will also find that it is
freely annotated by Father Wasmann.

Taylor, Garnett, Evans & Co. Ltd., Printers, London, Manchester, and Reddish

Bi oxdel Journal

February 1911

1. A TRANSLATION.

GREGOR MENDEL. T. y. Wiesner. Translation by Countess
Bertha de Scheler. ;

2. PAPERS READ TO THE MENDEL SOCIETY.
A SKETCH OF MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK. D. J. Scourfield
INHERITANCE OF ‘'THUMB-FINGERNESS.” —H. Drinkwater

Oi TANBY: CATS. cen a ee foal aU a Re A Posoek
3. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES.
INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES... __...._ Robert Bunsow

EDITORIAL NOTE ON Mr. BUNSOW’S ARTICLE.

PLEA FOR OPERATION OF A MORE VIRILE SENTIMENT
IN HUMAN AFFAIRS.

A CRITICISM ven 43 Louis Cobbett
A REJOINDER, together se an i tndicganent of the Boarding-out

System of Pauper Children —... .. Geo. P. Mudge
A CRITICISM at a ee ” Miss H. M. Wodehouse
A REJOINDER re Ne Sa as «Geo. P. Mudge

4. METHODS AND RESULTS.

NOTE REGARDING VARIATION noes" THE SINGLE COMBS
OF FOWLS —... ie ... Raymond Pearl

A REPLY .... “ ae Side vi .. ‘*Ardent Mendelian”

5. MISCELLANEA.

APOGAMY AND HYBRIDISATION. -
A NEW THEORY OF SEX HEREDITY.
NOTE ON PARTHENOGENESIS ... ae . F. J. Chittenden
A REPLY =... “s : Mee: Gee Haig Thomas

THE INCIDENCE OF “PLAGUE "AND ‘THE RELATIVE. IN-
SENSIBILITY OF HOOLIGANS TO PAIN.

6. REVIEWS OF BOOKS. -

7. SIR FRANCIS GALTON.
AN APPRECIATION.

Copyright : All Rights Reserved

Printed and Published for the Mendel Society. by

TAYLOR, GARNETT, EVANS, & Co., Ltd., 54, Fleet Street, London, E.C.,
5 and Manchester; England

Agents in the United States of America :—
G. E. STECHERT & Go,, 151-155; West 25th Street, New York

2 , $ Price 62 cents nett

THE MENDEL JOURNAL

CONTENTS

1. A TRANSLATION.

GREGOR MENDEL. Illustrated. T.v. Wiesner. Trans- Page
lation by Countess Bertha de Scheler ses : 3

2. PAPERS READ TO THE MENDEL SOCIETY.
A SKETCH OF MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK. _Iilus-

trated 3 ee D. J. Scourfield 15
INHERITANCE OF “ THUMB. FINGERNESS. ” A case
of Mendelian Inheritance in Man. Illustrated by three

. radiographs and two photographs a H. Drinkwater 35

ON TABBY CATS. Illustrated ee .. RR. I. Pocock 53

3. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES.

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES, with Pedigree Charts.
Robert Bunsow 74

EDITORIAL NOTE ON Mr. BUNSOW’S ARTICLE _... 94

PLEA FOR OPERATION OF A MORE VIRILE SENTI-
MENT IN HUMAN AFFAIRS.

A CRITICISM _... io re Louis Cobbett 103

A REJOINDER, together ie an Br dnuent of the Board- \
ing-out Syeteu of Pauper Children. Geo. P. Mudge 107

A CRITICISM ee rer Miss H. M. Wodehouse 131
A REJOINDER A ee Geo. P. Mudge 141

4. METHODS AND RESULTS.
NOTE REGARDING VARIATION IN THE SINGLE

COMBS OF FOWLS ..... ao a Raymond Pearl 189
A REPEY adie Poe ee ies i Ardent Mendelian” 195
5. MISCELLANEA.
APOGAMY AND HYBRIDISATION ... ~ Sak ve 202
A NEW THEORY OF SEX HEREDITY _.... Sas iss 203.
NOTE ON PARTHENOGENESIS ... F. J. Chittenden 205.
A REPLY .... ; as Mrs. Rose Haig Thomas 203

THE INCIDENCE. OF PLAGUE AND THE RELATIVE
INSENSIBILITY OF HOOLIGANS TO PAIN.

Geo. P. Mudge 208
6. REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

MENDEL’S PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY. W. Bateson 213

THE FAMILY AND THE NATION. William Cecil
Dampier Whetham and Catherine Durning Whetham _... 219

CHARLES DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Edward Bagnall Poulton 227

MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY
Frederick Adams Wood 232

HERBERT SPENCER AND ANIMAL EVOLUTION

Gilbert Charles Bourne 239
7. SIR FRANCIS GALTON.

AN APPRECIATION ee P ‘er bys vas 243
Page | Page
“aaa of errior erp a see oe. 2 | Chart of Height, Span and Reach ow 48
ortrait o regor endel . ‘ its 14 | : ‘ ce
Pedigree Chart of “‘ Thumb- fingerness’ rer 34 Photograph of Striped Tabby Cat “ ee
Bones of the Fingers .. se: 37 a Blotched 7 oe 56
ae eeh of * yg fingered” "hand Pedigree of the Racehorse ‘‘ Postumus’’... 85
fo ot “ss 47 Pedigree Chart of the grey Arabian Stallion
Photograph of Thumb-fingered ” hand ... 39 * Celle-Amurath’ and his a
», and *Holstein-Amurath”’ ... 90

normal hand a ae ae ae 41

iat

INUMENT.

NDEL MOC

x
“4

THE ME

eadel J ournal

No. 2 February, 1911

GREGOR MENDEL.

AN ARTICLE
On the eve of the unveiling of the statue erected
to his memory.

By T. v. WIESNER,

Member of the House of Peers, and the Academy of Science,
Vienna.

(From the Neue Freie Presse, Vienna.)
Translation by the Countess Bertha de Scheler.

In front of the Kémigskloster (King’s Monastery), a
monument will be unveiled to morrow, the statue
of Gregor Mendel, surrounded by a garden, which is
intended to perpetuate the memory of a unique and
deserving man, and to adorn the town. ‘This beauti-
ful statue was executed in Vienna by Theodor Charle-
mont, and more than one reader of these lines may
have seen it in the Master’s Studio, and been charmed
with the pleasing plastic production. The artist
represents Mendel in his best years, in the clerical
dress of the ‘“‘ Altbrunner Augustine Monks.” ‘The
position of the statue and the monastic attire of its
subject will impress all those who look upon it with
the idea that this must be a man who had done great
work for his Institute, or, as a priest had particularly
earned the love of the populace. For there are many
who are ignorant of Mendel’s epoch-making achieve-
ments, and his name as yet is far from having become

4 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

popular. But the erection of the imposing Mendel
Monument was decided upon for other reasons.

It is true that Mendel, first as priest and finally
(1868-1884) as Prelate of the Briinner Augustine
foundation, did good work, and that as possessor of a
vote (Virilstimme) in the Moravian Parliament, he
was successfully active ; in his younger years also as
teacher at the newly-founded State School (Staats-
realschule) he instructed and trained grateful pupils in
Natural History; but the greatest successes of his
work, which he himself with his natural modesty and
unselfishness hardly suspected, were of a very different
kind. At his death, about a quarter of a century
ago, many obituaries of him were published in
Moravia, where he worked, and in Silesia, where his
cradle stood. But they only spoke of the honoured
Master, of the good priest, and of his work in the
Moravian Parliament ; that in him a great naturalist
was carried to the grave, nobody who knew him even
suspected, and in the whole world all were ignorant
of the fact. And now not only Brinn but the biolo-
gists and botanists of the civilised world do homage
to him. This is shown by the history of the monu-
ment, which to-morrow will be unveiled. Even
though the Kénigskloster contributed largely to the
erection of the monument, and also the land of
Moravia, the Ministry of Public Instruction, and
several large-hearted inhabitants of Briinn, yet the
contributions poured in from the whole world, not
only from all parts of Europe, but also from America

ABBOT GREGOR MENDEL 5

and Japan, as soon as the intended scheme of honour-
ing Mendel was made known.

Mendel’s fate as an investigator shaped itself
very strangely. We see in him a man who in his
thoughts and works in important biological subjects
was far in advance of his times, and a noble, modest,
retiring personality, who did not in the least try to
attain scientific celebrity. So his fate ordained that
late, and long after his death, he should be recognised.
The great question of heredity he studied by means
of producing hybrids in plants. The question had
long been raised, especially since Darwin. But the
answer to this question had been on the one side
crudely empirical, and on the other too largely
speculative, so that in reality it was very unsatis-
factory and of a very hypothetical character. Mendel
took the only right way which could solve the question,
for unlike his predecessors he did not experiment in
a vague or restricted fashion and try to clear up the
tangled events by hypothesis, but he systematically
made the simplest trials, interpreting their results by
the clearest logic. His observations were based on
numbers, and he pervaded all with a mathematical
precision. He was dominated by the same spirit as
the great Julius Robert Meyer, the discoverer of the
law of the Conservation of Energy, who once said :
“A single number is of more value than a whole
library of hypotheses.”

Mendel had, as I have already said, a mathe-
matical head, and I dwell on this again, so as to put
Mendel’s position as biologist in the nght light. It

6 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

is becoming clearer that the methods of investigation
for Biology are the same as those proved correct for
other branches of Natural Science, namely, that
great problems must be examined with mathematical
accuracy, and be solved with mathematical clearness ;
the more the method of working recedes from mathe-
matical accuracy, the more uncertain, doubtful, and
phantastical the results will be. Mendel is a luminary
of the first rank in his conception of biological prob-
lems, who, through discovering definite laws of
Heredity, has given the greatest impulse to the study
of the subject. Numberless men of research,
zoologists and botanists, have been encouraged by
Mendel’s teaching. Many volumes could be filled
with work based on his results. Herewith the realm
of his achievements is not exhausted, rather there
remains the best part to be told of his work. By the
simplification of the method of attacking problems,
by the mathematical spirit with which these are
handled, he has become a guide for exact biological
research in the subject of Inheritance, although the
latter is still in its infancy.

The Mendel Monument is of white marble. Mendel
stands upright, looking from a hedge of flowers ito
the distance. The plants which climb and are inter-
twined are somewhat conventional, but one recognises
their species—they are peas and beans, which the
artist chose fittingly, because the fundamental trials
on which Mendel built up his laws of Heredity were
especially made with these plants.

ABBOT GREGOR MENDEL i

Even if I cannot now enter more deeply into his
researches, yet I will indicate the essence of his
observations as simply as I can. In the beds of the
Monastery garden at Altbriinn he cultivated white-
flowering and purple-flowering peas: he then polli-
nated them by artificial crossing, and the seed pro-
duced he used for a fresh culture. Now, what
happened through this crossing ? According to the
then prevailing opinion, one expected in these hybrid
peas pinkish (light purple) flowers whose colour would
be a mixture or blend of the original colours of the
two flowers. But the trial turned out quite differ-
ently. The flowers of the first generation were all
purple, and in this generation the white-flowering
character seems to have entirely disappeared. As a
matter of fact, this character had not disappeared
but remained latent in this generation. In the
second one it reappeared, for both purple and white
flowering peas were present. In respect to this, the
following marvellous behaviour showed itself. In all
following generations when the plants were self-
pollinated, from white-flowering peas only white-
flowering peas appeared, but the purple-flowering
peas divided themselves through their seed into
white and purple flowering peas and exactly in the
proportion of one to three respectively.

This example shows the simplest case of crossing,
as only one character, the colour of the flower, is
different in the two parent forms. Naturally, how-
ever, in other crosses two or more characters were
different—tor example, colour of the flower, shape of

8 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the seed, colour of the seed, &c. Mendel, in tracing
these relations, has got as far as it is possible to get,
as he solved the question quite generally, so that now
every single case, complicated as it may be, is already
decided by this general law, namely, can be calcu-
lated in advance.* Mendel’s general law of Heredity
is as mathematically and accurately precise as, for
example, Newton’s law of gravitation. One can
calculate in advance with the help of this general law
ot Heredity and from the number of characters shown
by the crossing, the number of possible hybrid forms,
and the number of the descendants which will
remain constant. The discovery of laws expressed
with such mathematical exactness means the highest
step that can be reached in the investigation of Nature.
Mendel published the results of his long years of
patient researches in 1865, and yet almost through a
whole generation his works remained entirely ignored.
One must ask oneself how it is possible that Mendel’s
discoveries, which to-day are declared classical and
epoch-making, could remain without having received
immediate recognition.

We must in large measure ascribe it to the modesty
and retiring nature of Mendel. He published his

essays on “ Heredity ” in the Journal of the Society
of Natural Research of Briinn, which, with ail

deference to this Society, let it be said, was a poor

*It is to be supposed that what Professor T. v. Wiesner desired
to express here, was not that the study of inheritance was
finally settled, as the sentence might lead one to believe, but that
simply in all cases where it can be shown that the Mendelian law is
operating, the results can be certainly predicted.—EDITOR,

ABBOT GREGOR MENDEL 9

choice. It is said, had he published his works
at one of the big academies, his law would have
been recognised quickly. This explanation is, how-
ever, not sufficient. We know to-day something
about the correspondence of Mendel, and that he
communicated to the great botanist and biologist
Karl von Nageli all the details of his discoveries.
But Nageli, who was through his acuteness rightly
much esteemed as a naturalist, not only did not
recognise the value and far-reaching importance of
Mendel’s law, but he even apparently ignored it.
Science, however, had to progress, and it was not
until some fragments of Mendel’s treasures of know-
ledge had been discovered by others that attention
was attracted to the great Master himself. Then
enquiries into past writings on the matter, instituted
to see 1f some predecessor had not previously got hold
of the thread of these phenomena, as yet but frag-
mentarily known, resulted after long research in the
discovery of Mendel’s work. It was soon apparent
how deep and embracing, and far in advance of his
time, or even of the generation which succeeded him,
were his studies on Heredity.

As the result of this discovery a wholly unknown
man became suddenly a famous celebrity. Mendel’s
law was enunciated and discussed everywhere,
especially in England, where principally his experi-
ments brought forth fruit and were most fully
appreciated. Few serious refutations met the law.
On the contrary, a universal enthusiasm lifted the
man, who was in the deepest sense modest, to a
pinnacle of fame which only few attain.

10 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Not long after the publication of Mendel’s experi-
ments in the modestly planned and unobtrusively
executed essays which explained the law of Heredity,
and which slept so long among the journals of a
society little known in the world, so that in scientific
circles absolutely no notice was taken of them, they
were accepted in the celebrated collection which
is edited by Ostwald under the name of “ Classical
Authors on the exact Natural Sciences.”

Here Mendel’s name shines beside those of
the greatest scientists who have worked in the
field of Natural Science; beside Maipighi, Knight,
Briicke, Theodor de Saussure, and Pasteur. Now
the capital of the land of Moravia can rejoice in
possessing within its walls the statue of a man who
laboured here many years, and created a work which
has brought appreciation and even fame to Austrian
Natural History Science Research, as few others
have done, and whom we can with every right place
beside such men as Rokitansky, Briicke, Endlicher,
and Franz Unger.

To conclude, I would mention that Mendel’s
law has not alone a theoretical interest. In our
time, in which all the technical and practical sciences,
aided by Natural Science, progress with giant strides,
theory is quickly transformed into practical applica-
tion. See how Bacteriology, one of the most modern
sciences, seized hold of Medicine, Hygiene, and the
technique of fermentation, and how quickly the
discoveries of Uertz led to wireless telegraphy,
and how rapidly the Réntgen rays became useful to

ABBOT GREGOR MENDEL 11

the science of healing. Like these, the laws of
Heredity determined by the hybridisation of plants
find their practical application in the cultivation
of plants and breeding of animals. In the place of
empiricism a rational breeding of plants and animals
can now be based on science, thanks to Mendel’s
discoveries, in all those cases at present in which the
crossing of races is desired.

Briinn, Ist Oct., 1910.

The capital of Moravia is already decorated to
celebrate the memory of Gregor Mendel, and to greet
the illustrious guests who will arrive from Austria and
foreign countries. The following scientists are ex-
pected: Professor Bateson, Cambridge ; Dr. Lotsy,
Haarlem; Professor A. von Tschermak, Vienna ;
Professor Cieslar, Vienna; Professor Baur, Berlin ;
Professor Schindler, Briinn; Professor Punnett,
Cambridge ; Professors Grobben, Hatschek, and von
Wettstein, Vienna; Professor Kunsker, Breslau ;
Professor Fruwirth, Vienna; Professor Molisch and
Professor Pinter, Vienna; Professor Dr. Cuboni,
Rome; Professor Dr. Mikocsh, Briinn; Professor
Honig, Briinn; Philippe de Vilmorin, Paris; Pro-
fessor R. Muller, Tetschar, Liebwert; Professors
Walleschek, Drs. Porsch and Brunnthaler, Vienna,
and many others. The head of the local committee,
Dr. Stefan, Baron v. Haupt-Buckenrode, Professors
Tschermak and IItis, have prepared everything which
could make the Mendel celebration successful and

12 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

international. The statue is on the Altbriinner
Monastery Place, which after to-morrow will be called.
Gregor Mendel Place. The figure looks towards the
Augustiner Foundation, where he lived and worked
for several years. The background is enclosed as a
garden. The well-known sculptor, Theodor Charle-
mont, received, after a competition, the order to
execute the monument, in 1907. On a simple base of
granite is set the pedestal, which like the statue is
made of Laasar marble. Gregor Mendel is standing
in clerical dress, over life size, the right foot stands
rather forward, the fine head slightly inclined to the
right ; the head is uncovered. With both hands the
scientist touches common beans and peas, which
creep up a little wall to the side. The favourite
subjects of Gregor Mendel are conventionalised and
are raised to a clearly visible part of the whole monu-
ment. Flowers and pods fall over the wall. The
artist only had a photograph of the scientist at his
disposal, notwithstanding which the work is full of
life ; upon the face there is an expression of amla-
bility and kind-heartedness. On the front side of
the base is a shield with the inscription :—

“To the Natural Scientist and Investigator.”

P. GREGOR MENDEL.

To the left of the shield kneels a nude boy, in slight
relief ; to the right, a girl; they clasp each other’s
right hands at the feet of Gregor Mendel. This
decoration of the base is intended to show delicately
the influence of Mendel’s theories on human life

ABBOT GREGOR MENDEL 13

also. Herr Charlemont has achieved in this work,
which was especially difficult on account of the
symbolism required, a noteworthy work of art, and
warm thanks are due to him from all men of science.

Greeting of the guests in the Briinner “ German
House,” Ist October, 1910.

This evening the reception of the guests took
place in the German House. Dr. v. Haupt-Bucken-
rode, Professor v. Tschermak, and Professor IItis
received the numerous ladies and gentlemen. From
the birthplace of Mendel, Heintzendorf, appeared the
only male representative of the family left, Mayor
Mendel; also several nephews and nieces of the
celebrated man came.

14 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

ABBOT GREGOR MENDEL.

\
I
}
H
‘

PAPERS READ 10 THE MENDEL SOCIETY.

A SKETCH OF MENDEL’S LIFE AND
WORK.

An Address delivered to the Mendel Society on June
6th, IgIo.
By D. J. SCOURFIELD.

1. INTRODUCTION.

ALMosT exactly ten years ago the well-known experi-
mental botanists de Vries, Correns and Tschermak
independently made a most important discovery.
It was not the discovery of a new scientific fact,
however, but the unearthing of a little paper by one
Gregor Mendel, which had been published as far
back as the year 1866. We can imagine their
astonishment as they read that old paper to find
that it actually contained the clue, set out with
almost mathematical precision, to many of the
puzzles they themselves had been struggling with
in the course of their work. They lost no time in
making known their discovery, and thus was inaugu-
rated what, from the point of view of the study of
heredity, may justly be termed the Mendelian era.

At the present day, as we all know by experience,
the name of Mendel and such words and phrases as
‘““Mendelism,” ‘‘Mendel’s Law,” ‘‘Mendelian principles, ”
“Mendelian ratios,” ‘Mendelian facts,’’ are continually

B

16 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

forcing themselves upon our notice, sometimes in the
most unlikely places. And yet, in spite of all that
has been said and done around the name of Mendel
during the past decade, it is doubtful whether very
many even of those who take a real interest in
biological matters have a clear idea of who Mendel
was and what he did. It is in the hope that
another brief account of his life and work may be
useful to some who have not hitherto had an oppor-
tunity of going into the subject that this paper has
been written.*

2, A SHort Account oF MENDEL’s LIFE.

Mendel was born at the village of Heinzendortl,
near Odrau, in Austrian Silesia, on the 22nd July,
1822. His parents and grandparents were all natives
of the same place, and it is known that the Mendel
family had been established there from at least the
seventeenth century. Young Gregor, or rather
Johann, as he was then called, Gregor being only
an adopted and not his baptismal name, at first
attended the local school at Heinzendorf, but at
eleven years of age he was sent to school at Leipnik,
and subsequently to the gymnasia at Troppau and
Olmiitz. It is a sure sign of the exceptional ability
shown by Mendel in his early student days that he
should have been enabled by his parents to continue
his studies so long, for his family was by no means

* Those who wish for further information about Mendel and his
work, together with the principal results of recent research on
Mendelian lines, should consult Bateson’s ‘‘ Mendel’s Principles of
Heredity ” (Cambridge University Press, 1909), a work to which the author
of the present sketch desires to express his great indebtedness.

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 17

wealthy, his father being but a small peasant
proprietor.

In 1843, Mendel, being then twenty-one, obtained
admission to the Augustine monastery, known as
the Kénigskloster, at Briinn, the capital of Moravia.
For the next eight years he was largely engaged in
taking part in the educational work which in those
days formed an important part of the functions of
the ‘“‘ Kloster.”” During this period he was ordained
a priest (1847), and he also commenced to make
experiments on plants in the garden of the monastery,
a line of work which was to prove so fruitful a few
years later.

From 1851 to 1853 Mendel went through a further
course of study in mathematics, physics, and the
natural sciences at the Vienna University, being
aided in this case by the Ko6nigskloster, another
proof, if one were needed, that he was a man of
marked ability. On his return to Brinn he again
took up his educational duties, acting as a teacher
in the ‘“ Realschule,” a. sphere. of work in which he
is said to have been very successful. At the same
time he devoted himself with extraordinary strenuous-
ness to various lines of scientific investigation,
especially to experimental work on the hybridisation
of plants. It was during this period, 1854-1868,
that all his most important scientific work was done.

In 1868 Mendel became Abbot or Pralat of the
Kénigskloster, and, owing to the mcreased respon-
sibilities of his new position, and especially to the

18 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

worries of a protracted resistance to what he con-
sidered an unjust law imposing special taxes upon
the property of religious houses, he seems to have
found but little time for further scientific investiga-
tions. He died on the 6th January, 1884, at the
age of sixty-one.

3. MENDEL’s ScreNTIFIC WorK.

Mendel’s scientific interests were very varied,
but may be grouped mainly under the two heads
of experimental Botany and Meteorology. As regards
the latter he made systematic observations for
many years on the meteorological conditions of
Briinn, which were communicated to and published
by the Naturforschender Verein (Natural History
Society) in Brinn in their “ Verhandlungen”’ from
the year 1863 onwards. He also published in the
same journal a special paper in connection with a
cyclone which swept over the district in October,
1870. It is further known that he made observations
on sun-spots, especially from the point of view of
their possible connection with weather conditions,
and that he also gave some attention to the systematic
measurement of underground water.

It was, however, to the experimental study of the
effects of hybridisation in plants that his energies
were mainly directed. He seems to have been
attracted to this subject by observing the great
regularity in the appearance of identical hybrid
forms whenever crosses were made between the
same species, and he must have conceived the idea

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 19

of elucidating the constitution of the hybrids by
observations on their progeny at a very early date.
It is quite clear at any rate that when he commenced
his great series of experiments with peas (1856 or
1857) he must have clearly recognised the importance
of extended investigation of the progeny of the
hybrids. This series of experiments with peas un-
doubtedly constitutes Mendel’s chief claim to fame.
It extended over a period of no less than eight years
and involved careful records of more than 10,000
individual plants. As Mendel himself says, it required
some courage to undertake a labour of such far-
reaching extent. Nevertheless, he not only brought
this particular piece of work to a successful termina-
tion, but he was, as we learn from incidental references
in his most important paper, ‘“ Versuche tber
Pflanzenhybriden ” (read 1865, published 1866*) and
from his letters to Nageli, at the same time experi-
menting in a similar way with many other kinds of
plants—Phaseolus, Verbascum, Campanula, Lathyrus,
Dianthus, &e.

More remarkable still, and this is a fact which is
not often associated with Mendel, who is usually
regarded as a botanist pure and simple, he was
also conducting at this time an investigation on
heredity in bees. It is said that he had fifty hives
under observation and that he effected crosses
between various European, Egyptian, and American
races. Nothing, however, was published about his
results in this connection, and unfortunately no

* In Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereines in Briinn. Band IV.

20 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

trace of his notes on this subject has so far been
discovered. The only other paper published giving
results of work on heredity was a little one on
Hieracium hybrids (“ Ueber einige aus kiinstlicher
Befruchtung gewonnene Hieraciumbastarde ”’), read in
1868 and published in 1869. Considering the great
amount of unfinished work which he must have had on
hand in 1868 it must ever be a matter for regret by all
biologists that Mendel became charged with adminis-
trative responsibilities which practically ended his
career as a scientific ivestigator.

4. THE SpecrIAL FEATURES OF MENDEL’S METHOD OF
WORK ON HEREDITY.

Coming now to a closer consideration of Mendel’s
work on the crossmg of different races of plants,
we have first of all to notice that Mendel introduced
into the plan of his experiments three ideas which
have proved the most powerful means of research in
heredity that have ever been brought forward.
All three are very simple ideas and appear almost
self-evident necessities of any experimental work
on heredity, but they seem to have been quite novel
in Mendel’s day, and I believe it is very largely
due to a want of a proper appreciation of these three
leading features of the Mendelian method of investi-
gation that so many wholly incorrect notions have
been, and, unfortunately, are still being disseminated
about Mendelism and even about heredity in general.

The first idea is that of fixing the attention in each
experiment upon a single pair, or at most upon a few

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 21

pairs of contrasted characters, without being dis-
tracted by any other changes which may result as
the effect of the cross. This may seem a _ very
obvious method of procedure—something, in fact,
very like taking the old advice of breaking the
sticks one by one instead of trying to break the
whole bundle at once—but in reality it involves an
assumption which is even yet regarded by many as
somewhat of a heresy, namely, that an organism
can be regarded in any degree as a bundle of separable
unit characters. Luckily, m the case of Mendel’s
peas, the selected characters proved to be simple and
completely separable, and so the problem of their
transmission was reduced to its simplest terms.
Mendel himself, however, seems to have realised
that it might be very difficult, in certain cases, to say
offhand what were the characters which were treated
in heredity as units, for he says “ the uniformity of
behaviour shown by the whole of the characters
submitted to experiment permits, and fully justifies,
the acceptance of the principle that a similar relation
exists in the other characters which appear less
sharply defined in plants, and therefore could not be
included in the separate experiments.” Later experi-
ments have abundantly shown that it is practically
impossible to say at first whether any particular
character that can be visually recognised is or is not
a unit character, and it therefore becomes an essential
part of any investigation on heredity to ascertain
what are the fundamental characters involved.

22 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Disregard of this has led to all sorts of misconceptions,
and even to actual misinterpretation of results.
The second idea running through Mendel’s experi-
ments was that of following the results of a
cross through several (at least three) generations.
This is an extremely important point, for, in
conjunction with the next idea of separate
records of all individuals, it permits clear evidence
to be obtained from the progeny, of the kind of
factors present in the germ-plasm of the parents,
whether those factors are visibly manifested in the
latter or not. The possibility of carrying out this
idea evidently depends upon the fertility of the |
hybrids, and it is not the least of Mendel’s incidental
contributions to the methodical study of heredity
that he so clearly saw the importance of experimenting
with forms which produce fertile hybrids. Most
investigators before his time, and for long afterwards,
were content to make crosses between different
species and races and to note the results in the
first generation, without attempting to carry the
experiment any further. But this only led to
confusion, for, as we now know, the hybrids may be
in appearance exactly like one parent or exactly
like the other, or partly like one and partly like the
other, or again like neither parent but with a character
of their own, while all the time perhaps the factors
determining the original characters of both parents
are being treated by the cell-divisions leading up to
the formation of the germ-cells of the hybrids as
perfectly distinct entities, ready to show themselves

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 23

again without the slightest change in the individuals
of the succeeding generations.

The third idea introduced by Mendel, and about
the originality of which there cannot be the slightest
doubt, was that of keeping separate records of the
results obtained from every individual seed pro-
duced. So important is this, that it is quite certain
Mendel would never have formulated the law which
now bears his name if he had not adopted this method
of work. The number of forms which the progeny
of the hybrids between different races can assume
and the numerical ratios existing between them can
be ascertained only by this laborious method, and
without a knowledge of these ratios there can be no
certainty about the hereditary factors involved in
any particular case.

5. THe Great Resutt or MenpEt’s Work on
Herepiry—Menpev’s Law.

In order to show quite clearly the outstanding
result of Mendel’s work, namely, the formulation of
what is now known as Mendel’s Law, it will be well
to refer very briefly to a few facts connected with
his experiments with peas.

After some preliminary trials, devoted mainly to
testing the purity of the varieties of peas with
which he proposed to work, Mendel selected seven
pairs of differentiating characters for observation.
As examples of these may be cited :—

Ripe seeds round and smooth, or nearly so. |

\.

angular and deeply wrinkled.

99 9)

24 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Seed albumen (cotyledons) yellow. |

‘ae 2 " green. |
{ Plants tall —stem 6 to 7 feet. |
| » dwart— 4, $ to # foot. }

Crosses were made between plants possessing
one character of one or more of the pairs and
those possessing the contrasted character or
characters. In each case the hybrids produced
exhibited one character only of each pair, and this
character, which always came out to the exclusion
of the other, Mendel called the ‘‘ dominant”
character. The other he called the ‘“ recessive ”
character, because it was not destroyed or
altered, but simply receded from view, so to speak,
when the dominant character was present in the
same plant. It is worth noting at this point, how-
ever, that the phenomenon of dominance of certain
characters, although found in all seven of the pairs
of characters used by Mendel, is by no means of
universal occurrence, and moreover has nothing to
do with Mendel’s Law. When dominance occurs,
it adds a complication to the results obtained in
breeding from the hybrids, causing an apparent
simplification which is misleading without further
analysis, as will now be seen.

By allowing the hybrids to be self-fertilised
Mendel next obtained for each pair of characters
results of the following nature :— |

5,474 round and 1,850 wrinkled seeds,
6,022 yellow and 2,001 green cotyledons,
787 tall and 277 dwarf plants,

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 25

giving a ratio of almost exactly 3 dominant to 1
recessive in every case. When two or more pairs
of characters were present in the same cross the
results were exactly the same for each pair of
characters, but the characters themselves were
associated in every possible way and not merely
as in the parent plants, while the ratios for the
different types of combination approximated with
great accuracy to a multiplication of the 3:1 ratio
by itself as many times as there were additional
pairs of characters associated with the first pair.
Thus when two pairs of characters were associated
in the cross, four types of plants were produced in
the following proportions :—9:3:3:1, which is
evidently the result of 3 + 1 x3+1. Some
actual figures obtained by Mendel in the case of
crosses between round yellow and wrinkled green
seeded forms were :—

sie se lOI NW V¥oaclO8: RiGee: 32. WG.

If Mendel had stopped at this point in his
investigation it is very unlikely that he would have
been led to his great discovery. But by continuing
his work into the next and still later generations
he was able to show that the apparently simple
ratio of 3:1 for each pair of characters was really
aratio of 1:2:1, for whereas the one recessive
in every four individuals was pure for its character,
of the other three, 7.¢., the dominants, only one was
found to breed true, the other two proving to be
hybrids exactly the same as their hybrid parents, and

26 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

giving, upon self-fertilisation, progeny in the ratio
of 3 dominants to | recessive.

The foregoing facts elucidated by Mendel may
be tabulated as follows :—

: Representation
Generation. Description. of character-
factors present.

Parents, one exhibiting the domin-
Parental (P) ant and the other the recessive
character of a pair of differen-

tiating characters.

DxR

Ne | Hybrids, all of the dominant type,
Ist Filial (F,). _ but all containing the recessive D (R)
| character-factor also.

|
Progeny resulting from the self- |
fertilisation of the hybrids, |
namely, 3 dominants to each |
recessive. Two oftheapparent D, D (R), R,
dominants, however, as shown in the ratio of
2nd Filial (F,) by later generations, contain | es
2! the recessive character-factor, or as regards
and are therefore hybrids, like appearance only
their parents. The other domin- | 3D : IR.
ant, and also the recessive, are |
pure and remain constant inde-
finitely.

We are now in a position to consider the
problem which presented itself to Mendel when
he had made out this constant ratio of 1 Pure
Dominant: 2 Hybrids: 1 Pure Recessive for each
pair of characters among the progeny raised from
the hybrids produced by the original cross. That
hybrids when bred together should produce hybrids
was what might have been expected, but that
each of the two original characters should come
out again in a perfectly pure form, without any
tendency to produce in any subsequent generation

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 27

the slightest approach to the opposite character
with which it had been so intimately associated,
was a fact of fundamental importance, and Mendel
seized upon it with characteristic acumen as the
key to the whole position. He asked himself the
question, “How is it possible for the original
characters to come out again in the progeny of
hybrids in an absolutely pure form?” His
answer was, since we know from _ experience
that to keep a race constant it is essential that
only individuals exhibiting the same character
should be mated together, so when constant
forms arise from hybrids it must be due to the
fact that they are produced by the meeting of
germ-cells containing the factor for the character
in question and that alone.

Having arrived at the conclusion that in the
formation of some at any rate of the germ-cells
of hybrids a complete segregation of character-
factors takes place, Mendel next sought for an
explanation of the fact that, im regard to each
pair of characters, the number of pure forms
arising from the hybrids was exactly one-half of
the total number produced (}D+1R). With
his mathematical training he had no difficulty in
seeing that the only assumptions necessary to
account for this are that the segregation of
character-factors should take place in such a way
that half the germ-cells (whether male or female)
carry the factor for one character and half for
the other, and that the matings of the two types

28 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of male and female germ-cells are entirely a
matter of chance. For under these conditions
the only possible unions among the germ-cells.

ce
* © Dominant x ¢ Dominant

2 a. x ¢ Recessive
2 Recessive x ¢ Dominant
g * x 3 Recessive

As the numbers of each type of both male
and female germ-cells are equal, it follows that,
on the average, each 2 D will have an equal chance
of being fertilised by either a ¢ D or a ¢o R, and
each 2 R an exactly similar chance. As the
chances are equal therefore in all cases, the
numbers of matings of each of the four types
will be equal also, and the result must be on the
average :—
RB tebe ea nega bet

So Mendel’s Law amounts to this, that when a
pair, or any number of pairs, of contrasted
characters are combined in one individual (¢.¢.,
when that individual is hybrid with regard to those
characters) the two factors for each pair are
separated from one another during the formation of
the germ-cells, so that half the latter contain the
factor for one character and half the factor for the
other character, the various pairs of characters
behaving in an absolutely independent manner and
giving rise, therefore, to germ-cells containing

* The sign 92 represents female and ¢ indicates male.
+ It was ascertained by reciprocal crossing that there was no
difference between 2 Dx G Rand Q Rx GD.

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 29

every possible combination of simple character-
factors in equal numbers. In other words, the germ-
cells of the hybrids are never hybrid, but exactly
correspond to the original pure stocks, except that,
when two or more pairs of characters are involved,
the character-factors are associated in every possible
way in equal numbers.*

The reasoning by which Mendel arrived at the
foregoing generalisation may seem very simple and
natural to us now, but it was nevertheless a very
bold step in the fifties of last century to apply to
germ-cells, about which scarcely anything was
known, facts which had been obtained by the
observation of pure and hybrid races. At the
present time it is very easy to believe that segrega-
tion of character-factors, each pair into two equal
groups, may take place; in fact, most of the
phenomena of cell-division and the maturation of
the germ-cells lead us to suppose that such is
actually the case.

6. IncmpentaL Resutts oF MenpeEv’s Work

oN HEREDITY.

As in the case of all really important pieces of
work, the effect of Mendel’s study of hybridisation
phenomena was by no means limited to the most
evident result. In the elucidation of questions
of heredity, Mendel’s Law has of course been of

*Mendel’s own words arethat ‘“ Die Erbsenhybriden Keim-und
Pollenzellen bilden, welche ihre Beschaffenheit nach in gleicher
Anzahl allen constanten Formen entsprechen, welche aus der Com-
binirung der durch Befruchtung vereinigten Merkmale hervorgehen.”

30 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

supreme value in recent years, but it is difficult
even at the present day to fully realise the far-
reaching influence of a thorough appreciation of
the Law and of the facts brought to light in
connection with its establishment and verification.
There are, however, two important fields in which
they have had very striking consequences, and
a few words on these may fittingly serve as a
conclusion to this little sketch.

Let us take first the effect which a know-
ledge of Mendel’s Law and the associated
facts have had upon the subject of variation in
animals and plants. It is apparent at once that
the fact that certain proportions of the progeny
of hybrids can be perfectly constant, although
exhibiting quite new combinations of characters
as compared with the original parents, gives the
clue to one important section of the very various
kinds of phenomena grouped under the general
term of variation. For instance, seven pairs of
characters can be combined theoretically in
one hundred and twenty-eight different ways
(7.e., 27), each combination being possibly
constant, and Mendel was fortunate enough to
obtain the full number of forms in the course of
his experiments with peas. Similar recombinations
have been obtained in many other plants and also
in animals, and it is not too much to say that
the special peculiarities of a considerable number of
the constant races of domesticated animals and
cultivated plants are nothing but recombinations of
characters previously existing in earlier races.

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 31

Another group of variation phenomena which
has been very much illuminated by the work
done on Mendelian lines is that due to the
influence of the character-factors upon one another
when combined in the same individual. The
simplest case is that where one character of a
pair is completely dominant to the other, as in
all of Mendel’s pea experiments. But it often
happens that the two characters associated in a
hybrid act upon one another in various degrees,
so that either a more or less intermediate type
is produced, or an entirely novel character appears.
But even more important than this action of one
character of each pair upon the other in the
body of the hybrid has been the discovery that
the characters belamging to defferent pairs may
profoundly affect one another when occurring in
the same organism, and that what are apparently
quite new forms or, it may be, reversions to old
forms arise in this way. One general outcome
of Mendel’s Law, and of the work done in connec-
tion therewith, has thus been the demonstration of
the subordinate and accidental character of many
of the phenomena of variation, the importance of
the really fundamental variations in the germ-plasm
being consequently brought into even greater
prominence than before.

The other direction in which Mendel’s work on
_ Heredity has had a most important though indirect
influence, is in connection with the problem of
Evolution. The Darwinian conception of Natural

C

32 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Selection undoubtedly decided in the affirmative
the general question of organic evolution, for there
can be no reasonable doubt either as to the fact of
selection taking place in nature, or as to the occur-
rence of favourable variations to be selected. But it
was more or less tacitly assumed that all kinds of
variations could be inherited and thus serve as
material for the production of new forms by selection.
Variation phenomena, however, as is now well known,
are of many different kinds, and, apart from the
variations due to the recombination and interaction
of characters alluded to above, there has been much
uncertainty as to the réle, in the process of evolu-
tion, of continuous variations (7.é., variations which
are connected with one another by a continuous
series of intermediate forms) onsthe one hand, and
discontinuous variations on the other. It is here
that the evidence from the Mendelian researches
seems to come to the support of the view that it is
the discontinuous variations which really count in
evolution. For if the factors for the differentiating
characters between races and species are treated as
separable entities by the cell-divisions concerned
in the production of the germ-cells, it is extremely
improbable that these characters could have been
evolved from one another by the selection of im-
perceptibly small variations. In other words,
segregation of the character-factors involves an
antithesis between the factors which is inconsistent
with the idea of continuous variation. So far,
therefore, as Mendel’s Law holds good, and it is

MENDEL’S LIFE AND WORK 33

becoming more and more probable that it applies
to a very large number of the characters which
separate closely allied races, it decidedly strengthens
the theory that evolution has to a great extent,
if not altogether, proceeded by the selection of
discontinuous variations. This conception of
evolution taking place by distinct steps, some very
small no doubt, but still discontinuous, is of great
importance, and, if firmly established, may have
theoretical and practical results which can only be
dimly discerned at the present day. This, how-
ever, is a subject beyond the scope of this paper.
It only remains to be pointed out that Mendel
himself clearly saw the bearing of his work upon
the evolution problem, for, after referring to the
great labour involved in the method of work he
adopted, he adds significantly that {‘ This appears,
however, to be the only right way by which we can
finally reach the solution of a question the import-
ance of which cannot be over-estimated in con-
nection with the history of the evolution of organic

forms.’’*

*Translation in Bateson’s ‘‘ Mendel’s Principles of Heredity,” p. 318.

THE MENDEL JOURNAL

34

wy |) YALLLYIAY SAYS ALL}

Ww WwW

‘T HLVIg

WALA SIN, dA tg SH4SSS S

cp nem ts 4

W WAWYANS & ds aia

gt ae ede JUdy UU | wel JL

i

ed42Wy Oo; uam|

Ww W IN W umouyun adhy pur xes ‘suayjo 6

re

W

e|

“A[IWIV,] PorsSUy-J1OYS IY} JO so1sIpog

The Inheritance of “‘ Thumb-fingerness’’
in a Short-fingered Family.

A Case of Mendelian Inheritance in Man.

An Address delivered to the Mendel Society
on June 6th, 1910.

By H. DRINKWATER, M.D., M.R.C.S., F.R.S. Edin.

The family which will be described in this paper
presents a rare and easily-recognised deformity which
has affected at least seven generations. It is interest-
ing in many ways. Its hereditary character is
particularly striking, for it is practically identical
in every affected individual, and the student of
Mendelism will be impressed by the close conformity
of the numbers affected to theoretical expectations.

I shall avoid all technical terms as far as possible,
so that the essential features may be understood by
the readers who are unfamiliar with anatomy.

The genealogical chart (Plate 1) shows all the
individuals, as far as they can now be traced, through
the last seven generations. Whether the abnormality
began with the woman at the head of this chart, or
whether she inherited it from one of her parents, is not
now known. There is every reason to believe that its
first appearance was as we now see it, and that it
did not appear or develop by a gradual process. In

36 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

other words, it first occurred as a “ sport”’ or “‘ muta-
tion,” and in each succeeding generation some of the
ofispring have exhibited the deformity.

The chart shows 174 individuals, of whom 107
were alive in 1907 when the chart was constructed.
The last four generations are complete so far as
numbers and sex are concerned. The four members
enclosed in squares in the fifth generation all died in
infancy, and whether they were affected with the
abnormality or not cannot now be ascertained.

The capital letters indicate the abnormal members,
- the small letters the normal ones. M and m stand
for males, F and f for females. Thus it is seen that
the first member (now traceable) who showed the
deformity was a woman.

I could not ascertain whether she had any brothers
or sisters. The line passing down to M indicates that
this woman had a son, and it is seen that he was
abnormal. Nothing further can be ascertained about
this second generation. This man had three abnormal
sons, and a normal one, in addition to nine other
children whose sex and type are now unknown. One
of these males of this third generation had four sons,
three of whom were affected—one normal daughter
and one abnormal. The youngest son went to
America and settled there. This is interesting from
the fact that a family showing an apparently identical
peculiarity has been described by an American
observer (Mr. Farabee), and it is possible that they
have descended from this member of the English
family, but this point is not yet settled.

THUMB-FINGERNESS 37

The chart is thus complete as regards numbers
for the last five generations.

The deformity which this family manifests affects
chiefly the fingers and toes, but before describing it
in detail, it will be well to get a clear idea of the normal
anatomy of these parts.

LZ

yw,
hives al Fic. 2. Fic. 3.

Each finger and toe (except the thumb and big
toe) contains three bones, those of a finger being
longer than those of a toe, but otherwise similar.
Fig. 1 shows the three bones of a normal middle finger.

38 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

They are numbered 1st (the nearest), 2nd (the middle),
and 3rd (the terminal one which supports the nail).
The first is the longest bone, and the third is the
shortest.

Each finger or toe has two joints, one between
the first and second bone, and one between the
second and third. Each joint in a finger causes a
crease on the palmar surface, and a knuckle on the
back. A normal finger shows these two palmar
creases very clearly.

The thumb and big toe have each only two bones,
one joint and one crease.

Now, how do the hands and feet of the abnor-
mals differ from the common type ?

Abnormalities ot the fingers and toes are not by any
means rare occurrences, and many people are familiar
with them; but the precise peculiarity is seldom accu-
rately reproduced in successive generations. One
member of a family may have four fingers, another
three, another two.

Now, the remarkable fact about this family is
the accurate reproduction of the deformity in all
the abnormal members.

Whenever the deformity appears at all, it affects
every finger and every toe of both hands and both feet.
The deformity consists in the absence (or apparent
absence) of the middle bone, so that each finger and
toe has only two bones instead of three, and one joint
and one crease instead of two. The fingers are thus
reduced to the condition of thumbs (Plates 2 and 3).

THUMB-FINGERNESS 39

PLATE 2.
Photograph of a Short-fingered Hand.

40 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Mr. Farabee says that the middle bone is absent,
but this does not appear to be the case in my family,
for though there are only two separate bones in the
adult, the middle one, as will be shown presently, is
not really absent but has undergone a remarkable
change, which might cause its presence to be over-
looked. At any rate, this is the case in the English
family, and from Mr. Farabee’s illustrations I feel
sure that the American people are exactly like the
English family.

Fig. 2 shows the shape of the two bones in one of
these short fingers. The first bone differs from the
normal type (Fig. 1) in being shorter, but otherwise
it closely resembles it. The second appears to be
altogether missing. If, however, the terminal one
(Fig. 3) is carefully compared with the norma] third, a
marked difference will be observed.

At the base there is seen a cubical mass which is
not present in the normal bone (Fig. 1). This cubical
mass represents the middle bone, which has become
joined by bony union to the terminal one, the two
forming one bone in the adult (see 2.2.2.2. Plate 4).

A radiograph of the hand of an abnormal child
shows this middle bone as a distinct and separate
structure, but much shorter than the normal (2. 2. 2. 2.
Plate 5). It is imperfect also in other respects. Hach
bone during childhood is only partially “ ossified,”
for there is a piece of gristle lying at the end of each
bony portion, and this is well seen in the “ first row ”
of Plate 5. This gristle during early adult life becomes
transformed into bone and fuses with the joint.

THUMB-FINGERNESS

PLATE 3.

Hand of Normal and Abnormal Brothers.

4]

42 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Now, in the abnormal child this middle bone
(the second) consists of one bony piece only instead of
two, and this one is much smaller than normal (Plate 5).
Instead of remaining separate, it unites later on with
the third bone, and thus we eventually have two
bones in the finger instead of three. Though all the
bones of the finger are shorter than normal,the marked
shortening of the fingers is due chiefly to the imperfect
development of the middle (second) one.

Union ot the third bone with the imperfectly-
developed second is the rule, but there are a few
exceptions to it.

This union invariably occurs in the first and fourth
fingers, but sometimes in the middle and ring finger
it does not do so, and the middle bone can then be
seen even in the adult as a separate though very
short bone (middle finger, Plate 4). Thus the second
bone is never absent, but it is always imperfect and
generally joined to the terminal one. When present as
a separate bone, it has only about one-quarter the
normal length.

The first bone of the thumb is very much shortened
(Plates 4 and 5), sometimes so much so that its
length is exceeded by its breadth, but it is never
united to the terminal one. It is imperfectly developed
similarly to the middle bone of the fingers.

This description of the fingers and thumb applies
equally well to the toes (Plate 6).

It is thus clear that the fingers of these people are
reduced to the condition of thumbs, for, as a rule,

THUMB-FINGERNESS

PLATE 4.

Radiograph of Hand of Abnormal Adult.

44 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

each finger has (like the thumb) only two bones and
one joint, and the same is true of the toes.

The bones of the palm show certain peculiarities,
but as they are of no special interest I shall not
describe them here.

The external aspect of the hand is very charac-
teristic (Plates 2 and 3). It is short, and looks unduly
broad. Each finger shows only one crease, corre-
sponding to the single jomt. These points are well
seen in Plate 3, where the abnormal hand of a man ~
is shown above that of his normal brother.

LENGTH oF HANDs.

The average length of the hands was as follows :—

Normal males .. 74+ inches.

Abnormal males a. ee
Difference. . Lt

Middle finger :—

Normals Bs .. 38; Inches.

Abnormals je a
Difference -. Was.

SYMMETRY.

In every individual the two hands are sym-
metrical, the peculiarities of one hand being accurately
duplicated in the other, as shown both by photo-
graphy and by radiography. The same is probably
true of the feet, though in most cases only one foot
was examined.

The shortening of the hands is thus seen to be
almost entirely due to the abnormality of the fingers,

THUMB-FINGERNESS 45

Y
ag
LJ
©
“al
i

PLATE 5.
Radiograph of Hand of Abnormal Child.

46 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

which are nearly an inch and a half shorter than those
of the normal members of this family; in fact, the
fingers are only a trifle more than half the normal
length (Plate 3.)

This shortening of the fingers handicaps these
people very considerably and prevents them following
any trade or profession requiring fingers of the normal
length. None of them seems able to play any
musical instrument. They are all engaged in occu-
pations where there is no call for great manual
dexterity.

STATURE.

Another peculiarity of these people is their short
stature. The men are, on an average, 84 inches
shorter than their male normal relatives (the tallest
being only 5 feet 34 inches), and the women are 42
inches less than the. normal women.

This shortness of stature is not present in the
children ; indeed, at two years of age they are actually
2 inch taller than the long-fingered children. In fact,
it is not until after the fourteenth year that retarda-
tion of growth occurs. This is true of both sexes.
Farabee noted that the American family are like the
English as regards the short stature of the adults.

Several comparative measurements are shown in
Fig. 4.

The conspicuous peculiarities of these people are
the shortness of the hands and toes, and the shortness
of stature; but the abnormals differ in several other
respects from their normal relatives.

I shall only refer to a few of these differences.

THUMB-FINGERNESS 47

UNITED 2D
“Be AND 3h

ie FIRST BONE

PLATE 6.
Radiograph of Foot of Abnormal Adult.

48 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

= %4, INCH TO/ foorT

SERERRERRRERERERERRESRAES
FREESE E EE aber TE
BERBER REREEREDAEREUSENED
SEE EEE EEN pe
aa pede tt

5 a ee ee Hot
BEEGEE FEEESE HH See BRE i

a be EWBtae ease
apageue FOsEGee EEREEEREDE.
Sceaae po |

Feer Heicnr = 5-1
ABNORMALMALES Sean = $-//%
REACH = 63%

9%
510% NORMAL MALES

74%

Fig. 4.

GENERAL HEALTH.

In the first place, they are apparently more
vigorous and healthy; indeed, they seem to be
remarkably free from sickness. —

MARRIAGE.

They have not only married in greater percentage
but at an earlier age. ‘‘ The short-fingered members
of the family always get married first.” Why this is
so I cannot tell, for they are certainly not so good-
looking, but, as before remarked, they are more
robust.

There are fourteen marriageable normals still single;
there is only one such amongst the abnormals, and
she has been “ engaged ” for some considerable time.
It is her fiancé’s fault that she is not yet married.

THUMB-FINGERNESS 49

FECUNDITY.

The abnormals are the more fertile members of the
family in the ratio of 6 to 4, and the women are more
so than the men in the ratio of 8 to 44.

Hence it follows that the abnormality does not
show any sign of dying out; on the contrary, it
is Increasing in numbers.

In the 4th generation there are 4 cases.

99 99 5th 99 99 99 7 99
99 99 6th 99 29 99 19 99
99 99 7th 29 99 99 9 29

This last figure (9) will probably be considerably
increased, for there are three parents of the sixth
generation still in the child-bearing age, and eight
who, not having yet reached it, may marry and have
children.

SUMMARY.

The short-fingered people have short, symmetrical
hands, short toes—the middle bone being very im-
periectly developed; and they are short of stature.
They are robust, marry early, and are prolific, and
are increasing in numbers.

Their occupation is not mentioned, as it is not
desirable to do anything which will lead to their
identification.

MENDELIAN INHERITANCE.

My investigation of these people -was undertaken
without any bias as to theories of heredity, but a care-
ful consideration of all the data cannot fail to convince

50 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

one that they furnish a striking example of some of
the laws propounded by Gregor Mendel, as I shall
now attempt to prove.

Mendel selected a tall pea (the offspring of tall
parents) and crossed it with a dwarf pea (the offspring
of dwarf parents). The hybrids resulting from this
cross were all tall, thus

Tall x Dwarti.
Tall (Hybrid).

These hybrids crossed with dwarts produced talls
and dwaris in equal numbers.

He also experimented with other characters
besides stature, such as colour of flowers (purple and
white), shape of seeds (smooth and wrinkled), colour
of seeds (yellow and green), and found the same laws
to hold good. The first hybrids exactly resembled
one of the parents in respect of the chosen character,
and when these were again crossed with a plant pre-
senting the alternative character of the other parent,
he got in the next generation both kinds m equal
numbers.

cigs.
Tall x Dwarf.

|
Tall x Dwart.

Tall and Dwarf in equal numbers.
The abnormality of these short-fingered people is
a dominant character,* and each individual may be
compared to the tall hybrid plant in the above

* See Mr. Scourfield’s paper for an explanation of this term, p. 24.

THUMB-FINGERNESS 51

experiment, for since there has been no intermarrying
each one has had one parent abnormal and the other
parent normal.

It follows that when one of these abnormals (com-
parable to the hybrid plant) marries a normal, their
children should be of both kinds; one half should
show the abnormality and the other half not.

As a matter of fact, 52 per cent. of the offspring
of abnormals have been normals, and as there is
always in such cases an element of chance, this per-
centage is held to be a sufficiently close approximation
to theoretical requirements.

Mendel found that the dwarf plants when self-
fertilised, or bred amongst themselves, always breed
true to the dwarf character, and not only so, but that
the dwarfs of the third generation (one of whose
parents was tall) invariably breed true and produce
nothing but dwarf plants. Further than this, if the
first hybrids (tall) are bred amongst themselves or are
self-fertilised, they produce a certain proportion of
dwarfs (25 per cent.), and even these dwarfs breed
true to dwariness.

These dwarf plants, from a hereditary point of
view, correspond to the normal members of the short-
fingered family. Such being the case, a normal
person (one of whose parents is short-fingered) ought,
when married to another normal, to produce normal
children only, and this has been the invariable result.

If the chart is consulted, it will be seen that the
normals (represented by small letters) have not in a
single instance had short-fingered children. The

52 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

normals, in fact, breed true to the normal character,
and the abnormality can only be transmitted by one
or other abnormal parent.

According to Professor Bateson and Professor
Punnett, a dominant character is due to the
presence of some factor which determines its
manifestation, and its non-appearance is due to the
absence of the same factor. If, then, the peculiarities
of the short-fingered people are due to the presence in
them of some factor or element which is absent from
the normals, it follows that the normals can never
reproduce the abnormality which requires the
presence of this factor fer its manifestation.

It is obvious that a purely short-fingered race
could be established by breeding from them alone, and
it is equally clear that this abnormality can only be
eradicated by preventing the marriage of the abnor-
mals. The same observation applies to any disease,
or predisposition to disease, and to any detect or
peculiarity which is hereditary and plays the part of
a dominant characteristic; but this is not the place
to discuss the subject in further detail.

There is little doubt that im a wild state any
individuals who presented the physical peculiarities
described in this paper would, owing to the struggle
for existence, have little chance of surviving long
enough to perpetuate their kind: but the conditions
of modern civilisation are such, that vast numbets ot
people, handicapped at birth, are not only able to
survive, but to perpetuate their kind, even though it
tends to the deterioration of the race.

Plate 1 and Fig. 4 are reproduced by kind permission of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, from their “* Proceedings,’ and the others are new.

ON TABBY CATS.

And some Features in the Inheritance of their Coat
Patterns and Colour.*

An Address delivered to the Mendel Society on
June 6th, 1910.

By R. I. POCOCK, F.L.S., F.Z.S.,
Superintendent of the Zoological Society’s Gardens.

ACCORDING to its derivation from the Arabic atabi,
meaning a particular kind of watered silk, the epithet
“tabby ” is applicable, strictly speaking, to any
thing with a wavy pattern, like that of the material
in question ; but for no very obvious reason it seems
by common consent to be restricted in use to domestic
cats marked with a definite brindled or striped pattern.

Quite superficial scrutiny will show that tabby
cats may be readily sorted by their patterns into two
distinct kinds which differ so greatly from one another
that no zoologist would hesitate to regard them as
representing different species if they existed in a
natural state. In one kind, which may be called the
“ Striped Tabby,” the sides of the body are marked
with narrow, wavy, vertical stripes stretching from
the back towards the belly, and commonly showing a
tendency, especially on the hindquarters, to break up

* The question of the origin and relationship of the breeds of
domestic cats has been already dealt with by the author in Pro-
ceedings Zoological Society, 1907, pp. 143-168, pts. viil.-x.

THE MENDEL JOURNAL

54

Plate 1.

TABBY CATS 55

into spots ; the middle line of the back is confusedly
marked, but shows no broad longitudinal stripe on
each side of the spine (Plate1). In the other kind, which
may be called the “ Blotched Tabby,” the stripes are
much broader and fewer, and form on the sides of
the body a somewhat spiral or circular arrangement
which fanciers speak of as the “ horse-shoe”’ mark ;
while on the back there are three longitudinal stripes
—a thinner one in the middle line and a broader one
on each side of it (Plate 2).

There is considerable individual variation in both
these types. In the Striped Tabby the stripes may
be broken up into larger or smaller spots, so that the
original pattern is more or less obscured; and in
the Blotched Tabby the dark marks may widen and
extend over and more or less obliterate the paler
intervening areas ; but whatever be the nature of the
variation, it never seems to take the direction of
convergence of one type of pattern towards the other.
The two do not intergrade, and when once the
differences between them have been seen and under-
stood, there is no difficulty in assigning every tabby
cat to the one type or the other.

This is a very remarkable fact; yet only within
the last few years has its importance been appre-
ciated. Breeders and exhibitors of domestic cats
have long been acquainted with it; but it rarely
happens that fanciers take a scientific interest in their
pets, and apparently no cat fancier of either sex has
troubled about the real meaning of tabby markings.
From this ignorance of the significance of pattern, it

56 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Plate 2.

TABBY CATS 57

comes about that the National Cat Club gives a
quite subsidiary importance to markings as a basis
for distinguishing domestic breeds, preferring length
of coat, shortness of tail, tint of hair, and other com-
paratively trivial features.

Apart from Siamese, Manx, and one or two other
less important breeds, domestic cats are classified
under two headings, namely, “long-haired,” other-
wise called “‘ Persians” or “ Angoras,” and “ short-
haired ” or ordinary cats, both long-haired and short-
haired being further subdivided by colour into blacks,
whites, blues, smokes, reds, creams, tabbies, and the
like. Thus the pattern is merely regarded as equiva-
lent to colour and of less value than length of coat or
absence of tail; nor does it appear that any stress is
laid upon the difference above alluded to between
the two types of tabby.

The real importance of pattern is shown by a study
of wild species of Cats which zoologists comprehen-
sively group together as Felis. Tigers, tor example,
are always striped, and leopards always spotted.
The stripes in the one and the spots in the other may
vary in number, but the pattern in each species
remains substantially the same. Not so the hair.
Mongolian tigers and North Chinese leopards differ
strikingly from their tropical kin in the length and
thickness of the Winter coat. The difference is not so
marked as between a thoroughbred so-called Persian
Cat and an ordinary Cat. Nevertheless, the fact
proves that the length of the coat is a much more
variable feature in Cats than the pattern.

58 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

So, too, with colour. Black varieties or ‘‘ muta-
tions’ of wild species of Felis occur in a state of
nature. Black leopards and jaguars are not un-
common; black servals have been shot on several
occasions, and black tigers have been recorded.
Leopards of tropical Asia are richly tinted ; those of
Persia are markedly greyer; while those of tropical
West Africa usually have a characteristic dusky hue,
as compared with Asiatic specimens. Again, some
species of wild Cats are dichroic; that is to say,
reddish or blackish specimens occur side by side in
the same locality. This phenomenon is known in
the South American Jaguarondi Cat (Ff. jaguarond2) ;
the West African Tiger Cat (Ff. awrata), and in the
east Asiatic Temminck’s Golden Cat (F. temmincki).
What is perhaps more remarkable still is that an
example of theW est African Tiger Cat that lived in
the Zoological Gardens changed its colour from dark
brown to blackish grey during growth.*

All these facts point to the conclusion that colour
is a somewhat variable feature in Cats, and since the
pattern, when pattern exists, in the above-mentioned
species remains the same whatever be the tint of the
ground colour, it is evident that pattern is a more
stable characteristic than tint. The spots of black
leopards are always, it seems, visible in certain
lights. Similarly the tabby pattern always appears
to be detectable in black kittens of domestic Cats. I

have often seen it also in white kittens, the visibleness

* Proceedings Zoological Society, 1907, p. 659.

TABBY CATS 59

of the pattern in both black and white kittens being
due to the greater gloss of the hair that forms the
pattern as compared with that of the intervening
spaces.

It might at first be considered somewhat curious
that although domestic Cats are commonly white,
white examples of wild species are exceedingly rare.
This, however, is not in reality a surprising thing,
because, except in the Winter in Arctic and Antarctic
latitudes, white is a very conspicuous colour. Hence
a white wild Cat would be severely handicapped in the
struggle for existence by inability to conceal itself
both from its enemies and its prey. It 1s, moreover,
a matter of common knowledge that white Cats are
frequently deaf, and if, as is not unlikely, this or some
other organic defect, such as want of stamina, accom-
panies whiteness in wild species, another reason for
the rarity of white wild Cats becomes apparent.

I have only seen white skins of two wild species
of Felis, both of which are in the British Museum.
One is a tiger, the other a cheetah or hunting
leopard. In both it is noticeable that the pattern is
not white, like the ground colour, but yellowish or

“6 29

tan. This proves two things: First, that the
animals were not pure albinos; and, second, that in
these partial albinos the yellow or tan ground colour
has turned white and the black pattern has turned
“tan ’—that is to say, “tan” in albescent individ-
uals is an intermediate colour phase between black

and white. Similarly, “tan ” is an intermediate colour

60 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

phase between white and black in nigrescent individ-
uals or partial melanos. True melanos are wholly
black, just as pure albinos are wholly white; but
partial melanos are quite common, black-and-tan
dogs being a familiar instance. If a black-and-tan
dog be compared with a pale-coloured wolf, it is
obvious that the tan round the mouth, over the eyes,
on the paws, and other parts of the dog correspond
exactly with light areas on the wolf, and that the
black parts of the dog correspond in the same way
with the greyish-black pigmented parts of the wolf.*
Just as black-and-tan dogs are partial melanos, so
are black leopards, as a rule, if not always, partial
melanos; that is to say, they are seldom if ever
uniformly black. The intermediate spaces are a
little paler than the spots; and the underside of the
body, which in the normal animal has a pure white
ground colour, is very dark tan. Black domestic
Cats, on the contrary, are generally complete
melanos when adult, the pattern being invisible
because the hair is everywhere as black as the pattern.

Black and white are thus two extremes of
colour mutation, yellowish-red or tan being the
intermediate phase. These three phases are usually
called melanistic, albinistic, and erythristic. All
three are common in domestic Cats. The majority
of Cats seen roaming at large and practically uncared

*R. I. Pocock, Annals Magazine Natural History (7), xix., pp.
192-194.

+ Black cats commonly have a white speck on the chest at the
anterior end of the sternum. This white speck is frequently present
in Scotch wild cats. The persistence of the whiteness of this spot
in black cats is a puzzling fact.

TABBY CATS 61

for are normal tabbies, red tabbies or blacks; of less
common occurrence are normal tabbies, red tabbies or
blacks varied to a greater or less extent with white ;
rarest of all are pure whites and so-called “ tortoise-
shells,” the latter being Cats in which both the pattern
and the ground colour show a confused mixture of
tan and black, with white commonly pervading more
or less the legs and lower parts of the body.*

The question of “red” and “ tortoise-shell ”
Cats cannot be dismissed without reference to the
as yet quite unexplained fact that the former are nearly
always males and the latter nearly always females.
The frequency of this phenomenon has given rise to
the saying that the “red” is the male of the
“ tortoise-shell”’ variety. + Mr. L. Doncaster, by
carefully analysing the evidence contained in the
literature of fanciers, was able to show that female
tortoise-shell Cats were the mongrel forms of black
Cats crossed by red ones. On the other hand the
“red ’’ males were similarly mongrels of the same
kind of cross. In males, therefore, red is wholly
dominant, but in females only partially so, some of
the black manifesting itself.

One final word about white Cats. I have already
said that the white tiger and cheetah skins above
referred to were not the skins of pure albinos, because
the stripes in the one case and the spots in the other
were pale tan instead of white. I have never seen a

* White is considered a defect in “ show ” tortoise-shells.

+ The only species of mammals known to me which are naturally
“tortoise-shell” are the African hunting dog (Lycaon pictus), and
the Lemming (Myodes lemmus).

62 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

white Cat with tan pattern; but I have also never
seen what would be regarded as a pure albino
Cat; that is to say, a white Cat with pink eyes.
White Cats often, however, have blue eyes. This is
a sign apparently of incomplete albinism, if we may
judge from the fact that blue or bluish eyes occur
not uncommonly in white or partly white horses and
dogs, especially sheep-dogs, and typically accompany
pale complexion and blonde hair in mankind. A very
distinct and remarkable albinistic breed of Cats is
the Siamese. The newly-born kittens are pure white,
and the eyes are frequently blue ; but as age advances
the Cat gradually turns brown, the head, legs, and
tail becoming first of all suffused with dark pigment,
and this later in life extends more or less over the
body as well. This change from the albinistic to
the melanistic phase is comparable to the change from
the reddish to the blackish-grey phase in the West
African tiger cat above mentioned. Faint spots,
however, may often be seen on Siamese Cats, betraying
the descent of this breed from a “tabby.” It may
here be explained that the eyes of Cats differ in
colour, but not to the same extent as the coat.
Green is the normal tint; but just as albinistic
cats resemble blonde human beings in often having
blue eyes, so do red Cats often resemble red-haired
men in having red, or as fanciers call it “ amber,”
eyes. Amber eyes are also considered by fanciers a
sign of good breeding in Cats of other colours.

In addition to the three principal mutations,
black, red, and white, other colours may be seen in

TABBY CATS 63

domestic cats, but much more commonly at cat
shows than in the streets. Such are dark greys or

6 99 «66

“blues,” pale greys or “ chinchillas, creams,”
and others; but whatever these rarer colours may
be, they are all intermediate, in one direction or the
other, between black, red, and white; and the
evidence derived from mice and flowers confirms
the suggestion that “greys” or “blues” are simply
dilute forms of black, and cream a dilute form of red.

A marked feature about the cats at cat shows is
the number of self-coloured animals that are ex-
hibited. It happens to be the fashion to dislike
“pattern.” Hence the efforts of fanciers are per-
severingly directed towards its elimination. All
breeders, however, know what an obstinate and
persistent feature it is. In a natural state pattern
may disappear in several ways; either by the toning
down of the markings to match or almost to match
the ground colour, as in desert-living representatives
of the African cat (F. ocreata), and probably also in
adult lions and pumas; or by the darkening of the
ground colour and the concomitant lightening of the
pattern till the two reach the same tint; or, more
rarely, by the breaking up of the pattern into a
multitude of small spots or specks which become
universally diffused. An approach to this is seen in
the so-called Servaline Cat, which is flecked all over
with small black specks instead of being blotched
with large black spots as in the parent form, the
Serval (F. capensis). Another good instance of this
is seen in a variety of the leopard occurring at

E

64 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Grahamstown, South Africa, where the multiplication
and the fusion of small spots has produced a black
animal by a totally different process from that
which gives rise to ordinary black leopards. The
uniformity in colour of self-coloured cats has probably
in most cases been produced by the toning down of
the pattern to match the ground colour, or by the
mutual alteration of both to the same tint. But one
breed known as the “ticked” seems, like the
Grahamstown leopard, to owe its origin to the
disintegration and general diffusion of the pattern of
the Striped Tabby. ‘‘ Ticked” domestic Cats, which
may be met with amongst London Cats, are practically
indistinguishable from so-called “ Abyssinians.” Both
appear to be mutations of the Striped, not of the
Blotched Tabby.

All the Cats above mentioned, be they “ blacks,”
‘* blues,”’ ‘‘ smokes, ” “ whites,”
‘* skewbalds,” or “ piebalds,” are probably all to be
regarded as mutations either of the one kind of tabby
or the other. This remark applies both to long-
haired and short-haired Cats.

It is possible, but I think not probable, that all
English long-haired Cats trace their descent from
specimens imported from Persia or Asia Minor. At
all events, there is a tradition to that effect ; but the
truth of it can neither be proved nor disproved. It
is quite possible that a long-haired breed was in
ancient times fostered in the countries lying near
the eastern end of the Mediterranean, just as a special
breed has for generations been fancied and rigorously

eee GL

reds,” “* creams,

TABBY CATS 65

preserved in Siam. But there appears to be not a
particle of evidence that either Persian or Siamese
Cats have been derived from species differing from
those to which our own English Cats owe their
origin. As for so-called “ Manx” Cats, there is no
doubt whatever that they are tailless varieties of
the same type or types. No other pattern than the
Striped or Blotched Tabby is found amongst them.
When and where the breed arose is quite unknown.
Some of those who believe in the specific distinction
of this Cat claim Cornwall as its home; others the
Isle of Man. Probably both suggestions are as
little supported by evidence as the tradition that
‘“‘ Tortoise-shell ’ Cats came originally from Spain.

What, then, was the origin of our domestic Cats ?
This has been a question much debated by zoologists ;
but it cannot be admitted that the debaters had any
intimate acquaintance either with domestic breeds
or with the two wild species from which they sought
to derive them. No author, for instance, except
perhaps Blyth, realised that there were two widely
different types of pattern in domestic Cats to be
accounted for; or perceived that neither of the
wild species claimed as the agriotype resembled even
remotely the blotched tabby im markings. And
none apparently was aware that these two wild
species are closely related forms, differing probably
less from one another than Chinese differ from west
African leopards and hardly more than Mongolian

differ from Sumatran tigers.

66 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

The two species in question are the European
Wild Cat (Felis sylvestris) and the African Wild Cat
(Felis ocreata).*

It is needless to describe these two species in
detail and to point out the comparatively small
differences that exist between them. The HKuropean
Cat extends at the present time from Scotland and
Spain in western Europe, through central Europe
as far as Asia Minor, but does not occur in Scandinavia.
The African Cat ranges along the southern shores
of the Mediterranean, and is said to occur in Sardinia.
The European species is a northern mountain form,
with a thick coat and bushy tail; whereas the
African Cat is a southern low-country or desert
form, with a short coat and a thin tail. In structure,
proportions, size, and pattern, these two species
closely resemble domestic Tabbies of the Striped type
(Plate 1); and since, with the exception of the Jungle
Cat (Felis chaus), a larger, longer-legged, shorter-
tailed species than either of the others and than any
domestic cat, there are no other wild species of Felis
at all like our Striped Tabby occurring in the coun-
tries bordering the Mediterranean, the cradle of
European and north African civilisations, it is

* Felis sylvestris is almost always called Felis catus in works on
Natural History; but the original description of Felis catus shows
clearly that the name was applied by Linnzeus to the domestic
blotched tabby, and cannot therefore be used for the European
wild cat. Felis ocreata is better known as the Egyptian or fettered
cat, or the booted lynx (F. caligata, or maniculata), or the Caffre cat
(F. caffer), the latter being the south African as F'. maniculata is the
north African representative of a species widely distributed on the
African continent.

TABBY CATS 67

needless to look beyond these two wild species for the
ancestor of the domestic Cat in question.

There are, it is true, no records of the taming in
past times of the Huropean species, but the African
species is known to have been domesticated in Egypt
many thousands of years ago. From Egypt it was
no doubt introduced eastwards into India and Siam,
and gave rise to the striped or nearly self-coloured
domestic Cats of the former country and to the
peculiar albinistic breed of the latter country. Hence
there is no reason to suppose that these Oriental
domestic Cats have any infusion of European Wild
Cat in their veins. It may be that this accounts
for the differences that commonly but not invariably
exist between Oriental and European domestic Cats
of the Striped Tabby type. From Egypt also the
African Cat was no doubt introduced as a tame
animal into the countries of southern Europe, where
it would come into contact with the European
species. However that may be, the evidence that
F. sylvestris has contributed to the formation of the
Striped domestic Tabby is that the latter is seldom
exactly like either of its supposed ancestral forms,
resembling the European species in some characters
and the African species in others. This, however, is
a matter of no very great moment. The important
point to remember is that the African and European
Wild Cats and the Striped Tabby resemble each
other in all essential characters and differ from
all other species of Felis known in the world.

68 THE MENDEL. JOURNAL

Although historical records show that the Striped
Tabby has been a domesticated form in Kurope at
least from the 16th century—and no one knows. how
much earlier—and is abundant everywhere both in
town and country places, at least im England,
many English writers in modern times seem to have
been unaware of its existence. Examples introduced
into the tropics and run wild have been more than
once described and named as new varieties or species
allied in the opinion of some authors to the Kuropean
Wild Cat, in that of others to the African Wild Cat.

Although the origin of the Striped Tabby may be
claimed with some assurance as definitely established,
that of the Blotched or Marbled Tabby (Plate 2) is at
present not only quite unknown, but seems likely to
remain for ever a mystery. Several hypotheses may
be held with respect to it. It may have arisen per
saltum as an abrupt mutation from the Striped Tabby
and have been capable of preservation by owners
and breeders who admired the type, because of its
segregability in inheritance. The only reason
that can be alleged against the idea of its
being a mutation is the fact that no such
variation has ever been known to occur in any
species of Felis. Nevertheless it is a possible explana-
tion of the phenomenon. If it be the true one, the
Blotched Tabby must be described as a_ highly
interesting instance of abnormal dimorphism of
pattern. It seems quite certain, however, that this
pattern has not been preserved by the art of selective
breeding, because, with the possible exception of the

TABBY CATS 69

tailless so-called Manx breed and of the peculiarly
coloured Siamese breed, there seems to be no reason
to suppose that selective breeding of Cats was started
before the latter half of the 19th century; and we
know from Linneus’s description of Felis catus
that the Blotched Tabby existed as a periect type in
Sweden as early as the middle of the 18th century.
This fact disposes of another hypothesis that might
otherwise be entertained, namely, that the blotched
pattern was developed step by step from the striped
pattern by the slow and gradual process of preserving
and breeding from slight varieties tending in the
fancied direction.

It has also been suggested by an author unaware
of the closeness of the relationship between the
Kuropean and African Wild Cats and of their funda-
mental similarity in pattern that the Blotched Tabby
was the result of crossing individuals of these two
species. When two distinct species of striped or
spotted mammals are crossed the offspring sometimes
resembles neither of its parents in pattern. Professor
Ewart,* for example, found that when he paired a
male Chapman’s zebra with a bay female pony, the
foal, while resembling the dam in colour, showed
a pattern of stripes not the least like those of its
sire, but rather closely resembling those of a totally
distinct species of zebra, namely, Grévy’s zebra ;
and believing that the pattern of Grévy’s zebra is a
more primitive type than that of Chapman’s zebra,
he considered the pattern of the hybrid foal to be an

-* The Penycuick Experiments. A.andC. Black. London, 1899.

70 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

instance of reversion to an ancestral type resulting
from crossing the two species. However that may
be, the point to be noticed is that the foal differed
from both parents. Hence the possibility of the
origin of the Blotched Tabby from crossing the
Kuropean and African Wild Cats. When tested
by experiment, however, this suggestion broke down.
In the Zoological Gardens I crossed a pure-bred male
Scotch Wild Cat with a female African Wild Cat from
Uganda, which had never previously kittened. The
result was, as I expected, a litter of three kittens
exactly resembling the Striped Tabby. Only one of
these kittens lived to be half grown. By that time
she had almost lost the very distinct pattern of
kittenhood, and was becoming daily more like her
mother, in which the pattern was evanescent.

* Mendelian experiments throw a new light on this phenomenon
of reversion. A ‘ reversionary character” is a compound one, and
is only made manifest when two or more factors react upon each
other. If the factors are separated, and one is carried in one
individual and the other in another, then the ‘“‘reversionary charac-
ter” may remain unrevealed for generations, and will only become
patent as soon as two parents which carry between them the com-
plementary factors are mated together. Black mice, rats, and
rabbits may be mated to certain albinoes without begetting any
grey (brown) individuals among their offspring. Yet, when mated
with other albinoes, young ones having the grey or reversionary
colour of the wild type will appear. This is due to the fact that
colour is a compound character, and that grey is due to the meeting
of two complementary factors, one of which is carried by the black
parent and the other, in the cases we are considering, by certain
albinoes, which carry the factor determining greyness. Otheralbinoes
lack this factor, but carry that which determines some other colour,
such as blackness for instance. The reversionary colour greyness
can therefore only be produced when an albino carrying the grey
determiner is mated to some other coloured partner, such for instance
as a black one. But if such a partner be mated with albinoes
carrying the black complementary factor, the only colour that will
appear among the offspring will be black.—Eprror.

+ P. Z.S., 1908, pp. 749-750, text figs. 194-195.

TABBY CATS pe

Another view that may be held is that the Blotched
Tabby resulted from crossing some introduced exotic
species with the Striped Tabby. But there is no
reason to think that, apart from menagerie-kept
specimens, representatives of any exotic species,
except tamed African Wild Cats, have ever been
introduced into Europe. It is also absolutely certain
that the Blotched Tabby is not the pure-bred descen-
dant of any species of existing Cat, since its pattern
is quite unlike that of any known species of the
genus Felis.

Finally, it may be held that the Blotched Tabby
is the survivor of some species of European Cat
which is now extinct as a wild animal. In this
connection it may be remembered that complete
extinction as wild species has followed the domestica-
tion by man of the agriotype or wild form of Euro-
pean cattle, of eastern humped cattle, of the ass,
of more than one species or race of horse, according
to modern views, certainly of one perhaps of both
species of camel, and perhaps of our long-tailed
breed of sheep. This extinction of the wild forms
of some of our domesticated animals points to the
possibility of a like fate having overtaken the ancestor
of the Blotched Tabby. However that may be,
it seems to me that the origin of this Cat must be
explained on the hypothesis either that it is a
mutation of the Striped Tabby or that it is the
survivor of some species now extinct in a wild state.

From the Mendelian standpoint these two Cats
are of the greatest interest, for the following reasons :

72 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

They have been living side by side, and freely inter-
breeding for many generations without ever pro-
ducing intermediate types, so far as is at present
known. At all events, I myself have never seen a
tabby Cat that could not be at once assigned to either
the Blotched or the Striped type; and for several
years I have carefully noted the pattern of every Cat
that has come under my eyes, both in towns and in
the country, and I have visited Cats’ homes and Cat
shows, for the purpose of verifying or disproving the
conclusion that intermediates do not exist. Another
fact that I can vouch for of my own knowledge is
that both types may occur in the same litter of
kittens.

So far as I am aware, no attempt at experimental
breeding of Cats on Mendelian lines has ever been
undertaken ; but from what has been said as to the
apparent permanence of the segregation of the two
kinds of tabby, it appears that much useful work
could be done in this direction. It could be carried
out, too, at comparatively small trouble and cost
anywhere in the country. Cats are naturally hardy,
and require no artificial heat. They should be kept
in grass runs, the larger the better, covered in with
wire netting. This enclosure should be fitted with
wooden shelves and branches, and with a well-made
warm wooden covered-in shelter as a protection against
cold winds and rain in the winter. The animals
should be given water to drink and raw fowls’ heads,
varied with rabbits, mice and sparrows or other birds
to eat; that is to say, their diet should be made as

TABBY CATS 73

nearly natural as possible. Under these conditions
the Cats would thrive and breed.

It was for the purpose of drawing attention to
Tabby Cats and of thus suggesting the great possi-
bilities of achieving interesting results by breeding
them, that the editor of this Journal asked me to
contribute an article on these animals. But I have
intentionally discussed at some length the other
characters, especially colour, by which domestic
breeds of Cats are distinguished, and have mentioned
one or two curious facts, such as the correlation of
of “red ”’ and “ tortoise-shell ” with male and female
sex respectively ; so that these features, as well as
pattern, may be considered in any experimental
breeding that is undertaken in the future.

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES.
INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES.

Coat Colour.
By ROBERT BUNSOW.

Previous publications* have shown that bay’
coloured thoroughbred horses may be either pure
with regard to the hereditary transmission of this
colour, and will therefore transmit no other colour
to their offspring, or they may be impure and will
transmit some other alternative colour, such as
chestnut. Since bay horses may thus carry in
their hereditary mechanism some colour which is
not visibly manifested in the presence of the bay
colour, we speak of this latter, in Mendelian
language, as a dominant colour, while chestnut
is spoken of as a recessive.

I have just now used the term “hereditary
mechanism.” What is meant by that? I will
endeavour to explain. The cells that form
the tissues of an animal or plant which reproduces
itself by sexual processes may be divided into the
body or somatic, and the reproductive, sex or gametic
cells. It is these latter which, in sexual reproduc-
tion, constitute the hereditary mechanism. ‘They

*C. C. Hurst. Proceedings Royal Society, Vol. 77B, 1906.

1 For the purposes of this article the author has used the word
bay to include browns. There is no absolute distinction between these
colours. Some horses in winter are bay and brown in summer, and
some are vice-versa. Others have a colour which cannot be designated
by either bay or brown, and in the Stud Book are described as *‘ bay or
brown.”

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES 75

are the carriers of the qualities which one genera-
tion transmits to another. Now the most essential
feature of the Mendelian conception of inheritance,
is that of any pair of alternative characters, such as
bay and chestnut colours, each sex-cell can carry
only one of the pair.

It does not carry both of them blended together,
like wine and water, nor mixed like oil and water.
The two characters are regarded as being carried
in different sex-cells. If, therefore, a given horse
carries only chestnut colour, all its sex-cells will
carry that colour—or rather the factors which when
present in the body cells produce that colour. But
if it carries both bay and chestnut, then one-half of
the sex-cells of the individual will carry the one
colour, and the other half will carry the other
colour.

If we remember that every individual is the
product of the fusion of two sex-cells, one being
derived from a mother and the other from a
father, we must regard each of them as a sort of
double mechanism with regard to every one of the
characters that make up its body. It is, for
instance, a bay colour because its bayness has come
from the sex-cells of both father and mother, or
because it came from one only, the sex-cell of the
other parent contributing chestnutness, which is
not manifested if bay is already present in the
body cells.

Now, we may symbolise these facts and concep-
tions by calling the bay colour a dominant character

76 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

over chestnut colour, which we call a recessive
character. If we symbolise the dominant character by
D and the recessive one by R, then each letter will
represent a group of sex-cells. A chestnut coloured
horse since it carries nothing but chestnut, will,
therefore, have only one kind of sex-cell with respect
to this character, and its gametic constitution will be
represented by RR. Similarly, a pure bay will
be represented by DD. But a hybrid or impure
bay will contain two classes of sex-cells in equal
numbers, namely, those carrying bay and_ those
carrying chestnut. Such an individual will be
gametically represented by the symbol D R.

Now if a pure DD bay stallion be mated with
a pure RR chestnut mare, all the foals will be
impure DR bays, because the D sex-cells of the
stallion can in reproduction meet nothing but the R
sex-cells of the mare. Butif animpure D R stallion
is mated with an RR chestnut, then the foals will
in the long run consist of both bays and chest-
nuts in approximately equal numbers. But the
bays will be impure or hybrid DR*. In this case
the two kinds of sex-cells of the stallion have two
possibilities, for its D sex-cells may meet the R
sex-cells of the mare, and so also may its R sex-cells.
There thus result two unions, a D R or hybrid, and
a RR or pure recessive.

One further feature is of interest. It will be
observed that a chestnut horse is one which mani-
fests a recessive colour, and must be therefore
always pure with regard to this colour; that is,

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES 7 va

always RR in gametic constitution. | When chest-
nuts are therefore bred together, their foals should
be always chestnut. If bred with bays their foals
may be either all bays, or half chestnuts (R R) and
half bays (DR), as we have just seen. In the
former case, the result is due to the fact that the
bays mated with them are DD and in the latter
case because they are DR.

To the (DD) class of bays and browns belong
Se. none. i. ol. oer, °° Galopm,” “ Ladas,”
“Merry Hampton,” and “Cabin Boy”; to the
(D R) bay and brown class ‘“ Royal Hampton,”
“Donovan,” “St. Angelo,” ‘“Isinglass,” ‘“ Orvieto,”
“‘ Ayrshire,” “ Florizel II.,” ‘‘ Pioneer,” “ Isonomy,”’
“Melton,” ‘“‘ Wisdom,” ‘‘ Rose Window,” and “St.
Maclou.”

In the records of the “General Stud Book
of Race Horses,’ are found some exceptions
to the rule that chestnuts crossed with chestnuts
give chestnuts only, and that (DD) bays
always breed true. These apparent exceptions it is
worth while to consider. In reality they do not
exist, but are either misprints or errors of entry.
It is of course not only difficult, but sometimes im-
possible, to satisfactorily clear up erroneous entries.
But in most cases inquiry reveals them.

If we turn to Volume XXI. of the Stud Book,
which was published six months ago, we find it
contains fifteen so-called exceptions to the rule that
chestnut parents have only chestnut foals, namely—

78 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Page. Year.

12... 1904 ... bay filly out of The Alabama

ris pre ASG): Ses e Pe Anavene

Do: ve MOO re a ee Arcadia
AQ! S99: «5 ) Ashiwie

OH ige: ert te game a » Bella Valley
106... 1904... - , Burganilda
12 '1s52, ASOL =... te Cassimere

247 ... 1903 ... bay colt ,, Evening Flight
BO feel eres. Me » Good Day ie
Sel aes Olas hs Good Day II.

38 1-co. A904 spay, Alig |: Inquisitive
(Stale News)
Hoots. LOOSe es, a he Merry Lass

583... L901 ebay colt ea UMirs. Candie
611... 1902 ... bay filly ,, © Nenemoosha
(Cyanean)

Old. «B00 ..-. (bay scoliy =. Nimblefoot
In addition to the English Stud Book, the
German Stud Book contains only one exception. It
is there stated that from the mating of the chestnut
stallion ‘‘ Botschafter I.,” out of the chestnut mare
“Legality,” there resulted the bay foal “ Longo-
barde,”’ which died when it was six months old.
As soon as I drew attention in the German sporting
newspaper Sportwelt to this erroneous statement,
pointing out that the entry certainly must
be a mistake, the breeder of ‘‘ Longobarde,”
namely, the Prussian Government’s official at their
Stud, at Graditz, came forward with a published
statement that “ Longobarde ”’ never was a bay, and
that neither the veterinary surgeon who assisted the

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES _— 79

mare when foaling nor any of: the Studwarders
had the slightest doubt that this colt had always
been a chestnut and that nobody could explain how
this misstatement came into'the Stud Book.

Now, looking into ‘the fifteen exceptions given
above, in the first place [ would point out that it is
very often an impossibility to state exactly what
colour a recently born foal is, for it may look exactly
hike a bay—with the exception that it has no black
tail and black mane—and yet after having shed its
first woolly coat it may develope into a real chestnut.
There is another fact worthy of notice. The entry
of a foal’s colour into the Stud Book may be made
before it sheds its first woolly coat, and if its coat
changes at its first or later moult, this entry obvi-
ously becomes erroneous in as far as the real or
definitive coat-colouris concerned. It is only in very
few cases, and never if the foal happens to die
before it is put into training, that anybody troubles
to alter the erroneous entry in the Stud Book. It
remains there as it was originally entered. But even
after a foal has been put into training, there are still
some cases in which the original entry of the first
or foal colour remains as it was. Even the
Racing Calendars, which give in their index the
colours of the horses which have performed on a
racecourse, still preserve the erroneous entry. The
reason for this is largely a.clerical matter. The
man who compiles the index is a member of the
office staff, he never comes to the racecourse, and
has only one book from which he can obtain the

F

80 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

record of the colour of different horses, namely,
“The General Stud Book.” So he transfers the
old error on to the new print, and if somebody is not.
personally interested in the colour of the special
horse the error remains and becomesa pitfall in the
hands of persons who are not practical racing men.
In this way some supposed exceptions to Mendelian:
inheritance of coat-colour in horses have been used:
in an effort to disprove the operation of that law in
this character of horses. This has been done in
spite of the fact that these supposed exceptions do
not constitute more than two per cent. of the whole,
and in some cases even less.

For years I have endeavoured to investigate and
correct such erroneous statements, but have had to
relinquish it as hopeless in all cases where the foal
was born dead, because very often nobody was to
be found who remembered the colour of such a foal.
In many cases I received an answer to this effect :
“T took it for a bay, but of course it might as
well have been a chestnut, for you cannot tell at this
age, and there was no reason to trouble about it.
because the foal was dead.”

But in all cases, when the foal was still alive
and older than half a year, it was easy to show that
a mistake had been made, and the easier of course :
if it had been raced. From the fifteen so-
called exceptions only two appeared on a race-
course. One of them is “‘ Cyanean,” bred by Lord
Londonderry in 1902. In the Stud Book of 1905;
(Vol. XX.) it is given as a bay, and even in the

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES 81

Stud Book of 1909 (Vol. XXI.) the same colour is
given, in spite of the fact that it ran always as a
chestnut and never was anything else but a chestnut.
Even the indexes of the various Racing Calendars
give it as a chestnut.

The second case is “Stale News,” alleged to be
a bay coming from a chestnut stallion out of a

”)

chestnut mare. In spite of all inquiries I could get
no explanation, and it appeared to remain a fact that
“Stale News” was really a bay. But a few days ago
the enigma was solved in a very simple way: The
dam of “Stale News” is no chestnut at all, but a
bay mare, and so there is nothing extraordinary in
her daughter’s bay coat. These errors never happen
in Stud Books which are specially kept for the
breeding of chestnutsonly. Forinstance, weshall find
nonein the Suffolk horses, which are chestnut without
exception; nor in the Prussian half-bred Stud
Trakehnen, where a chestnut herd is kept, has
such a case ever happened. I am informed by
Herr von Oettingen, the Governor of the Stud, that
a stud book for the chestnut herd has been kept for
over one-hundred-and-fifty years.

So it is, I think, quite proven that chestnuts
crossed by chestnuts always give chestnuts, and
that (DD) bays crossed by chestnuts always pro-
duce bays.

One of the best known (DD) bays was the
famous thoroughbred stallion ‘St. Simon,” who
died two years ago. All his progeny were bays
or browns, with the exception of the very last one,

82 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

which was born after his death and was called
‘“Postumus”’ (Plate 1), and is now in training at
Kingsclere. ‘This colt was and is grey.

For breeders of race-horses ‘‘ Postumus”’ is a
specially interesting horse. First of all, it was
thought by some that ‘“ Postumus” did not fall
into line with the Mendelian principles, and that
even a pure (D D) bay parent did not breed true.
But they overlooked the very important fact, that
the pureness of the (DD) bay character only holds
with regard to bayness and to colours recessive to
it, and that it can be best tested by mating it with
a chestnut. The question at stake is simply this:
Is the bay colour of this stallion dominant to the
chestnut colour ? It is answered by the fact that
“St. Simon’s”’ offspring out of chestnut mares were
invariably bays. So it is proved that ‘‘ St. Simon”
was (DD) for bay, since were he a (DR), that is
carrying the dominant (D) bay colour and also the
recessive (R) chestnut colour, he would have pro-
duced, as some other bays which are (D R*) have
done, chestnut foals as well as bays.

If ‘St. Simon” is thus a pure bay, the greyness
of his last foal ‘‘ Postumus”’ is of some interest.
Among horse breeders, it has been attempted to
frame an explanation of the appearance of this grey
foal upon the fanciers’ old conceptions of inheritance.
We will first deal with these attempted explanations,
and then view the matter from the Mendelian stand-
point. We shall see how well the Mendelian
interpretation harmonises with the facts in the

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES — 83

pedigrees, while the other interpretations leave them
without coherency or relationship.

We will deal with Mr. B. Robertson’s view
first. He is an authority upon race-horses, and he
thinks that the grey colour of “ Postumus” came
through his sire “St. Simon” from the distant
ancestry of the mare ‘Grey Wilkes.” — He
believes that there is fair proof for this statement
in the fact that other horses not coming from
“St. Simon,” but having ‘“ Grey Wilkes” in their
pedigree, show grey hairs in their coat, or at the
root of the tail. In my opinion this view is not
tenable, because ‘‘ Grey Wilkes” lived in 1707, two
hundred years before ‘‘ Postumus,” and her name
appears only in the fourteenth remove of “St.
Simon’s” pedigree. It is possible, of course, that
some posterity of ‘Grey Wilkes’”’ may show some
grey hairs, but ‘“ Postumus” is another case
altogether, for it is a good and complete grey colt,
and not a brown or bay, with a patch of grey.

A very prevalent idea among horse breeders
with regard to cases like ‘‘ Postumus’”’ is that its
grey coat colour is the result of the “nicking” or
meeting in his sire “St. Simon” of two grey stems,
which can be traced down on either side of its
pedigree. Upon the basis of this hypothesis, the
greyness of “ Postumus”’ will be traced (Plate 1)
on the dam’s side through “ Pontillon,” “ Maid of
Wye,” “ Vedette,” and “ Mrs. Ridgway” to ‘“ Nan
Darell,’* and also upon the sire’s side through
“‘Vedette ” and “Mrs Ridgway” to “ Nan Darell.”

* Nan Darell is a grey mare and is outside the pedigree on the
dam’s side of it.

84 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

But after a careful study of the matter I am
convinced that the hypothesis of “ nicking,” as we
generally understand it, cannot adequately explain
the facts of the pedigree. I will proceed to explain
why.

A general consideration of the parentage of
grey horses shows that a grey horse can never be
obtained unless one of the parents is a grey. No
exception to this statement is known. Another
fact throwing considerable light upon the general
principles of colour inheritance in horses is that
two grey parents need not necessarily have all
grey offspring, and that frequently they do produce
other coloured foals. These two facts thus point to
the conclusion that grey is dominant to all other
coat colours, because if it were recessive a grey
dam and sire could not produce other coat colours
among their offspring. Also a dam and sire of
some other colour would beget grey foals, but
this is not the case.

If grey be thus a dominant colour, it is clear
that “St. Simon” could not have received any
grey strain from “Galopin,” or “ Vedette,”’ or

’

“Mrs. Ridgway.” The grey colour of “Nan Darell”
was in fact lost in the roan “‘ Mrs. Ridgway,” and it
does not re-appear in “ Vedette,” ‘“ Galopin,” or
“St. Simon.” Clearly, then, ‘““Postumus” does not
derive his grey from the sire’s side of the pedigree.
The hypothesis of “nicking” is therefore untenable.

Turning next to consider where “‘ Postumus”

got his grey colour from, and why it was that “St:

ek 8 al
(5 +: pemoroo are serstped sty} ur sesroq oid [TV

‘oe = UW

‘UOT[BIg = s

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES

(g061) (9) sawaLsog

eee a eee ee ee
on ee ee ee ae

(ut) (y q) uooju0g

(409)
(aq) uoung 4g

oe

(mw) wor[qu0g

Plate 1.

85

| Euxine (m)

Vedette (s) {
(brown) |
(
|

jo prey

(us) oh

Isola Bella (m)
(bay)

Varna. m.

King Tom. s. (bay)

Mrs. Ridgway. m. (b. roan)

Voltigeur. s. (brown)

Isoline. m. (bay)

Stockwell. s. (chestnut)

Sterling (s) (
(bay) |

(fq)
(s) zepuvuie,

Whisper. m. (bay)

Oxford. s. (chestnut)

Sunshine (m) {

| Sunbeam. m. (bay)

oe, |

|p I eS

(brown) |

|

5 b
= (bay) { Thormanby. s. (chestnut)
Rg =
em

Z en Meeanani(a) | Jocose, m. (bay)

a A = (bay) Sweetmeat. s. (brown)
= ®
eS ap
re _ Boupe:RoseGn) ( Elleen Horne. m. (chestn.)
a =o (chestnut) {| Thormanby. s. (chestnut)
=o yt :
2 | Doncaster (s) ( Marigold. m. (chestnut)
= i
aA (chestnut) ( Stockwell. s. (chestnut)
p> (| Little Fairie (m) | Lacerta. m. (bay)
tS (chestnut) (| Hornsea. s. (chestnut)
Q5
<

= ~S Ion (s) ( Margaret. m. (bay)

ae it (bay) ( Cain. s. (bay)
8 ee ee ea
© 0
~~ 4 Pocahontas (m) Marpessa, m. (bay)
z rye Glencoé. 8. (chestnut)
8
Sg Fanny Dawson filly. m.
fea { (chestnut)
ches
= ( a | Economist. s. (bay)
we Merope (m) | Velocipede’s dam. m. (bay)
peeve: (bay) :
SE Voltaire. s. (brown)
[8 Flying (| Barbelle. m. (bay)

2 = Dutchman (s) -
=s = (bay) \ Bay Middleton. s. (bay)
Rg
er
= a bs Mrs. Ridgway(m) (| Nan Darell. m. |

ss Ss eB. (bay-roan) | Birdcatcher. s. (chestnut)

@ -e
8a )
oh Voltigeur (s) ( Martha a m. (brown)

Voltaire. s. (brown)

86 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Simon,” who had sired hundreds of foals, but all of
them bays or browns, and never begot a grey until
‘Postumus,” his last foal, came. We notice that
along the whole of the maternal line of “ Pontoon’s”
pedigree (the dam of “ Postumus’’), there is an un-
broken stem of grey (Plate 1). We further notice
throughout this stem that every grey mare—
“HKuxine,’ ‘ Maid of Wye,” ‘“ Pontillon,” and
‘Pontoon ”’—is the offspring of a grey crossed
with a bay. That is, every grey horse must have
one parent grey.

Now these and other indications are clearly
‘Mendelian phenomena. “Pontoon,” the dam of
“ Postumus,” is a Mendelian heterozygote, or
hybrid, carrying dominant grey and recessive brown
or bay, and possibly recessive chestnut too. The
sire of ‘‘ Postumus,” namely, “St. Simon,” has
shown by his numerous offspring that he is pure
for bay.

The mating out of which the unexpected grey
colt, “ Postumus,” was produced, therefore resolves
itself into one of “Pontoon,” which is DR for
grey (D) and bay (R), with “St. Simon” (DD)
for bay. Now if grey is dominant, the Mendelian
expectation in such a mating is an equal number
of heterozygote or hybrid greys (DR) and of bays
(DD). And it so happens that a grey has come
first. Unfortunately “St. Simon” is dead, and the
same pairing cannot be repeated. But it is to be
hoped that “Pontoon” may be mated on several
occasions to a sire known to be homozygous

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES 87

for brown or bay. That will afford a further oppor-
tunity to test the Mendelian interpretation of this
case.

We need not, however, wait for this future
mating, because Mr. Huby, the stud groom to the
Duke of Portland’s stud at Welbeck, tells me that
“Pontoon” had a foal previous to “ Postumus,” by
“Gold,” and that it was brown. Now for a grey
horse like “ Pontoon” to have a brown foal by any
kind of mating, shows that it is not a pure grey
horse (in Mendelian language is not homozygous
for greyness) but is carrying in its sex-cells
brownness as well as greyness. The assumption,
therefore, which the appearance of ‘* Postumus ”’
out of “ Pontoon” by “St. Simon” suggested, that
“Pontoon” is a DR, where D stands for dominant
greyness and R for a colour recessive to it, such
as brown or bay, is thus demonstrably proved by
the nature of her matings and of her resulting
offspring.

“Top Hane,” another interesting grey horse,
appears to have the same gametic composition as
“Pontoon.” She is a foal of the grey stallion
“Le Sancy,” out of the bay mare, “ Distingué.”
Consequently she will be a DR for greyness, and
half of her sex-cells will in that event carry the
factors for the grey character, and the other half
will carry them for the brown or bay character.
Both brown and bay, in addition to grey offspring,
may therefore be expected among her offspring if
she is mated with a sire like ‘St. Simon,” who is

88 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

?

DD for brownness or bayness. ‘Top Hane” was
so served by ‘St. Simon,” and produced a filly
foal called “‘ Tsu Shima,” which was born a grey,
and is so entered in the Stud Book. But she
changed at the first moult and became a brown,
and has so remained. It will be interesting to note
next the colour of “Top Hane’s” other offspring,
when crossed with other DD browns or bays. As
taken from the Stud Book, they are as follows :—

In 1904, a grey filly, ““ Banzai,” by “St. Frusquin,”
a DR brown.

In 1905, a grey or brown filly “Tsu Shima,” by
“St; Sunon,. 2 JD bay,

In 1906, a grey filly “Topaz,” by “St. Frusquin,”
a DR brown.

In 1907 and 1908, barren.

In 1909, a grey or brown colt by “ Misselthrush,”
a DD brown.

The colt of 1909, by ‘ Misselthrush,” which is
entered as a grey or brown, is evidently like “ Tsu
Shima.” Both were born grey, but turned brown
at the first moult.

We have thus good reason to regard the two
grey horses, “‘ Pontoon ” and “‘ Top Hane,” as what
we may for the moment call impure greys. They
are externally grey, but we are led to regard them
as carrying, in addition to greyness, some recessive
colour such as brownness or bayness.

In connection with grey horses the next question
which we naturally ask is: “Do pure greys exist?”
By this I mean are there grey horses which transmit

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES — 89

no other colour than the dominant greyness, so that
whatever kind of mating they may be a partner in,
their offspring, without exception, will be grey.
In other words, are there grey horses whose sex-
cells all carry the factors that produce greyness in
the coat? Greyness being, as we have reason to
believe, a dominant character over black, chestnut,
brown, and bay, it follows that in any mating of
grey horses, with those of either of these other
colours, the sex-cells of the pure grey parent, being
carriers of grey alone, must necessarily introduce
the dominant colour grey into one side of all such
matings, and grey will result. I think I can pro-
duce such a case from one of the most scientifically
kept Studs in the world, namely, that of Celle
belonging to the Prussian Government. In this
Stud every detail is accurately recorded by properly
trained experts.

The case I have in view is that of a ten year
old white Arabian stallion, the ‘‘ Celle Amurath.”
This horse, in England, would be called grey, but
white in Germany. Its coat is white, but its eyes,
mane, tail, and feet are black.

“Celle Amurath” has covered about six
hundred mares of all colours, and his numerous
offspring, without exception, have been greys and
whites. There can therefore, I think, be little
doubt that he is a pure white (grey) and is DD
for whiteness (greyness), carrying only this colour
character.

When we examine his parentage and more
remote ancestry, our conclusion as to his Mendelian

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INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES 91

gametic constitution is fully corroborated (Plate 2).
Following the maternal line we find that grand, great-
grand, and great-great-grand maternal ancestors
were all grey. On the paternal side, seven of the
ancestors and the sire, “‘ Radautz Amurath,” were
whites (greys). Now, from the Mendelian stand-
point, the nature of the maternal parentage was
such, that the mother herself must have been an
impure grey, that is, was DR for greyness, carrying
in one-half of her sex cells the factors for greyness,
and in the other half the factors for bayness prob-
ably, while those for chestnut are not necessarily
excluded (Plate 2). On the paternal side, the father
was also an impure grey, because his parents were a
grey mare and a bay stallion. He was, therefore,
carrying in one-half of his sex-cells the factors for
greyness, and in the other half those for bayness.

The parents of ‘Celle Amurath” are probably
thus both gametically similar, in that both are
carrying sex-cells some of which bear greyness
and others bayness. ‘‘ Celle Amurath,” from the
Mendelian standpoint, is thus the product of the
meeting of a grey-bearing egg-cell of the grey
mare with a grey-bearing sperm-cell of the grey
stallion. His gametic or sex-cell constitution is
thus GG if we symbolise the actual colour, or DD
if we symbolise the fact that greyness is the
dominant colour.

That this Mendelian interpretation of the gametic
constitution of ‘Celle Amurath” and of his parents
may be regarded as correct is further corroborated

92 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

by the nature of the offspring of one of his half
brothers now serving in another Prussian Stud,
at Holstein. This brother is named ‘“ Holstein
Amurath.” (Plate 2.)

Now we desire to ascertain the gametic consti-
tution of this stallion by a reference to his parents’
origin, and from the gametic behaviour™ of his
brother, ‘“‘Celle Amurath.” We have already seen
that the brother is a pure grey, because all his off-
spring (six hundred) have been grey. We also
saw reason (p. 91) to regard “ Radautz Amurath,”
the sire of ‘“‘Celle Amurath,” as an impure grey, bear-
ing in his sex-cells greyness in some and bayness
in the others. That being the case, the Mendelian
expectation for his offspring, when he is mated with
another impure (D R) grey, such as we saw the dam
of ‘Celle Amurath” is, will be one-half pure greys
and the other half impure greys.

Now impure greys, carrying greyness and bay-
ness, can be tested by mating with bays. In that
event, both whites (greys) and bays are expected in
the offspring. ‘‘Celle Amurath’s” half brother,
‘* Holstein Amurath,”’ was thus mated and his off-
spring are some whites and some bays.f ‘The
Mendelian prediction is thus fulfilled in the actual
results in so far as both expected types appear.

In conclusion, I would like to add that I do not
treat the study of Mendelism as a hobby, but try
to get some deductions out of Mendel’s laws which

* Measured by the nature of his offspring.
The number of each is being ascertained from Germany, and
will be published in the next number. (EDITOR.)

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES — 93

we can apply in horse-breeding, where we are sadly
in need of correct laws, because all we have done
up till now is simply to wander about in utter dark-
ness. None of the existing so-called laws in horse-
breeding can stand a trial before modern biological
researches. They are all based on statistics got
from the results on the racecourse, or from the
degree of inbreeding in pedigrees, and from old
conceptions largely based on fancies. But, by
statistics, one might conceivably prove that a horse
cannot win a Derby if his tail is not at least two feet
long, or if his jockey has not fair hair, for statisti-
eal coincidences are not necessarily biological
analyses. It is not my object now to go further
into this question, but it will suffice for me to point
to the fact, that about three thousand blood-
horses are born year by year in great Britain,
and that two thousand seven hundred of them
are quite useless for racing purposes. I believe
that English breeders are very much interested in
Mendelism, and I can say the same of continental
breeders, because when I published last November
a series of articles in German sporting papers about
the Mendelian laws and their application to horse-
breeding, I was simply inundated with letters from
all parts of German-speaking countries. These
letters did not only come from horse-breeders, but
from Professors of Universities, Gyneekologists, and
Biologists. So the interest exists, it only requires
developing, and I look to the Mendel Journal as
one of the best means to further this development.

Editorial Note to Mr. Robert Bunsow’s

Article on

Inheritance in Race Horses.

It has been our good fortune to have had several
long interviews with Mr. Robert Bunsow. In the
racing world Mr. Bunsow is a well-known person.
In this country he represents many foreign horse-
breeders and the interests of several continental
sporting papers.

His article presents several interesting matters
for consideration. In order that we may observe
them in their proper perspective two points need to
be remembered. In the first place, Mr. Bunsow has,
during the greater part of his career, been in prac-
tical and every-day contact with all matters re-
lating to the breeding of race horses. His
statement, therefore, that a certain percentage
of errors creep into the Stud Books and Racing
Calendars, and the reasons which he assigns for
this, are therefore of the greatest value.

The most serious error, it seems, that is
liable to arise in the keeping of the Stud Books is
an insufficient attention to the fact that horses in
many cases change their coat colour as they get
older. In this way the divergence of description
between the Stud Books and the Racing Calendars,
whenever they occur, can be accounted for. Let

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES ~— 95

us take the case of ‘“‘ Tsu Shima,” mentioned in
Mr. Bunsow’s article. She is entered in the Stud
Book as a grey, but Mr. Huby, the stud groom of
the Duke of Portland’s stud, at Welbeck, in a letter
to Mr. Bunsow, says: “ When I saw her last she
was not grey at all, although she had a tuft of grey
hair at the root of her tail. She is now a brown
mare.” ‘The case of “ Postumus”’ is interesting in
the same way. He was born a brown colour, and
Mr. Huby says: “It was only in the Autumn of the
year he was foaled that he became grey. He is a
_good grey now, and every time he sheds his coat he
will become whiter still; by the time he is five or
six years old he will be white. His dam is now
white, and previously always had been a good grey.”
This statement of Mr. Huby’s is interesting because
it appears to express, in the form of a prediction,
the result of his experiences. It suggests that in
his experience grey horses in some cases turn whiter
with each moult, until they become what are called
white horses. It is further of still greater interest,
because it suggests that this capacity of changing
colour is itself hereditarily transmitted. That sug-
gestion is intimated in the statement that “his dam
was previously a good grey and is now white,” and
in that relating to her son, “that he is a good grey
now and will become whiter with each moult.” It
is a matter of some importance to note whether this
change in ‘“‘ Postumus”’ will actually occur.

The question of colour-change with age is one
worthy of a fuller investigation. It appears not to

G

96 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

be a very simple matter; at least, not at present.
But Mendelian investigations tend to considerably
simplify these problems. Mr. Bunsow leads us to
understand that grey horses may be born all colours,
though most of them are born black with sparsely
scattered white hairs. It seems that it is very
seldom they are born actually grey in colour.
Another fact which we have learned from Mr.
Bunsow is that some grey foals may become white
in their secund year, while others do not become so
until later years.

This colour change in animals and in the flowers
of some plants with advance in age* is a familiar
fact. It is so much so, that its significance seems
not to have received that degree of study which it
deserves. It is, we may suppose, conformable to
the appearance of the antlers in a stag, and to the
beard in man, both of which appear relatively late
in life. Grey rats are born colourless, with
the exception of the eyes; their skin then turns
black and the hairs when very small are black,
subsequently passing through grey-black to grey-
ness (brown). The same phenomenon, we under-
stand from Mr. Hurst, is seen in rabbits.

This change of colour in grey horses, and the
difference in time at which the complete change
occurs, suggests that grey horses are not all alike.
Mr. Bunsow has already dealt very fully with that,
and has shown that some grey horses are pure for

—* The term age is here used wholly in a relative sense. <A
period of a day or a few hours in flowers may constitute the transition
from full bloom to faded and withered petals.

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES 97

greyness and will beget none but grey offspring,
while others are impure and may beget both greys
and bays among their foals. But we think there
may possibly be a difference more than can be ex-
pressed in the unqualified symbols DD and DR.
It is conceivable that a DR grey horse carrying
greyness and bayness may be foaled of a different
colour to a horse carrying greyness and chest-
nutness, or greyness and roanness. Moreover, some
factor, which may be independent of any colour
factor, may exist, which determines not the colour
but the precise stage at which the colour-change
will oceur.

There is one statement in Mr. Bunsow’s article
which calls for some comment, from the national
standpoint. It is that relating to the scientific
accuracy with which the details of the Prussian
Government’s Stud Books are kept. The matter of
horse-breeding in Germany is one which is dealt
with on as sound and as scientific a basis as possible.
We should hesitate to say that it was perfect in all
respects ; but there is no question, we think, that
their system is more precise and accurate in its
records than ours. The details of their work
appear to be done with the characteristic
Teutonic thoroughness. There is little doubt
either that as soon as the significance of the
Mendelhan principles has been fully grasped and
their application to the breeding of coat colours in
horses has been demonstrated—as we hold to
be the case—those who are officially respon-
sible for the conduct of the Prussian Government’s

98 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Studs will proceed to investigate the Mendelian
transmission of other qualities, such as nerve
strength, staying power, and capacity for speed.
One problem already awaits investigation either by
the Prussian Government or by English private
breeders. It is the question of “ nervousness ”’ in
horses. There is current in racing circles a belief
that much inbreeding results in “nervousness.” We
believe it may be possible to closely inbreed and
yet by judicious matings, based upon Mendelian

c

principles, to rear horses that are not “nervous.”
We cannot say dogmatically it will be so. There is
apparently very little data available, and the ques-
tion is one of careful scrutiny of such facts as we
already possess and of future observation, definitely
directed to the particular question. But there is no
real reason to doubt that it is possible to interbreed
and yet to avoid, by an early elimination, any
undesirable character that may have made its
appearance. But in this matter, as in others,
an ounce of experiment is worth a ton of
essay-writing.

“Pontoon,” from the Mendelian standpoint, is
an interesting horse. So far as Mendelian investiga-
tions have gone, we know that chestnut is reces-
sive to bay, brown, and black. Any horse of
these latter colours may therefore carry chestnut
recessive. But a point which has not yet been_
investigated in horses is the relationship of these
colours to each other in reference to their relative
dominance. We do not know whether brown is

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES = 99

dominant to bay. There are some facts, Mr.
Bunsow tells me, which suggest that a brown
horse can carry brownness, bayness, and chestnut-
ness. This possibility leads us to consider the
gametic possibilities of a grey horse. If grey is
dominant to all other colours, as it appears from
Mr. Bunsow’s pedigrees to be, then grey horses may
be of many gametic classes Some may carry black-
ness and brownness recessive, others blackness and
bayness, others brownness-and chestnutness, others
roanness and brownness, and so on. Or, they may
even carry three or four different recessive colours
in their sex-cells. We may therefore expect that
when finally the offspring of all the different possible
matings of grey horses with those of the other
colours have been adequately noted, they will present
a polychromatic display.

The fact described by Mr. Bunsow on p. 88,
of two horses which were born grey, a dominant
colour,.and later turned brown, a colour recessive to
grey, is one which it is hoped, in the light of Men-
delian knowledge, will be more fully examined.
These two horses were “ Tsu Shima” and the colt of
1909 by ‘ Misselthrush.”

At first sight this fact appears to be quite in-
consistent with any idea of dominance or of the
conception of the purity of gametes carrying
recessive characters. The phenomenon, however,
is not altogether new in Mendelian experiments.
In poultry two sorts of “whites” have been
detected. One of these is a recessive white and the

100 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

other a dominant. The former is a true recessive, and
is manifested as a white because no colour is present.
But the latter is, as it were, a false white. It is so,
not because colour is absent, but because another
factor is present which inhibits the manifestation of
the colour in the body tissues.*

It is therefore conceivable that two sorts of bays
and browns among horses may exist. First, those
which are true recessives to greys because they
carry nothing but bayness or brownness. Second,
those which carry greyness in addition ; but in these
cases, to the greyness there issuperadded a third factor,
which, meeting it in the body tissues, inhibits its
developement and allows the recessive or underlying
bayness to manuest itself.

If we let B stand for the factor producing bay
colour, G for that producing greyness and g for its
absence, and B' for that producing inhibition of G
and b’ for its absence, then we can symbolically
represent the relationship of grey to the two postu-
lated types of bay horses as follows :—

Bay colour . - =e oa
BG)
Bay colour following grey = BG B

!

Grey colour’ - -

There is yet a third possible type of bay or
brown horse. Its early greyness may be simply due
to a late developement of its normal colour.

The bay horse of the composition B g b' may be
regarded as a true recessive bay and is bay because it

* For fuller information about these and for a general discussion
of colour phenomena see ‘‘Mendel’s Principles of Heredity,” by
Prof. W. Bateson, p. 102, Cambridge University Press.

INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES | 101

carries no grey factor. But the bay horse of the
composition BG B! is not a true bay because it
also carries the dominant colour grey. It is bay in
colour only because another factor B' is present
which inhibits the developement of the grey colour.
The horse of the composition BG b* will be a grey
colour because it carries the grey factor which is
dominant over the bay one, and the inhibiting
factor B' of grey being absent, grey can accordingly
manifest itself.

One feature of some interest and of great
practical importance remains for consideration. ‘he
evidence is quite clear that the transmission of coat
colour in horses, so far as it has been inves-
tigated, is in accordance with Mendelian principles.
Mr. Hurst’s analysis of the Stud Books and
Racing Calendars, and the pedigrees, which are
given and described in Mr. Bunsow’s article in this
Journal, all tend to that conclusion. But as
a very practical nation—perhaps too exclusively
so—we naturally enquire as to whether these
principles of Mendelism apply to other and more
important qualities. Do they, for instance, hold
equally true for capacity for speed, for nerve and
muscle endurance, for great strength, and for some
of the various diseases to which horses are liable ?
It 1s quite within the bounds of probability that they
will be found to so apply. These qualities are of
a physiological and pathological nature, and there
are already cases known where such qualities
appear to segregate as distinctly as structural ones

102 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

do. Indeed, coat colour itself is rather more a
physiological attribute than a structural one.

Mr. Robertson has made some attempt in this
direction, but his cases, though very suggestive,
appear to require more critical analysis than he has
at present given them. But as far as they go, they do
seemingly point towards a Mendelian segregation of
pathological traits.

A matter of a few years would be sufficient
to decide the mode of inheritance of some of the
physiological and pathological characters of the
horse, provided that the investigation was adequately
wide and conducted with scientific accuracy.

Biological Iconoclasm,
Mendelian Inheritance and Human Society

A PLEA FOR THE OPERATION OF A MORE
VIRILE SENTIMENT IN HUMAN AFFAIRS.

A Criticism
By LOUIS COBBETT, M.D.

(Lecturer in Pathology, Cambridge University.)

In his very vigorous address printed in the open-
ing number of this journal Mr. George Percival
Mudge attacks the modern sentiment which is
guiding our community, and argues that it tends
to “preserve and procreate the unfit citizens, and
hamper and discourage the fit.’ ‘‘ The whole in-
fluence of this modern sentiment,” he says, “is
tending in the wrong direction.” By our hospitals,
asylums, and workhouses we are interfering with
the law of the destruction of the unfittest. ‘A con-
tinuation and extension of this sentiment will lead
the nation to its destruction.”

All this is based upon a study of the biological
laws of inheritance, and particularly on Weismann’s
doctrine that acquired characters cannot be trans-
mitted. Consequently, do what we will to improve
the health of the mind or the body, we can but
influence the individual; when he dies the results
of our efforts will perish also, for they cannot be
transmitted to his progeny. Hence it is of no

104 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

permanent use to educate a gutter child, or to cure
an epileptic, because the children will have just the
same propensities as though their parents had been
utterly neglected. Moreover, such conduct does
positive harm, because if the potential parents had
not been cared for, the children might not have
been born.

Ido not think I overstate Mr. Mudge’s Case.
He says: himself: “The whole influence of this
modern sentiment is tending in the wrong direction.
It sets out with the belief that it can effect the
salvation of the unfit by improving their environ-
ment. It will end by achieving the destruction of
the fit, without having even gained the salvation of
the unfit.” Again: “It is time we learned how
little environment can do, and how much the inborn
qualities determine all for us.”

Among much which is admirable in Mr. Mudge’s
able address I cannot help feeling that he has kept
out of sight a very important factor, namely, the
possibility of creating a permanent environment ;
for even if we admit to the full Weismann’s doctrine
that there is no biological inheritance of acquired
characters, nevertheless there may be a sociological
inheritance of the new environment which becomes
associated with those acquired characters ; and the
inheritance of this new environment may be, for all
practical purposes, as good as the inheritance of the
acquired characters’ themselves. Let me explain
what I mean. If we take children from a slum

VIRILE SENTIMENT 105

environment, train and educate them to become well-
conducted, self-supporting citizens (the possibility
of which J think Mr. Mudge will be willing to
grant) their children, though biologically they may
inherit nothing from our efforts, and will be born
with the same inherent bad characters as_ their
parents, nevertheless will be brought up under
entirely different conditions from those which they
would have experienced if nothing had been done
for their parents; and their bad characteristics
may consequently never havea chance of developing.
For example, what does it matter if I, in England
inherit cannibal instincts from remote ancestors ?
Here in a civilized country those instincts have
no chance of developing. They may not perhaps
be eradicated by the civilization of centuries, and
remain latent in my character, yet a permanent
change of environment has been brought about,
transmitted by inheritance, which is just as effective
as if the cannibal instinct itself were abolished.
Take another example. We do not inherit speech ;
but because our parents have learnt to talk we grow
up in an environment such that speech comes to us
without conscious effort, almost as easily indeed as if
we really, in the biological sense, inherited language.
Or, again, take the hypothetical case of an inherent
predisposition to tuberculosis in a given family.
Of what permanent use to society is it, Mr. Mudge
seems to ask, to cure the affected members? ‘Their
children will suffer all the same. Not so; if the
affected members are let alone the children will grow

106 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

up in an environment which includes the tubercle
bacillus, and they will become consumptive. If
the already affected members of the family be cured
or removed, the children will no doubt, grow
up with their predisposition unaffected, but they will
stand a much better chance of not meeting the
tubercle bacillus in effective numbers, and will there-
fore, for the most part, escape. It is in this way that
tuberculosis is being eradicated.

Enough has been said to show that by the
conscious efforts of the community, changes of
environment may be produced which will per-
manently affect society. Ineed not labour the point.
I am defending the popular cause. Perhaps Mr.
Mudge must not be taken too seriously when
attacking the efforts of philanthropists and others ;
his business is to show, not so much that we are
doing wrong in curing the sick, etc., as that we
are not doing enough to check the multiplication of
our criminal and worthless classes. And in this I
am entirely at one with him.

A Rejoinder to Dr. Louis Cobbett’s
Criticism.

By GEO. P. MUDGE.

Dr. CoBBETT appears to accept Weifmann’s doctrine
that characters acquired during the life of an indi-
vidual as the result of external influences are not
transmitted to the next generation. Here then we
stand upon common ground. But Dr. Cobbett
contends that if certain characters need a particular
external agent to call them into activity, they will
not be rendered manifest in the absence of this agent,
even though they exist. Therefore, if civilisation
can be made to produce certain conditions, unfavour-
able, for instance, to cannibalism and tuberculosis,
these qualities and others, though inherently present
in individuals, will not be manifested. Similarly,
though the capacity for speech is inherent in us, yet
it cannot be manifested as speech unless the appro-
priate stimuli of education and example are present.

Now I cannot help thinking that the argument
which rests on cannibalism is exceedingly unfortunate.
First, Dr. Cobbett cannot show that every individual
in this country possesses the cannibalistic instinct.
If it be not present, then of course it cannot be
manifested. How many of us are there who want
to eat in grim earnest the flesh of our fellows ?
Who among us feels an irresistible impulse to first

108 THE ‘MENDEL JOURNAL

kill our friend and then to eat him, but are only
deterred from doing so by the conditions of society ?

I think Dr. Cobbett may rest assured that it would- *
“matter very much, if, in England, he and others
had an inherent impulse to eat human flesh.” For,
in spite of civilisation, he would find means of satis-
fying that innate hunger, much as the congenital
drunkard gratifies his irresistible craving in opposition
to those external influences which operate against
his deeds.

We cannot look the ordinary facts of life in the
face and feel that there is any comfort in Dr. Cobbett’s
contention. The popular memory is proverbially
short, and those who plead popular causes
are apt to be forgetful of facts which are ugly and
immovable. Let us therefore recall one. It is,
I suppose, only some fifteen years ago, when civilisa-
tion was hotrified by a series of revolting murders
characterised by unspeakable mutilations in the
East End of London. The mutilations were all
marked by certain features im common, which
pointed to the conclusion that they were the work
of one criminal. The conditions which attended the
murders suggested there could be no_ particular
or personal motive inspiring their perpetration.
The facts indeed led people to suppose they
were done by some man who was impelled by a
ghoulish delight in such gruesome work. The mutila-
tions were performed with almost anatomical precision,
and must have been carried out with perfect calmness
and collection of thought and action, and yet with

A REJOINDER 109

rapidity. The criminal was apparently never found,
notwithstanding that these murders were committed
at different periods.* This being one of the facts
of our mundane life, I would like to ask Dr. Cobbett
how far it is consistent with his hypothesis that:
cannibalistic instincts may be suppressed under the
softening influences of civilisation? I would like
to ask him where in that civilisation are those external
promptings which encourage the perpetration of such
foul deeds to be found ? On the other hand, are not
all the influences of society against them ? The fear
of the hangman’s rope is there to keep the wild
instincts of such cowardly beings in bounds ; but,
as is clear, no external influences can modify them
or avert the consequences of their operations, if
they be present. I need not multiply this particular
type of example, for almost every day the newspapers
contain some account of them.

I may, however, pass to some other matters
which newspapers do not publish. Partly, perhaps,
because there is no particular interest in them,
and partly, because in these days of democratic
sentiment, when the play is to the highly strung
emotions of the gallerv, it may be deemed impolitic
from a financial point of view to point the moral of
the facts. Such considerations and others akin to
them need not deter us. We have no love at all of
those things that are associated with the gallery,

*T am aware of Sir Robert Anderson’s recent statement to the
effect that these murders were the work of a Polish Jew, known to the
police, and that the murderer is described as a ‘‘ maniacal sexual.
pervert.” But this does not in any way invalidate my argument.

110 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

notwithstanding the widely prevalent environment
of our times. We may therefore proceed to look at
some particular, though perhaps unpopular, facts.
I am impelled to the consideration of these facts by
the nature of Dr. Cobbett’s central plea. He says,
“Tf we take children from a slum environment, train
and educate them to become well-conducted, self-sup-
porting citizens (the possibility of which I think Mr.
Mudge will be willing to grant), their children, though
biologically they may inherit nothing from our efforts,
and will be born with the same inherent bad characters
as their parents, nevertheless will be brought wp under
entirely different conditions from those which they
would have experienced if nothing had been done for
their parents; and their bad characteristics may
consequently never have a chance of developing.” Now
I happen to be familiar with a social experiment
which has been carried on for the past forty years, and
which conforms in its main features with the con-
ditions and suppositions described by Dr. Cobbett
in the sentence which I have just quoted. We may
therefore proceed from mere suppositions and
possibilities to accomplished facts, and endeavour
to see how far Dr. Cobbett and those who believe
with him, are justified in their golden hopes and
the aérial castles of their social dreams.
Travellers along the West Coast of Scotland
are familiar with the charm, the honesty, and
the natural gentlemanliness of its inhabitants.
They have their faults, of course, but we may pass
them over. For I am not concerned, except in an

A REJOINDER 111

indirect way, with the natives of this Western Coast,
but with an inherently vicious class which has been
thrust into their midst. This class has been thus
thrust upon them by the stimulus of that peculiar
sentiment which I considered in my original article,
and which characterises the doings of modern civilisa-
tions generally. Glasgow has, like other cities,
bred and reared a race of useless people, civic cripples,
hooligans, criminals, and women powerless to protect
themselves. Faced with the pressing problem as
to what is to be done with this class of defective
citizen, the Glasgow Parish Council cast their
municipal eyes upon the beautiful and verdant
Western Coast of Scotland and upon its honest
and simple inhabitants. ‘‘Here,” in effect, they said,
“is a good environment and a trusty people. In the
sea breezes of this beautiful and romantic coast we
have conditions of health and scenic displays that
will arouse the romance and imagination of our
shipwrecked horde of civic outcasts. Among the
native population, God-fearing and honest, we may
find a human environment which will appeal to the
better nature of our morally and mentally crippled
citizens, which will induce them to become better
and nobler men and women, and will rear them to
service of work and to manly independence. We
cannot,” they proceeded to argue, “hope to do much
with the parents. We may as well recognise the
fact that they are hopeless and irreclaimable. But
with the children it is otherwise; they are plastic
to our moulding and responsive to our better influences.

H

112 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

We will try our experiment with them. Willy-nilly,
having conceived our well-intentioned idea, we will
make no further enquiry, we will assume there exists
nothing more in heaven or earth than exists in our
philosophy of fatuity, and in the midst of these honest
people we will plant our tares, the children of paupers,
ne’er-do-wells, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, hooli-
gans, drunkards, and those of vile and vicious
language and of reprehensible and indescribably
filthy conduct. From such an ancestry we shall,
with ratepayers’ money and good environment,

1°?

rear a community of civic saints These are noble
intentions, no doubt, and they are based on the
same sort of contention as that urged by Dr. Cobbett.
But let us leave the intentions, and come to the
results. They are the very reverse of what it was
intended they should be. In the citation of the
following facts I will confine myself to the results of
personal knowledge and enquiry made in one ot
these Western islands. I do so, because here my
enquiries and observations have been made
throughout a sufficiently extended period, of eight
months spread out over four years.

The pauper children from Glasgow are boarded
out with the native crofters, who are paid from three
and sixpence to five shillings weekly for the main-
tenance of each child. This money is paid by the
Parish Council. The children are sent to the island
when quite young—some little more than infants
—and attend at the village school under the guardian-
ship of the crofter with whom they are boarded

A REJOINDER 113

until they are fourteen years of age. When they leave
school some of them remain upon the island and are
employed in farm work by the crofter upon his:
croft. It was expected that under these conditions
they would become healthy, useful, law-abiding
citizens. Taken from the slums and from their
parents’ evil influences, and in many cases deprived
of all knowledge of whom their parents were, and
placed under those healthy conditions which it is sup-
posed had produced the native population, it was
optimistically believed that a great transformation was
going to beeffected. It was thought that the young and
plastic minds and bodies of the offspring of congenital
civic wrecks were to be turned into successful farmers
and useful citizens. Doubtless in a few cases there
have been ostensible successes. I say ostensible,
because in some of the supposed successful cases
with which I am acquainted, a sufficiently long
period has not elapsed to enable one to judge of
permanent success, and in a few cases it is possible
that the ancestry has not been bad. But these
cases are outside my present contention, which is,
that environment cannot modify an wherently bad
stock. What we require to know, in attempting to judge
of the success or failure of these efforts, is not that
a particular girl has been in service for a few years
and is doing well, but we should seek to know what
has been the nature of her career when her life is
over and her children are old enough to show their
worth or worthlessness. Brass may be polished
and shine like gold for a little period, but it is time

114 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

which tarnishes and covers it with verdigris; it is
gold only that remains untarnished. Such ex-
perience as I have gathered in other fields of these
ostensible successes, does not lead me to believe that
they are of lasting duration, not even with the
individual, and not at all with his offspring. Leaving,
then, these questionable, untested, and unanalysed
successes alone, what are the results with regard
to the remainder? They are precisely that which
the old adage ‘** What is bred in the bone will come out
in the flesh ” would lead us to anticipate. We may
sum them up in a single sentence. It is that,
in this beautiful island with its historic and even
sacred associations, a new slum area is being created
by the operation of the inherent slum instincts of
the putatively rescued denizens of Glasgow’s slums.
Here we see in the making, not slum people by slum
environments, but slums fathomed out of the depths
of the slum instincts of a congenital race of slum
producers. Here in this island, where at one time
only ordinary human weaknesses prevailed, is now
heard the obscene language and the suggestive
songs of the slums; here at night time, the Glasgow
rowdies congregate in bands and create noise and
disturbance. They link their arms and rushing
through the village street in a serried rank, shouting,
whistling, and gesticulating, drive all others before
them. Where there are maid servants, there they
collect in groups and indulge in language which 1s”
not of the Highlands, but of Glasgow slums. No
windows are safe from them, and many have been

A REJOINDER 115

broken by stones thrown at night time. Blinds are
wrenched from their rollers and knockers from the
doors. Slates are knocked off the roofs. Old women of
eighty live in terror of these rowdies. The young
native children are bullied and terrorised by them.
They are viciously cruel to the cattle and dogs left
in their charge. They insult the visitors, making
personal remarks of an offensive character. They
collect in groups at corners, and cough, and guffaw
when a lady or a gentleman, or both, pass by. They
stand outside the open windows of houses where
visitors are staying and eavesdrop. They assemble
at dusk and nightfall when children are going to bed
and make as much noise as possible, by bursting
paper bags and in other ways. They deliberately
come up in groups where two visitors may be talking,
and commence whistling and laughing in an obviously
strained manner, while attempting to seem inoffensive
and unobtrusive. They chase and worry sheep in
lamb, causing premature birth and rendering the
sheep valueless. They carry false and unauthorised
messages from their guardians and obtain articles
of food by false pretences from the shopkeepers,
and then consume the articles among themselves.
They steal various articles when cases of goods are
being unpacked outside a shop, as soon as the shop-
man’s back is turned. When taking messages to
the natives, the moment an opportunity occurs they
steal whatever is within reach. Some are such
perpetual thieves that the crofters send them back.
If they are rebuked by their masters for bad or

116 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

neglected work, they will surreptitiously destroy
some of his property in revenge. The consequence
is, that deeds which ought to be punished go
unpunished.

Many of these youths are half-witted, or are
mentally defective, and are quite irresponsible for
their deeds. One such fellow in the Summer of a recent
year was answerable for the death of two native
children, and in addition of a fellow Glasgow boy,
against whom, it is said, he entertained a grudge. I -
went into the circumstances of this case, and I feel
inclined to agree with the impression existing
among the villagers, that they contained
some disquieting features. While, I suppose, it will
never be possible to say with absolute certainty, one
way or the other, whether the death of these three
children, by drowning, at eleven o’clock at night, was a
pure accident or not, for the natives themselves are
doubtful, there is no question as to the absolute
callousness of the dull-witted youth of eighteen or
nineteen years of age, who was responsible for it.
Neither at the time, nor since, has he shown any
sign of regret of any kind, for the sad deed. He passed
the stricken mothers and fathers whose children
had been lost, without the least sign of shame or
remorse. When those who came to the rescue had
succeeded in saving one child, and had spent some
time in a futile search for others, desired to ascertain
how many were in the boat, and turned to question
the youth who had upset it, they found he had
disappeared. A search for him revealed the tact

A REJOINDER 117

that he had walked home, undressed, and got into
bed without mentioning a word of what had happened
to his master or anyone else. They found him sound
asleep and difficult to awake. He was roused even-
tually, and told to come to the village. Arrived
there, he was asked how many children went over-
board. His reply was “to stand still and to burst
out laughing!” That is all the reply they got from
him. And greater compunction than that he has
‘never manifested. Now, what is the general signifi-
cance of this case ?

Here, under an environment which in no way
ministers to them, do the slum instincts come out.
Those instincts which delight in roaming abroad at
night indulging in horse play, and leading others to
do wrong, are here manifested, not in the slums, but
in a beautiful environment. From the evidence it is
clear that this youth did not appear in the village
until aiter 10 o’clock at night, and that he then by
cajolery or threats inveigled smaller boys, including
the one against whom it is said he had a grudge, to
come down to the boats, instead of going home as
they were at the moment doing. ‘“ He packed the
four children all into the bows of a small boat, where
they cowered under protestation, and thus weighed the
bow low down into the water, and though he knew
nothing of sculling, he then commenced to pull with one
oar in a slot in the stern sheet of the boat. He swung
the oar violently from side to side, and while the boat
was lurching terribly, the oar slipped, and the bow
being overladen and low in the water, the boat at

118 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

that part went under, filled and sank.” All the
occupants went under, except the Glasgow parish
youth who was answerable for the accident. He
apparently knew the art of floating, and remained
on his back until a second rescue boat picked him up.
Only one of the four other children was saved.

Now I would like to ask Dr. Cobbett a question.
What influence is there in civilisation generally, or in
the example of the very cautious natives of this island,
that can be accounted answerable for the manifesta- .
tion of the utter recklessness which I have just
described, or for the exhibition of that equally utter
callousness which this youth exhibited after the
committal of this deed? There is nothing whatever.
Every external influence, every social idea, every
convention of life is dead against them both. This
youth did what he did because of his defective nature.
And to rear him in health at the expense of better
citizens, in the hope that because our society has given
up or does not now entertain ‘‘ cannibalistic desires,”
and, that therefore, though inherent cannibals be
among us, they will fall smoothly into line with non-
cannibalistic citizens, 1s simply to disregard the
plainest facts of life, and to rear persons who, born
with innate qualities opposed to the prevailing
environment, will none the less manifest them.

But I will take Dr. Cobbett yet a stage farther
into the consideration of what I cannot but help
regarding as a remarkable plea. In this island
there are two brothers of the fellow who caused
the drowning disaster. Both of them are half-witted,

A REJOINDER tals,

and one is a broad, burly fellow. This one is boarded
out with a certain crofter, and he is now about sixteen
years of age. He is entrusted by his master with a
gun for shooting rabbits. Ii he is annoyed he
becomes like a madman. One day a native child
annoyed him over some trifle. This burly fellow
lost his temper and endeavoured to catch the native
child. He failed in that, but he threatened to
shoot the boy when he got a chance. Is he likely
to do it, it may be asked ? Will he commit a personal
injury ? His previous deeds may answer for him.
Some time ago a Glasgow parish girl annoyed this

‘

youth. He seized a “ grape,” a double-forked instru-
ment with pointed prongs used for digging up
potatoes, ran after her, endeavoured to stab her,
missed her body but punctured her hand. The
girl was in a serious condition for some time and
nearly lost her hand. Does Dr. Cobbett contend the
conditions of society must be so altered that we
must not have “ grapes ”’ or other peaceful-occupation
instruments, because they are capable of becoming
lethal weapons when handled by persons of vicious
instincts, or that the environment of our society
must be so altered that tantalizing “ Eves” shall
be no more? And all this is to be done—and
those citizens who delight to have teasing “‘ Eves ”’
around them are to be rendered restless and unhappy
—hbecause, forsooth, we must not let the vicious
instincts of a defective race have an opportunity of
manifesting themselves! Surely that is a remarkable

120 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

doctrine! I cannot think Dr. Cobbett quite appre-
ciates what his own doctrine really means. Would
he like to sweep civilisation clean of its “ Eves,”
because some men have very bad tempers and
little tact, and it is not desirable their environment
should be such as to allow them to manifest their
defects ? Would it not be better to get rid of the
relatively few imperfect men and to leave our Garden
of Eden as we know it? I feel sure that Dr. Cobbett
and I will agree upon the answer.

But I come once more to insist on the primal
point, that the environment which reigns in the island
makes for peace, and industry, and honesty. Yet in
spite of that, this environment is degraded, the
lives of people are endangered, slum attributes are
manifested, because there are thrown into it persons
of defective instincts, derived from defective paren-
tages. But not only do they not respond to a good
environment, they deliberately and __ persistently
endeavour to destroy or nullify all the good efforts
which kind and interested persons endeavour to
make on their behalf.

There is a lady who lives upon the island through-
out the year, and who feels a maternal interest in the
young persons there, both native and the imported
pauper element. She endeavoured for several years
to hold a Bible Class for girls and boys over fourteen,
in the schoolroom. But it was futile. The Glasgow
parish youths, who had been sent to the island to be
influenced by better surroundings, collected together
outside the schoolroom windows and laughed, and

A REJOINDER 121

guffawed, and indulged in horse play, so that it was
impossible for the class to proceed. But they even
proceeded to worse acts of hooliganism than that.
They opened the windows and threw in mud, snow,
and stones.

Very much the same treatment awaited the altruistic
efforts of one of the assistant schoolmistresses. On
two evenings a week this lady endeavoured to hold a
Sewing and Conversational Class for all the girls in the
island, who were over fourteen years of age. At first she
tried theschoolroom. Butthat was rendered intolerable
by the Glasgow hooligans outside. The teacher had
to break up the class, night after night, because
these roughs threw things in at the window. When
she went home in despair they jeered and laughed
at her. Not willing to give up without a further
struggle, she endeavoured to hold the class at her
own rooms. It was of no avail. The roughs invaded
her home and indulged in the same annoyance as
before. The result is, as I am informed, there is
neither Bible Class nor Sewing and Conversational
Class in the island. In other words, utter lawlessness
prevails. Yet here are the very circumstances
which, if Dr. Cobbett’s contention be true, should
yield us the fruit he has led us to expect. Everything
in the native environment of the island calls for
good order. They who are there, be they native or
visitor or boarded-out youths and girls, find nothing
to incite them to such acts as I have described.
Yet we do find precisely what biological considera-
tions indicate we must inevitably find, namely, that

122 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the transplantation of inherently vicious and criminal
instincts from the slums of cities to the beautiful envi-
ronment of the Western islands,is but re-creating there
the slums which were also made in the city by them.
Given bad instincts, and be the environment what it
may, they will manifest themselves with the same
certainty that the sun rises and sets alike on mountain
and valley, on sea and land.

The operation of the sentiment which I criticised
in my original article, but which Dr. Cobbett has
endeavoured to defend, is one of grave menace to
Society. In an island like the one with which I am
now dealing we can see its menace at once. It is easy
to take a bird’s-eye view of the whole problem. There
we can see a peaceful and not too energetic population,
of honest and easy-going people, enduring the mob-rule
and tyranny of a lawless section, rather than put them-
selves to the necessary trouble of crushing the mob,
or running the risk of incurring stealthy and
underhand reprisals. Indeed, some representations,
I have been informed, have been made to the
Glasgow Parish Council but without avail.

Among them I may mention that of a very respect-
able native holding a responsible position. There is
only one school in the island, and to this both the
native and Glasgow pauper children are sent. The
consequences are undesirable. In ways which I cannot
mention the pauper children are dirty and unwhole-
some. The bigger ones are brutal and rough. Their
language is foul and offensive. This native, a man
with a large family, quite naturally resents sending
his children to associate with such companions. He

A REJOINDER 123

therefore wrote to the Clerk of the Glasgow Parish
Council, and asked if he was to be compelled to send his
children to the same institution as pauper children.
The reply he received was that the school was not an
institution, and that he must educate his children.
That is all the care and sympathy which a respectable
member of the community, desiring to preserve his
children from contact with foul language, rough
behaviour, and dirty habits, receives from a public
official! Nowadays, it seems, we have only pity
and help and money for the undesirables. And this
remarkable sentiment, which believes in the influence
of the environment, and which sends the scourings
of the Glasgow slums to this island for improvement,
swamps the place by an importation so great that
seventy to eighty per cent. of the school population is
made up of the imported element! Ina word, the old
and good environment is swamped by the new and
imported vicious one! And this by the people who
believe in the influence of the environment! Was
there ever such a reductio ad absurdum of any doctrine
before ?

I will not now pursue this matter further, except
to say, that the remarkable social sentiment which I
have been criticising, in so far as it has been operating
in the island, has resulted in sowing there the seeds of
potential tragedies. I think it right to take this oppor-
tunity of uttering a serious warning. I should neglect
an obvious duty if I did not, for the circumstances of
the situation are fraught with the gravest danger.
We are all aware of the power which mere suggestion
can exercise over unbalanced and weakly minds ;

124 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

minds which are swirled into tempestuous action,
much in the same way that Autumn leaves are swept
before the equinoctial gales. In this island, those
capable of making violent suggestions, and those with
weak and defective minds that are swayed by these
suggestions, are both present. I am speaking on reli-
able information and from personal knowledge, when I
say, that on a recent occasion a violent suggestion was
made and the unstable minds responded. A mere
accident of circumstance only averted a tragic act.
There are imported youths in the island who are not
mentally defective in the ordinary sense of the word,
but on the contrary are exceedingly cunning, calm, and
calculating. They have almost the voice of a woman,
the plausibility of a consummate actor, but the
instincts and habits of a criminal. These are they
who, at a distance and under cover, throw out sug-
gestions of mischief and evil. The mentally defective
—some, as I have said, entrusted with guns or other
dangerous instruments—are there with responsive
and helpless wrecks of intellect. They are the
instruments of the cunning minds.
_ Some day, unless the island be purged of its
defective people, it will be the scene of another
pathetic tragedy. All the elements for it, are there.
Those who are responsible for the maintenance of
this state of affairs are incurring a heavy respon-
sibility. I trust, before it is too late, they will weigh
the circumstances carefully. |
I come back now to Dr. Cobbett’s main plea (ante
p. 105) that, though individuals may be defective in
their character, yet if they are brought up under new

A REJOINDER 125

and better conditions, their bad characteristics will not
have achance of developing. This plea, it seems to me,
falls hopelessly to the ground, in the light of the facts
which I have described. It is not only in this island
that these facts exist. They are everywhere around
us. They are in our pauper institutions, in our
reformatories, In our prisons, in our schools, in our
daily life, and in many cultured homes, the good
names of which have been disgraced by the deeds
of an adopted son or daughter, chosen from an
unhappy stock ; so that they who have been deceived
and whose delusions have vanished, may say in the
hour of their remorse to those who have disappointed
them and have crushed the pearls of their benevolence
and cherished hopes: “‘ Annon sicut lac mulsisti me,
et sicut caseum coagulasti me?”

I will next attempt to deal with Dr. Cobbett’s
contention from another aspect. We may consider
the question of habitual alcoholism and drunkenness.
Now, I think all will agree that a permanent change
of environment, in the sense that social tradition
and custom have altered, has been brought about
and that it has been operating for at least two
generations. Yet both these forms of vice are
common, and to such an extent that in these latter
days, optimistic Chancellors have turned into futile
moralists. Every experience of our social life points
the conclusion that a traditional inheritance of
external concepts is incapable of exercising any
useful influence, except upon those whose physiological
inheritance is so constituted, that it spontaneously
responds to the external agents.

126 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

The truth is, if the inherent desires and instincts
are there, no environment which we can originate,
or maintain, or conceive, will render it impossible
for those instincts, or desires, or defects to
manifest themselves. We may as well try to
persuade ourselves that by removing food and
water from a community, we can thereby still the
pangs of hunger and thirst, as to believe that mani-
festations of other inborn qualities will not evidence
themselves in the absence of that positive environment
which we conceive to be necessary for their manifes-
tation. There is some danger that two different things
are being confused. We cannot, by any environment,
call into activity qualities which do not exist.
But neither can we suppress inherent qualities, or
even the ultimate manifestation of their activities,
merely because an appropriate environment is absent.
To take Dr. Cobbett’s own example of the supposed
reduced mortality from consumption because of an
improved sanitation. Even though we grant, for the
sake of argument, that the reduced death-rate from
consumption may be due to those improved conditions
which have reduced or rendered more difficult of
multiplication the number or virulence of the tubercle
bacilli, are we sure we have also minimised the
manifestation of that human defectiveness which
results in this disease ? Pneumonia of recent years
has shown a decided tendency to increase. What is
that due to? Is that, too, to be ascribed to improved
sanitation ? Are we quite sure that, in spite of an
environment which, we are told, is becoming more
and more unfavourable to the spread of tuberculosis,

A REJOINDER 127

the defective quality which renders a_ subject
hable to tuberculosis is not merely manifesting
itself in another way? We may, perhaps, escape
the toll which Nature demands from us at one gate
on the road of life, but she will have it from us at
another.

Then there is the question of correlation. Does
the tubercular diathesis accompany some other
defective quality ? Here we have no certain answer,
But we have a general experience, and there is no
doubt that in some families this diathesis is merely
the expression of a much wider constitutional defect.
It is accompanied by a frail physique, a slender hold
on life, and a lassitude of action. Now, any improve-
ment in the environment which saves this type of
tuberculous person, also propagates a race charac-
terised by the possession of the correlative qualities.
Is that desirable ? I imagine not. The truth is,
in our desire to save life and reduce death, at all costs,
we are being carried too far. We are running grave
risks. Let us try to foresee one of them.

At a certain, ill-defined stage in the history of
the world, it could have been said that the march
of Civilisation and of Empire was Westward. There
are not wanting the signs that it will again turn
Kastward. Suppose it does. Before the West
relinquishes its sceptre to the Kast, its retention will
be fought for on many a bloody battlefield. But
bullets and sabres are not the only instruments of
destruction, even on a battlefield. Epidemic diseases
play their part. While the West, according to Dr.
Cobbett’s environmental doctrine, has been saving

J

128 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

- hordes of persons innately susceptible to microbic
‘diseases, because of the improved sanitation, in the
East, the teeming millions of China have been evolved
in the unspeakable insanitation of its cities, and
in many instances, under a tropical sun. The
armies of the Kast and West would meet on
unsanitary battlefields. That of the East is com-
posed of men evolved under unsanitary conditions,
and therefore more or less immune or _ only
difficultly susceptible to microbic attacks. But the
army of the West is full of soldiers reared under
softer conditions, derived from ancestors who for
generations have evolved under circumstances where
the constitutionally weak as well as strong survived.
That army must contain a large proportion, perhaps the
major part, of persons susceptible to microbic attacks.
Under such circumstances, the East has an advantage
over the West. The one army will be decimated by
epidemics, the other not. The sceptre will pass
from the nations which feared death too much and
loved life too well, to those who faced the struggle of
existence with a hardier bravery and a more Spartan
resignation. And, again in the history of Mankind,
the “breath of the Angel” will decimate another
army—that of the West, while it hes during the
night outside the camp of the Hast—as in ancient
days, before the sleeping army of the Jews, it
withered the host of the Assyrians and destroyed
them to a man.

This raises a further consideration which I am
impelled to urge. Even though we grant, for the sake
of discussion, that it is possible to prevent the

A REJOINDER 129

manifestation of tubercular disease in the absence of
those environmental agents which call it forth, there
still remains the very important question, Can we
ensure that these particular agents will always be
absent ? Is it tolerably certain that at no future
period in our history circumstances may not arise
which will render it impossible for this artificially
imposed environment to be any longer maintained ?
Let us look, while yet we have time, along one road
which opens out to a vista, where danger is spelt at
every point along its view.

I think the possibility, which I have just described,
of a crucial struggle between the East and West,
whose respective denizens are evolving under very
different conditions of sanitation, suggests that before
it is too late Western Civilisation should mark time,
and take heed of the direction and velocity of its
movement. For it should never be forgotten that
every improvement in the sanitary conditions of life
enables yet weaker and less resistant stocks to live
and propagate. It is, therefore, possible to raise the
quest of sanitation into a fetich, and under the guise
of a false health to hide the fact, that we are by
invidious and stealthy methods ensuring the ultimate
destruction of our race as a dominating factor in the
affairs of the world.

But improved sanitation of the co-operative and
compulsory type does more than save the weak. It
saves the innately dirty people from the consequences
of their habits. I do not think anyone who has gone
into the question will doubt that, with but few
exceptions, dirtiness and untidiness of personal habit

130 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

is a matter deeper than convention or training.
At any rate, I am prepared to discuss that question
on a basis of fact, if I am challenged.

Now to save innately dirty people from themselves,
is to rear in increasing numbers a race of an undesir-
able type. At present, apparently, in the plenitude
of our modern wisdom, we are prepared to compel the
dirty to live within certain limits of cleanliness. We
have set aside officials for the purpose. Doubtless, the
arrangement will work well, until the dirty people are
so numerous, that it willbe impossible to have sufficient
officials to check the manifestation of their undesirable
habits, unless we shall be prepared to make all the
rest of the nation officials. Then will come the
reckoning. In the latter part of the nimeteenth cen-
tury we did not pay the toll we should have done to
Nature, but in the latter half of the twentieth century
She will have it, with exorbitant interest, exacting it
under “harsh and unconscionable” terms. For the in-
herently lazy, sluggish, and dirty people, grown into
numbers beyond control, will destroy the clean en-
vironment, and will re-create unsanitary conditions,
which, descending upon a race ripened by modern
sentiment for the harvest, will garner its fruit in almost
illimitable measure.

The noblest sentiment this nation can adopt is not
that of cheating Nature, by presuming upon our
imperfect knowledge and the arrogance of over-
weening aspirations, but that which is expressed in
Wordsworth’s lines :—

‘To the solid ground of Nature, trusts the Mind
which builds for Aye.”

Biological Iconoclasm,
Mendelian Inheritance and Human Society

A PLEA FOR THE OPERATION OF A MORE
VIRILE SENTIMENT IN HUMAN AFFAIRS.

A Criticism
By Miss H. M. WODEHOUSE.

(Lecturer in Philosophy in the University of Birmingham,

Berna myself the most unskilled of amateurs in
natural science, I am filled with the deepest respect
for those whose professional studies lie in this
department; and I accept with an undoubting faith
everything that these experts tell me of the objects
which their studies bring before them. Only when
a scientific expert crosses the line into my own
department of “‘ mental and moral” science does
this paralysing reverence relax its hold. It is this
overlapping of subjects which gives me courage to
offer a few tentative comments on an interesting
paper, by Mr. G. P. Mudge, in The Mendel Journal
for October, 1909, “A Plea for the Operation of a
more Virile Sentiment in Human Affairs.”

The part of the paper which concerns me may
be summed up as follows, probably in unscientific
language, but I hope not unfairly. ‘“ The unit
qualities which make an individual valuable or

132 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

valueless are determined by heredity. Environ-
ment cannot affect them, but it can select and
encourage the individuals with the best qualities
by means of getting rid of the unfit. Hence social
reformers are grievously and dangerously wrong in
attempting to alter the natural environment of any
class in society.” I propose to examine succes-
sively the three parts of this text, beginning at
the end.*

1.—‘‘ Let ENVIRONMENT ALONE.”

I have found much difficulty in understanding
the author’s conception of Nature on the one hand,
and of interference with Nature on the other.
“Those best fitted to survive,” he tells us, “ will
do so by purely natural processes, without any
artificial and compulsory interference or help. And
we may be sure that these processes are benign ;
biological teaching is clear on that point. By these
processes, throughout the whole realm of nature,
the maximum amount of happiness and vigour is
attained, with the minimum amount of misery or
pain. Human interference but decreases the former,
while increasing the latter. It is better, in the
faith of the greater religions, to accept our destiny.”

Metaphysicians who hold that this world, in
popular language, is the best of all possible worlds,

* My criticism deals with only a small part of the paper. I do not
touch, for instance, on the author’s plea that the unfit ought to be
killed off. not maintained in workhouses, asylums, etc. It is conceiv-
able that in a more enlightened age we should deliberately kill more
people. I only wish to urge that in such an age we shall not so trust
the workings of Nature in a slum environment as to leave her to do
the selection and the killing for us.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 133

may perhaps be a little surprised that Biology
should be undertaking in so explicit and coura-
geous a way to teach Metaphysics; but they will be
pleased to have its help in the defence of a Nature
which includes earthquakes, butcher-birds, keas,
the typhoid bacillus, and the tsetse fly. We accept
as benign all processes in which these factors are
concerned. The difficulty only enters when we
have to distinguish the natural from the unnatural
processes in the affairs of human society. Studying
animal societies, we find that mortal combats
between jealous wooers, and the careful nursing by
ants of the larve of beetles which will presently
devour the baby ants, and the extermination of
cattle by the bite of an insect, are all natural and
therefore admirable events. The moral for us
would seem to be that we should make haste to
remove such flagrant interferences with nature as
are found in the main drainage system and _ the
organisation of the metropolitan police. Accept-
ance of destiny is found purest in that mother who
refuses to alter her child’s environment to defeat
scarlet fever or concussion of the brain.

Seriously, what is this Nature which includes
and justifies the doings of all animals but man ?
which renders infallible all instincts and aspirations
but his? Where is this benign and perfect force
which we have only to make way for? and _ how is
this making way, in practical politics, to be brought
about? I can find no profit in this way of using
words.

134 THE MENDEL JOURNAL
2.—‘‘ ENVIRONMENT SELECTS THE Best INDIVIDUALS.”

I express this part of the text in an ambiguous
form because the ambiguity seems really to be
present in Mr. Mudge’s treatment of the subject.
The literal truth, one is taught to suppose, is that
any set of conditions tends to select the individuals
whose qualities give them an advantage under those
conditions. Science, I take it, commits itself to no
further meaning of “fittest”? or “best.” In fact,
we often condemn an environment because by strict
natural law it gives the advantage to qualities which
we condemn; witness “the corruptions of a Royal

v
i

Court ” * where the time-server and flatterer succeed
and survive. Given any environment, Nature may
be trusted to select. Can we trust her to select

such qualities as we shall approve of ?

Further, no conceivable environment can take
account of the whole of an individual’s qualities
when it gives its judgment for life or death. The
Summer Savory in Mr. Mudge’s instance can turn
purple on the mountain-side, whilst the Flax from
an ‘‘inherent defect” remains what it was in the
valley, and dies. But in the valley, I imagine, the
first would have found not the smallest advantage
in its possession of this power, and the second not
the smallest disadvantage in the lack of it. Their
selection by the valley environment must take place
without any regard to its presence or absence.
Whether or not this is so with plants, it is certainly

*<c A Plea,” page 121.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 135

so with any organism as complex as a human being.
How wide is the range of human qualities which
determine the survival of a Congo native to-day, or
of a factory child a hundred years ago? One can
hardly suppose that the inherent capacity for writing
the plays of Shakespeare or for making the dis-
coveries of Newton or Darwin, or any benevolence,
or wit, or refinement, or gaiety, or unselfishness,
would have very much to say in the matter. Given
any environment, Nature will select, but the kind
and the range of the qualities she favours will
depend on the environment within which she works.

On these two points I cannot help thinking that
“A Plea for Virile Sentiment” is lacking in ex-
plicitness, and that the author’s constant use of
“fittest” and “best” without qualification has a
dangerous tendency to disguise the fact that they
must mean no more than ‘“‘having an advantage
under the given conditions.” This is all that Nature
is charged with, and in this sense the fittest will
survive whatever we do and whatever our aristo-
cratic or democratic policy may be. Whether the
best in any more ordinary sense survive will depend
on the conditions, and these conditions, by action
or abstention, we must partly fix. Is it Mr. Mudge’s
opinion that the present slum environment selects
its survivors on the basis of qualities so valuable
and so varied that we can no longer hope to
improve it?

136 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

3.—“ Unit QUALITIES, WHICH DETERMINE VALUE, ARE
DETERMINED BY HEREDITY AND NOT BY ENVIRONMENT.”

I come now to the most serious of all my ob-
jections to “A Plea for Virile Sentiment.” This
objection rests on what seems to me the very
remarkable nature of the author’s assumptions as
to the unit qualities of the mental world.

If I have not misunderstood Mendelism alto-
gether, it appears that no application of it can be
made with certainty until the experimentor has dis-
covered what the transmissible unit qualities are.
For instance, the tendency of a sweet pea to be a
dwarf is such a quality, but the tendency of a
petunia to be white is not a unit but results from a
combination of factors; and the prophecies about
inheritance must be quite different in these two
cases. Further, the power of a muscle to do very
hard work is not asserted to be transmissible if that
power has been acquired by exercise. The capacity
for developing such a power may be inherent, but
the power itself is not inherent but acquired, and
no prophecies about its inheritance can be made so
far as Mendelism is concerned. If then we are to
prophesy about the inheritance of mental character-
istics, it will be all-important to find out the inherent
units. Now what I urge from the side of psychology
is this: that, except to a minute extent, nobody
can say at present what the units are; that
scarcely any of the qualities instanced by Mr. Mudge

VIRILE SENTIMENT 137

seem at all likely to be units; and that we are al-
most certainly wrong if we choose as units any of
the qualities which are markedly valuable or hurt-
ful to the human race.

I yield at once to my opponent the obvious
exception of such definite deformity in the mind or
brain as shows itself in insanity or feeble-minded-
ness. There seems to be good ground for believing
that these may be units and transmissible like
deformities in the hand or foot But, unless special
evidence is produced, I do not yield those qualities
which we praise or blame in sane men. My reason
is that most of them seem to fall with far greater
naturalness into other classes, in none of which
inherent and simply hereditary units are to be found.

(a) For instance, a great part of the social
value of a man depends not on anything that we
can believe to be simple qualities, but on the com-
binations of these. An amount of caution which
in a phlegmatic character without keen interests
might almost paralyse the man’s power of action,
might in an energetic nature be just the tempering
required to make a first-rate general or Prime
Minister.

(6) Another great part of social value or dis-
value depends on the fact that qualities, like muscles,
increase in strength as they are used. Consider the
way, familiar to educators, in which a wise training
may increase the power of taking responsibility.
No doubt the capacity for acquiring this power may

138 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

or must be inherent, but this in itself is quite in-
sufficient to determine the value of the child and
the desirability of keeping him alive. Consider
again a boy with a strong enjoyment of bodily
pleasures, whose desires if unwisely indulged may
turn to devils within him, but who if temperately
trained may keep the love of beautiful and pleasant
things as a deep rich undertone to all his life, making
that life delightful to himself and to all around
him. If we as benevolent autocrats held power of
life and death over such children, we should be
bound to ask not only, What is in them? but, How
are you going to bring them up? What are the
opportunities and temptations of their environment
to be? For on the answer might depend whether
they would grow up to be the best supports or the
worst burdens for the community.

(c) The existence of a third and by far the
most important class of values depends upon the
commonplace of ethics, that nothing in heaven or
earth is good without qualification, except the good
will.

Being interpreted, the truth in this classical
doctrine shows itself as what common sense knows,
that we can scarcely say whether a quality is good
or bad until we know in the service of what purpose
its owner is using it. The energy and inventive-
ness which make a small boy the plague of his
school, may so be turned presently as to make that
boy the leader of the school in all that is admirable.

VIRILE SENTIMENT 139

The same courage and resolution and quick decisive-
ness that serve Garibaldi serve also the Tottenham
murderers. Whether the civic value of a man ora
child shall be positive or negative depends chiefly
not on any simple qualities but on the direction of
purpose and will. Now it is just this direction of
will that is found nowhere short of humanity to a
noticeable extent, which therefore it may be difficult
for natural science to judge aright. From the point
of view of moral science I urge with all possible
emphasis that to treat such direction as a simple
quality, transmissible as a deformity is trans-
missible, is impossible in every way; it is absurd ;
it is mythology. Criminality in this sense is no
more innate than loyalty to Austria was innate in
the Swiss Von Mechel, or loyalty to Italy in the
Englishman Peard. Anyone can see a wise teacher
winning a child to the side of authority, or a foolish
one worrying him into rebellion against it; it will
only be the foolish one who speaks of “ innate
naughtiness.”” The child, and still more the man,
knows that he can make a choice; can decide for
himself what object he will serve and pursue. Some
choose when they are young to serve society as
such; a few decide to fight society as such; and
none of them ever manage to live consistently on
those lines. Our lives are made up of a continuous
series of decisions, and the civic value of most of
us is positive and negative by turns. Whichever it
is, we decide it continually as we go along. If our
choices are inherent, it is in a metaphysical sense

140 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

which makes them just as much inherent in the
environment asin us. What I do depends on my
capacity for loving, and on the objects of love
which are presented to me.

One may end here with the real and valuable
political truth which lies behind the scorn thrown
on environment. JMJere environment is truly of very
little account compared with the presentation to us
of objects which we are prepared to love. If the
instinct for bodily comfort is not yet so developed
and refined as to find satisfaction in cleanliness, it
may be of little use to provide the man with chances
of cleanliness. On the other hand, it may at the
right time be just the chance for which the develop-
ment of the instinct was waiting. The difference
between those improvements of environment which
are thus worth while and those which are not worth
while is a matter for the most careful, patient, and
long-suffering study and experiment. As students
of moral science we hope for the greatest help from
students of natural science, only they must not
encourage us to slur distinctions, to draw easy
a priori conclusions, or to commit in any way those
sins of rough and careless work from which in
their own department they have so nobly forborne.

A Rejoinder to Miss Wodehouse’s
Criticism.
By GEO. P. MUDGE.

I witu endeavour to reply to most of the criticisms
which a metaphysical critic has passed upon my
article in the last number of this Journal. It may
also be permissible to attempt to show that Biology
is transcendent to Metaphysics, if not in its aérial
castles, at least in its mundane temples.

Though recognising that Miss Wodehouse has
desired to be fair and has tried to understand my
attitude, I am afraid that the metaphysical spectacles,
through which she has surveyed it from a lofty height,
has rendered her task a little difficult, and not yet
can it be said that she has fully understood the nature
of my plea. If we may judge from one of her state-
ments, it 1s not certain whether we are to believe
that metaphysicians regard Metaphysics as a
science or simply look upon it as a relic of the Scholas-
tic Period; an academic reminiscence of the early
days of culture when it was the best that the era
could produce, and the pronouncements of the
Schoolmen were accepted as articles of faith. But
Miss Wodehouse may rest assured that the days of
“accepting with undoubting faith everything that
experts tell us,” even though we be “unskilled
amateurs,’ have passed for ever. I have asked no

142 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

one to believe me, but simply and quite honestly
have endeavoured to bring to the attention of my
countrymen some biological considerations which,
I am impelled to think, indicate the existence of a
grave and imminent danger in the present conditions
and the ruling sentiment of the body politic. It is
open to them to enquire whether those considerations
are valid or invalid; and whether they do or do not
throw for them a new interpretation upon the origin
and cause of the human misery and squalor which
exists. In this discussion I may be allowed to claim
an advantage over my critic; for I have passed
through the phase that marks her present attitude
to that which is indicated in my article. I am not
oblivious to the arguments, nor to the interpretations
of human life, which are opposed to my own. I
have endeavoured to consider most of them.

Miss Wodehouse has in a very fair manner
intimated in the beginning of her criticism that
she has probably summed up my position in un-
scientific language, but she hopes not unfairly.
There are one or two statements, however, in which
certainly my position is not represented in language
which quite accurately conveys its meaning. I should
not, for imstance, say that the environment “ en-
couraged the fit by getting rid of the unfit.” We
may, in social matters, harass the fit in order to
encourage the unfit; but that is a different
thing. Neither is my attitude quite fully
stated when I am credited with the statement that
“social reformers are wrong in attempting to alter

A REJOINDER 143

the natural environment of any particular social
class in Society.” I hold this opinion, it is true.
But the strongest objection to modern sentiment, is
not so much that it is striving to alter the
natural environment under which we have evolved,
as that it is making an effort to substitute for it a
wrong and dangerous artificial one. This new en-
vironment, I think every one will admit who has
considered the question at all, is operating to
destroy or to harass the better and self-supporting
citizens in order to save an increasing number of
altogether unworthy, helpless, and hopeless civic
cripples, and is encouraging others who are capable of
self-support, to throw themselves upon the charity
of their country. What is most dangerous in
the practical effects of this modern sentiment is that
it is turning human society upside down, and is by
artificial processes rendering the naturally fit arti-
ficially unfit, and the naturally unfit artificially fit.
In other words, it is destroying a Shakespeare to save
an itinerant preacher, and it is harassing out of
existence a Reynolds in order to preserve a pavement
colourist. It is conceivable that even Miss Wodehouse
will not contend, in the light of modern knowledge,
even with the aid of metaphysics, that however
“careful the treatment and judicious the training,”
it is possible to convert the people who have mistaken
aspiration for inspiration into Shakespeares or into
Reynolds’. If she does so contend the question
may be asked: How is it that in the period when
Shakespeare and George Stephenson were living,

K

144 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

they accomplished what they did without any
National Elementary Free Compulsory Education ?
And that after forty years’ operation of this national
fetish neither a Shakespeare nor a Stephenson have
arisen from the people as the outcome of it?
If all that she contends be true, can she vouchsafe
to us why it is that, now we have Nature Study
classes in the Elementary Schools, the Surrey County
Council finds it incumbent to frame a regulation
imposing a fine for the destruction of flowers in the
fields? When that question has been answered,
is 1t possible that we may be further informed from
those heights of metaphysics accessible only to the
elect, why it is that boys instructed in Nature Study
classes and reared in the influence of the sentiments
that appear to have become vicariously attached to
them, should go into every byeway and field they
can find, and wring the necks of nestlings just for
the fun of the thing ? Before compulsory education
for the masses was instituted, cock-fighting was one
of their amusements. We have striven by various
means—including a costly national education—to
suppress this form of recreation. While we have not
altogether succeeded, wringing “ nestlings’ necks for
fun” has appeared as a substitute for it. It may be
possible to change the form in which cruelty or
viciousness may be manifested, but we cannot by any
means at our disposal convert the inherent instincts
which lie at the root of these things. That is why
the unmetaphysical prophets of old said: “ Who
can make straight that which the Lord has made

A REJOINDER 145

crooked?” or sought an answer to the question:
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard
his spots ?”

Another phrase of Miss Wodehouse’s that is liable
to give a misimpression of my attitude is that in
her footnote on page 132. She says that 1 have
pleaded the unfit ought to be killed off. It is strange
how almost universally an author’s passive attitude
is converted into a positive one by his critics.
The phrase “ killed off” is not mine. It was
urged that the multiplication of the unfit should
cease. Kssentially, the view I advocate in nearly
all social questions is that, after justice, and the
army and navy have been adequately provided for,
the rest should be left to voluntary co-operation and
to latsser faire. In this I simply follow Herbert
Spencer, whose prophecies are being rapidly fulfilled.
We cannot escape the obvious conclusion, that
a fit nation can only be so if it is composed of
self-reliant and_ self-supporting individuals. The
nation must necessarily weaken as the number of its
weak, helpless, and unreliant citizens increase, while
those of antithetic qualities decrease. The France
of to-day is a standing warning of the danger that
faces the England of to-morrow. A strong nation
will essentially be one which has adopted as a
guiding principle the maxim of “letting those
live who can,” and those who cannot shall find
an abode elsewhere. Of course, I urge nothing
against the altruism of the family nor of that of
friends. That is not likely, in the long run, to be

146 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

misapplied, and it may call into manifestation the
nobler attributes of our kind. I should certainly
be the first to regret the disappearance from human
life of generous and noble deeds, and of altruistic
efforts voluntarily rendered. But it is dangerous
to indulge in compulsory altruism, especially when
it is wrongly directed. It results in altruistic aids for
those who do not deserve them, and in return they
who give are met with the grossest and most revolting
form of egoism. The obtrusive poor who have always
been the perennial recipients of charity have ever
afforded the best illustration of this statement.

Miss Wodehouse says she has much difficulty in
understanding my conception of Nature. It is not,
I suppose, difficult to believe that study-chair con-
ceptions of it will largely depend upon temperament.
To some people Nature is an abode of beauty, of song,
of happiness, of peace, of arboreal pathways flowing
with milk and honey, along which float the strains of
melodious avian music, and disturbed alone by Man’s
advent. To others it is a ceaseless battlefield of the
vulture’s talons and the tiger’s canines, and all is
ceaseless misery and pain and death beneath a
canopy of blood. But to others, those whose lives
have been spent in the mountain, on the sea, in
tempest and in calm, as well as in cities—and I
rank myself among them—Nature is but the un-
ceasing operation of irrevocable, inexorable, and eternal
processes, which are sometimes called laws. In their
operation there is inflicted some pain and misery,
but there is also attained the maximum of happiness

A REJOINDER 147

and the evolution of races to which life is a gleeful
struggle, its vigorous exercise a joy, and death
merely a passing incident.

This restatement of my conception of Nature
brings us next to Miss Wodehouse’s gentle and subtle
sarcasm, when she says “that this best possible
of all worlds includes earthquakes, butcher-birds,
keas, the typhoid bacillus, and the tsetse fly. We
accept as benign all processes in which these factors
are concerned. Studying animal societies, we find that
mortal combats between jealous wooers, and the
careful nursing by ants of the larvae of beetles which
will presently devour the baby ants, and the exter-
mination of cattle by the bite of an insect, are all
natural and therefore admirable events. The moral
for us would seem to be that we should make haste
to remove such flagrant interferences with Nature
as are found in the main drainage system and the
organisation of the metropolitan police. Acceptance
of destiny is found purest in that mother who refuses
to alter her child’s environment to defeat scarlet
fever or concussion of the brain.” This seems to
be a terrible indictment. In reality it is only meta-
physical war paint. A little biological washing
and it comes off.

Let us take the earthquake first, and, uninvited
by our critic, let us also add volcanoes. Miss Wode-
house appears to believe they are evil things, even
though they be natural. Let us see how far they
may not be also regarded as implements of good.
Personally, as beneficent agents working through

148 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the portals of a passing misery to the goal of a lasting
happiness, I should rank them just as high as
the plague bacillus. Now what are the facts?
The volcanic and earthquake areas of the world are
all well known. Where an earthquake occurs to-day
it has occurred before. Where the destructive
molten stream pours over a country and devastates
its vineyards, it is but repeating to-day what it has
done many times before in the history of Man. Yet
no sooner has one eruption of Vesuvius calmed than
upon its lava crust, still aglow beneath, new vineyards
are planted. Is it beneficent or is it malign to
harass and eliminate silly people who wil) deliberately
return to the paths where they must know destruction
lies in wait ? When a great city has been destroyed
by earthquakes in an earthquake region, and men
yet build their hopes and lay down upon its rifted
surface their material possessions, is it the fault of
Nature or the folly of men if these hopes are dis-
appointed and these possessions are destroyed in one
short minute ?

It is cruel, no doubt, to our sentimental. ideas, |
that at the fiat of sentimentalists and to the tune of
wailing voices earthquakes and _ volcanoes’ will
not cease to hold possession of the areas where, by
their permanence in the past, it has _ been
indicated long ago that they have come to stay.
But while they thus ruthlessly destroy the foolish
races who are not wise enough to profit by experience,
have they not in some small measure aided in the
evolution of an intelligent and courageous race of

A REJOINDER 149

Japanese, who adapt the structure of their houses to
the rigid requirements of earthquake mechanics ?
Cannot we say the same of that which, in the

medical language of our peculiar and overwrought

6 el hI

time, is described as “a great scourge, a terrible
curse,’ a ‘“‘devourer of millions of people”? I
allude to the plague. It looks a malign disease
upon the surface, but let us get deeper than these
sanitary conceptions created by the growing army
of sanitary officials, to the biological foundation
upon which all these questions rest, and see if there is
not something at least which we can call benign ?
Plague is a disease essentially associated with dirt ;
to-day it ravages those villages of India in which the
subsoil is the product of generations of offal and
domestic excrementa. In such a soil, the inter-
mediate host of the plague bacillus, the black rat,
lives. Clear away the soil, and with its removal or
destruction that of the vermin which flourish upon
it follow in its wake. Suppose the natives, whose
inherently inartistic instincts allowed this subsoil
to accumulate, will not or cannot be taught to
voluntarily clear their villages of it and maintain
a cleaner state of things, are protected against
themselves by an organised staff, paid for by Govern-
ment monies wrested from the cleaner citizens,
are we thereby achieving good or evil? Let us en-
quire what it is we are really doing. Here in these
villages, races have existed and propagated every
generation, for many centuries. Throughout that
period dirt has been the condition which their

150 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

instincts have tolerated. In the light of our know-
ledge to-day we have no reason to believe that such
defective instincts are not hereditarily transmitted,
and much to show that they really are. No one who
has carefully investigated family pedigrees can doubt
the fact. I am quite certain from families which I
know that the qualities of bemg dirty or clean,
methodical or unmethodical, are hereditarily trans-
mitted as such. I affirm nothing as yet regarding
their Mendelian inheritance. I assert only their
inheritance. If Miss Wodehouse will make unbiassed
observations in the light of my statement I feel sure
she will recognise its truth. The facts are familiar
to everyone ; it is the interpretation which is lacking.
Therefore if we set outside powers to work to save
these people, so that their propagation may be long
continued and prolific, we shall rear in increasing
numbers vast hordes of inherently dirty people,
who will have to be kept clean by an alarmingly
increasing army of human wash-tub attendants, other-
wise known as Government officials, paid for by the
clean people. Why not at once let us be complete
and logical; and because the mouth is the main
portal to the lungs and stomach, in which in dirty
people all sorts of microbes may be lodged, ordain
another army of tooth-scrubbers, who shall at a
stated hour twice a day clean the teeth of all dirty
people who will not voluntarily do it? Ludicrous
though it may seem to those old-fashioned but
worthy people who believe that an individual should
stand or fall by his own merits or at most by those

A REJOINDER 151

of his. family, we are nearer than we imagine to the
consummation of such a folly. The medical and
dental inspection of the school children in our own
country is but the prelude to further agitation by
the sentimentalists; for even now they are calling
for free medical and dental treatment in addition to
inspection, and they will next demand the free
supply of tooth-brushes and tooth-powders. Even-
tually finding that the tooth-brushes are consigned
to the dust-bins, and the powder is forgotten, they
will further demand a house-to-house visitation by
County Council teeth-cleaners! In this way the
social momentum of hysteria over the unwashed,
unwashable, and hopeless increases until we fail to
recognise in the current momentum the tiny mass
and the slow pace we set in action only a generation
back.

Thus the plague is benign to the race in the long
run, though ruthless to the inherently undesirable
individuals of the present. It evolves ethical beauty
and destroys ethical ugliness. No doubt a few of
the beautiful are also destroyed, but it is better
that this should be so than thousands of those who
are inherently ugly and dirty in their attributes shall
be reared by the pamperings of civilisation. In this
matter there are before us two alternatives. We have
to choose between our overwrought humanity and
the consequences which the manifestation of that
humanity will beget.

Let us pass to the tsetse fly. Miss Wodehouse
seems to regard it as a curse; so do medical men

152 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

and others. But are we quite sure we know the full
extent of its operationsin Nature ? It cannot yet be
said just what link it makes in the chain of Nature’s
work. Suppose we shall succeed in eliminating it,
have we yet thought out the possible consequences ?
It is well not to forget the fact cited by Darwin,
that the combs and nests of humble bees are destroyed
by field-mice and these by cats. If, therefore, the
people of a particular village, who are pestered by cats,
destroyed every one they could, they would reap,
as an unexpected and unpredictable consequence,
the loss of their honey harvest. No one had ever
imagined that there could be any relationship what-
ever between the presence of cats and the production
of honey. But it is so. When the cats are des-
troyed, the mice will multiply, and these will raid
the stores of honey carefully preserved by the bees.
When the cats multiply the mice will be destroyed
and the honey will be.saved. There is more even
in the concrete facts of Biology than is dreamed of
in the abstractions of Metaphysics.

But let us grant that the tsetse fly is a malign
agent. Is there nothing of good which it has
achieved ? It appears to have evolved a race of
wild cattle in Africa which is indifferent to its
bite, since the individuals of that race have
their blood swarming with the trypanosomic germs
conveyed by the fly, and yet these cattle are healthy
and vigorous. There has thus been evolved a race |
of cattle happy and strong in spite of the trypano-
somes and the tsetse flies. Just as in Malta there has

A REJOINDER 153

been evolved a race of goats the individuals of which are
quite indifferent to the presence in their tissues of the
germs of Malta fever. In both cases the susceptible
individuals have been eliminated and the immune
have survived. What would Miss Wodehouse have ?
The reverse condition! A race of weak and con-
tinually ailing cattle and goats, and no vigorous
ones. Truly then the metaphysicians would have
problems to solve, beside which those of to-day
would be easy and commonplace.

But still we will accept for the moment her con-
ception of Nature as a place where the tsetse fly
should not prevail, and that, although it is a quite
natural thing, it is not an admirable one. Let us
then banish the tsetse fly. Has it ever occurred
to her that the severest struggle for existence
in Nature is not between widely separated orders
or genera, but between closely allied species? If we
banish this fly, are we quite sure that somewhere
within the range of its geographical area there does
not lurk such another species, whose numbers at
present are by direct or indirect means kept down
by the operations of this “fitter” tsetse fly ?
Upon the destruction of the tsetse fly this partially
suppressed species would become dominant and
might conceivably introduce another trypanosome,
against which the present race of cattle have not
been evolved. Once more, therefore, through the
processes of elimination of those which have by
artificial interference been rendered unfit must
a new race be reared, and the rash disturbance of

154 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Nature’s balance restored by a great indemnity,
towards which even super-man may be called upon
to contribute.*

It is vain to urge that because in our conception
of things Nature appears brutal in her processes,
therefore with regard to Man we should become
artificial and ignore Nature. To endeavour to do
so is to deliberately reject the fact, that Man is but
a unit in Nature and is only one link in her long
chain. Not even his possession of speech and of a
long tradition raises him above it or removes him
from it. If our resort to artificial methods is
to result in increasing the sum total of human misery,
then whether there be butcher-birds, earthquakes,
tsetse flies, and typhoid germs, or whether there
be none of these things, our clear duty is to go back
nearer to that Great Mother upon whose breast we
have been reared to our present greatness.

This much we can say of Her: that while even
the butcher-birds dwell in our memories, we know
the she-bear loves its cub, that the lioness will fight
to her death so long as in so doing she protects her
ofispring. Day and night these wild instinctive
mothers, born of Nature, hunt and care for their
offspring. It is only under the artificial conditions
where butcher’s birds are not, but metaphysicians
and others are, that parents are reared who spend
their money in the public-houses, and whose children

* It is not difficult to conceive at least one process by which a given
species of tsetze fly may keep another reduced in numbers or even induce
its elimination.

A REJOINDER 155

are only saved from starvation because the more
natural and fitter parents are rated and taxed to
effect that purpose. It is also under such artificial
conditions, where the biologist has not yet been
adequately heard but the wailing of the sentimentalist
~ has, that hereditary races of cruel and vicious and
drunken parents are allowed to procreate and multiply
their kind, while that of the nobler parents is
threatened with a rapid extinction.

Miss Wodehouse seems to think (pages 132, 134)
that in my treatment of the environment in relation
to the individual I have left an ambiguous impression
upon the reader’s mind. I think if Miss Wodehouse
will read the article again she will find no ambiguity
manifested. But in this matter she pursues an old and
futile line of argument, and reminds us that all which is
implied by the conception expressed in the phrase,
“survival of the fittest,” 1s simply the survival of
those ‘“‘ whose qualities give them an advantage ”
under the particular conditions which prevailed
during their evolution. I hope she does not think
I am such a careless thinker, that I have forgotten
such an elementary fact. Any careful reader who
will refer to what I said about the Tasmanians
(page 54) will at once see that I dealt with that
very point. It was there stated: “Some day we
shall learn that the characters of men are
relatively fixed and stable, and are the products of
evolution under set conditions. As we find men, at
any given period, in any given place, they are adapted
to the particular combination of conditions under

156 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

which they have evolved, and to no other.” Is there
any ambiguity here? Surely Miss Wodehouse could
not have read this page. But in making this con-
tention Miss Wodehouse not only shows she has not
carefully read my article, but she delivers herself into
the hands of her opponent. For if that statement be
true, as we know it to be, then the masses who have
evolved under the conditions in which we find them,
are adapted to these conditions. Any alteration
that is made in them therefore necessarily involves
a new evolution. This means a new elimination.
Does Miss Wodehouse plead that the masses shall
undergo a new elimination ? Does she ask that we
shall interfere with them, in order that death shall
reap its harvest among them ? It is Miss Wodehouse
and those with her, and not I, who ask that the
“killing off’ process shall proceed at greater pace! I
simply urge that consistent with the rights of others,
people shall be left alone to enjoy the conditions and
circumstances which belong to their line of evolution.
I have protested against the sentimental busybodies,
who under the cloak of a false protection carry the
instrument of a real destruction. Miss Wodehouse
then proceeds to say: “Given any environment
Nature may be trusted to select.” Then she puts
the question which, if I have not misunderstood
her, is the central thesis of her article, ““ Can we trust
Nature to select such qualities as we shall approve
of ?” Now I take two exceptions to such an attitude.
I should not in the first place speak of “ selection
of individuals whose qualities give them an advantage

A REJOINDER 157

under the set conditions,” but rather of the elimina-
tion of individuals, because they are not adapted to
those conditions. The one implies a positive act
which is not operating, and the other a negative
one which is.

My second objection is to the assumed superiority
of man over Nature implied in the sentence: “ Can
we trust Nature to select such qualities as we shall
approve ?”> Now I am curious to know who are the
“We.” Miss Wodehouse quoted a sentence of mine
containing the phrase “corruptions of a Royal
Court,’ and added a comment of her own, ‘
the time-server and flatterer succeed and survive.”
I will not stop to remind her that this type of person
is found elsewhere than in Royal Courts, and that
elsewhere they are so unfit in their art that they are
unmasked by their own crude craft. But I would like
to ask whether the “We” means the uncultured
and hormonic demagogue, who, incapable because
of his inherent defects of acquiring either knowledge
or property of his own inflames the passions of

* where

equally unculturable masses against citizens whose
biological attributes have enabled them to acquire
such things ? Are the “ We ” those men who, envious
of the honourable achievements, marked success,
and noble family traditions of others, endeavour to
hold them up to the ridicule of the “ great unwashed ”’
of democracy—which is still unwashed in spite
of the fact that there is now no tax on soap

‘

and education is free—by calling them the “ great

rats”? Who cling to office at the cost of broken

158 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

pledges and who ascended to its platform
up the steps of pyrophorus oratory that fills
to the brim the gullibility and credulity of the
masses ? Or, are the “ We” the sentimentalists who
would give self-government to subject races, whose
line of evolution demonstrates their incapacity to suc-
cessfully perform the responsibilities attaching to it ?
Or, are they the people who are demanding that in
the National Elementary Schools we shall have an
army of “State nurses to bind up cut fingers ” ?*
If these are the people involved in the “ We,” let
us infinitely sooner go back to a Nature that would
eliminate every Anglo-Saxon and Teuton to-morrow,
than we should any longer disgrace our manhood
by crying aloud for help because a few school
children of the ‘“‘ People” have cut their fingers !
Is this the type of selection which the “ We” are
going to adopt for the citizens of a nation whose
forefathers won on bloody battlefields, ice-bound
coasts and dense tropical jungles, at the cost of
cleaved heads, battered limbs, and _ disentrailed
bodies; who crossed the arid deserts and reached
the verdant slopes and plains beyond; and who
have made an Empire on which the sun never rises
because it “never sets”’?

* In view of the agitation for the enfranchisement of women, it may not
be amiss to state that this demand was made by a woman. Also that at
a Suffragist meeting on Wimbledon Common not long ago, another feminine
advocate demanded that the State should provide flannel “ which was
expensive ”’ for the children of the poor, because flannelette was inflam-
mable, and would easily catch fire when mothers left their children alone
in a room with a fire while they went out. presumably to the beer shop.

A REJOINDER 159

Poor and contemptible nation it will be which
shall substitute such a “We” for a_ bene-
ficent but merciless Nature which evolves a
race of men to whom a cracked head in the service
of their country is but a passing factor in their lives.
Compare the product of such a Nature with that
which the ‘‘ We ” seems desirous of evolving. “ They
run, is the message brought to the fatally wounded
General; “Then I die happy,” comes the simple
answer from the lips upon which death has already
set its seal, may represent the symbolic and actual
product of the one, while a wailing crowd of senti-
mentalists quivering with emotion at the sight of a
“cut finger’ of one of the “ People’s” children is
the product of the other !

Or, pursuing another line, are the “ We” repre-
sented by those sentimental people who, sitting as
Justices of the Peace, or as magistrates, or as juries,
let free the imborn criminal who has pilfered and
raided the property of others, that he may
repeat his depredations, wasting alike the material
possessions and the time of better citizens?
That he may by the immunity which he enjoys
subsequently encourage others and widen his own
sphere of activity? The thrifty, capable, and
acquisitive citizen, thus robbed illegally at one end
of the scale and legally at the other, through rates
and taxes imposed by the sentimental and, in very
recent time, also by the vindictive “ We”: What
line of evolution does all this indicate the nation

L

160 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

is following ? Has Miss Wodehouse considered the
question from this aspect ?

This transcendent and omnipotent ““ We ” appears
also to be responsible for that remarkable product
of Modern Sentiment called the ‘“ Boarding-Out
System” of the children of paupers. This “ We”
believes that the children of congenital paupers
and congenital criminals, whose grand-children, let it
be remembered, will be also in the main paupers and
criminals, can be converted into noble and self-
supporting citizens if they have their dinners cooked
in copper utensils, if they have more or less costly
pictures placed in the passages, bedrooms, and
lavatories of the residences they inhabit, and if their
washstands are of marble. It also believes that if
laws are framed which raise these children into a
privileged class, and inflicts heavier fines for physical
chastisement of their misdeeds than would be im-
posed upon anyone who assaulted the child of an
ordinary respectable person, that straightway we
are following the path that shall lead to their glory !

I will not dwell on this remarkable type of the
‘““ We” any farther, though one sorrowfully recognises
that its remarkable peregrinations have by no means
been traced in all their manifold ramifications.
It will suffice for the present to say that Englishmen
will one day awake, not to read an article in the
Mendel Journal in which scepticism for the “ We ”
is the dominant note, but to find the arms of that
“We” stretching around and within their homes,
ordering their every deed, determining their wishes,

A REJOINDER 161

spending for them their money, and generally directing
their lives from early morn to night, and from the cradle
to the grave. That is the inevitable goal of every
artificial line of evolution determined by the “ We.”

Having dealt with the “ We,” let us turn next
to another aspect of the question raised by Miss
Wodehouse. If I have not misunderstood her,
she implies that the conditions of human society are
not ideal, and ‘‘ that in fact we often condemn an
environment because by strict natural law it gives the
advantage to qualities which we condemn.” Now
in this matter Miss Wodehouse is dealing with the
environment of human society. By implication she
says the environment of the slums is rearing a slum
race and one adapted to those conditions. Mr.
Bernard Bosanquet, in his “ Philosophy of the
State”? maintains the same attitude, if I have
rightly understood him. I will not for the
moment follow the logical extension of such a con-
tention, but it suffices to point out again a funda-
mental fallacy involved in it. I have already in
my article on “ Virile Sentiment” alluded to it (pages
49 and 55). The fallacy consists in believing that
it was the slum environment which made the slum
people. The very converse, as I endeavoured to show,
is true.. ~ It is the people: oi *™

393

slum ”’ instincts
who have created the slums. If they did not, we
are bound to ask who did? Will Miss Wodehouse
point out to me any Act of Parliament which ordained
the creation of slums? Have the sentimentalists

and social reformers for the past eighty years been —

162 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

advocating abolition or formation of slums? Have
the District Visitors created them? Did the Act
of 1870 bring them into existence? Did the
Oligarchy of England prior to 1830 or its Democracy -
subsequently call them into being? Is it the
Republican Government of France, the Autocratic
one of Germany, or the Oriental Despotism of the
Kast that have made them in these respective
countries ? Or, finally, has it been the growing
ethical codes of civilisation that has planted the
slums—a disfigurement and a waste—in its beautiful
and verdant valley 2 When a benevolent friend of
mine, a Managing Director of a large works, situated
three miles beyond a great city, built near them,
for the ease and convenience of the workers and their
families, a row of nicely arranged and well-equipped
cottages, with gardens and bathrooms, and he found
the workmen would not use them, but preferred to
pay a daily train fare and a heavier rent, in order
that they might live in the slums of the city, will my
critic tell me who made these slums? Or, when as
in the South Wales colliery districts, the houses of the
colliers contain a bathroom, and the baths are turned
into coal-cellars and dust bins, surely we are entitled
to ask of Miss Wodehouse, if these are the people,
who if “‘temperately trained may keep the love of
beautiful and pleasant things as a deep rich undertone
to their lives, making them delightful to themselves
and to all around them.” Would Miss Wodehouse

C6

care to undertake the “‘ temperate training ” of these

people? I urge, with all humility, that if she really

A REJOINDER 163

believes what she writes, which I do not doubt, that
an imperative duty lies upon her to undertake the
task, and to demonstrate the reality or falsity of her
belief.

If Miss Wodehouse will pass down a certain
street near a certain great railway terminus in
London on a Saturday evening in the Summer, until
she reaches another street at its other end, she will
be passmg through a slum area. Yet in the upper
part of the first street (the end nearer the station) she
will find on either side of it, on the whole, a row
of clean, well-kept, neat, and orderly houses, inhabited
by a respectable artizan class. In the lower street
and its environs the people are mere animals. The
streets are crowded with children almost naked,
whose bodies and limbs are freely exposed, who are
swarming with vermin and infested with sores and
boils, solely the result of dirt ; there, too, are habitual
drinkers, and mothers careless in behaviour, uncouth
and unkempt in appearance, and unsavoury and
repugnant to every one of our five senses. Can
Miss Wodehouse tell me why these two adjacent
streets leading into each other are so different ?

Who made these two environments, situated under
the same sun, the same government, the same rate
collector, served by the same school and_public-
houses, infested by the same dust-laden atmosphere,
with the same examples and influences operating
upon both? The answer of Biology is that it is the
inherent, congenital nature of the people living
there. The answer of the older Theology is

164 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

“Character.” What is the answer of Metaphysics ?
Is it the omnipotent ““ We” ?

The considerations and facts which I have put
forward above must form my answer to Miss Wode-
house’s question to me on page 135 of her criticism :
“Ts it Mr. Mudge’s opinion that the present slum
environment selects its survivors on the basis of
qualities so valuable and so varied that we can no
longer hope to improve it?”

I once more assert that the whole evidence before
us, when rightly analysed, leaves no alternative
conclusion but that the slums are made by the slum
people, and that there does not exist among them
as a class any good qualities which can be “ selected ”
either by man or Nature. They are there as slum
people because of the absence of any such good
qualities which can make them otherwise. I will
not further labour the point, but refer my readers
to the considerations and facts which I advanced in
support of this conclusion on pages 49-57 and 94-96
of my original article.

Next let us turn to the remarkable moral which
Miss Wodehouse extracts from my article. We are
told that the moral of the teaching that all natural
processes are benign ‘“‘ would seem to be that we
should make haste to remove such flagrant iter-
ferences with Nature as are found in the main drainage
system and the organisation of the metropolitan
police.” I should be sorry if my critic could point
to a single utterance in the article which she criticises
which could legitimately justify anyone in inferring

A REJOINDER 165

that any such moral could be drawn. Conversely,
the very opposite doctrine is impliedly taught. I
have advocated that the fit should enjoy the benefits
of their fitness. Now under civilisation what is
fitness ? It is the possession of that degree of capa-
city, honour, and morality which makes a man a
useful member of his community. No man who
becomes a burden upon others, except upon his own
family, can fall within such a category. Now who
made the main drainage system possible ?_ Assuredly
not a Government ; equally assuredly not sentimental
considerations; nor free education; nor medical
inspection of elementary national school children ;
nor free feeding of the children whose parents spend
the money which should have provided their dinners
upon beer and tobacco for themselves; nor the
workhouses and infirmaries. None of these things,
all of which are institutions for the weak and defective,
and the civic lame and halt, built the main drainage
system. That was essentially the product of the
fittest intelligences and the highest organising capa-
cities of a people left free to enjoy the fruits of their
labours. It was work undertaken by the fit for the
benefit of the fit. That such work should continue
and such capable citizens be encouraged to work,
and not discouraged through the legal robbery of
the products of their fitness, which they are now
experiencing, is precisely what I have been urging.

With regard to the Metropolitan Police, very
much the same considerations apply. This is an
institution organised by the fit for the protection

166 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of the fit. Fiity years ago it did its work effectually,
and the thief when caught was hanged. But now,
as I have already pointed out, under the baneful
influence of a sentiment’ gone mad, the work of the
police is being progressively nullified and undone.
The police may catch the thief, the magistrate may
agree that a drastic punishment is required, but
outside sentiment foolishly sets the criminal at
large.* So far has this pernicious sentiment gone,
that after a judge and jury have condemned to death
a cowardly murderer, who has walked into an old
and defenceless man’s office, and shot him dead,
there can be found a Home Secretary who will yield
up justice to the clamours of servant girls and of
small suburban tradesmen! Most assuredly I am
for the police, as an organisation of the fit, which,
when efficiently and justly worked, will remind the
“unfit” of their place in the scheme of things.

Miss Wodehouse, not content with fancifully dis-
torting the logical outcome of my position, goes even
further, and commenting upon my plea that it is best
for the congenitally defective to accept their destiny,
as much greater citizens have done, proceeds to assure
us ‘“‘That acceptance of destiny is found purest

* See the comments of Mr. Lane, K.C., magistrate at the West London
Police Court, in a case of embezzlement, where he remarked that he held
the view that such offences should be rather severely punished, but in
deference to public sentiment ended by merely binding the defendant to
come up for judgement if called upon. Or, where, as at the Wimbledon
Bench of Justices, hooligans caught red-handed in the act of thieving are
set free merely with a paternal warning not to do it again. A warning -
which is so effectual that two out of the three thus dismissed are charged
a few weeks later by the police for a similar offence. In the meantime, it
may be left to the imagination as to the amount of annoyance and loss
which the thieves had caused to the honest citizens.

A REJOINDER 167

in that mother who refuses to alter her child’s
environment to defeat scarlet fever or concussion
of the brain.” Were I a Carlyle what thundering
sentences I should write in reply to, this. But I
cannot; so I will simply assure my critic she is
quite mistaken. It would not be the purest destiny
but crassest folly for a mother to do anything of the
sort. What I said in effect was this: When we find
mothers so inherently defective and so devoid of
parental love and foresight that they cannot or will
not save their children from preventable misery and
injury, it is better such a mother should accept her
destiny than that we should help her to multiply
and propagate such a foolish and defective race.
It is better she should accept her natural destiny than
that capable and loving mothers should have the
destiny of the wicked artificially cast upon them
and their children by the act of sentimentalists.
If we spend a sovereign through the rates upon
the vicious mothers, inevitably we take it from the
pockets of the good and careful mothers. Sovereigns
are not made in heaven by metaphysicians and
showered upon the earth at the ery of the worthless ;
they are the product of the labours and capacities
of the biologically fit.

Seeking for further illustrations that natural
events are not, according to the standard of Miss
Wodehouse, necessarily admirable events, she cites the
“mortal combats in animal societies between jealous
wooers.” Well, are these not admirable? I think
they are. So long as it is a fact of Nature that some

168 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

wooers are strong and others less strong, I shall
continue to hope, in the interests alike of animal
welfare and of the truest ethics, that mortal combats
shall continue, and that the strongest shall win.
Would my critic desire to see the weakest win and
multiply its feeble race and spread it wide upon the
surface of the earth? Is she quite sure that these
mortal combats are distasteful to the animals which
indulge in them? Has she not rather jumped to a
conclusion and measured their psychology in the
bushel of some fearsome and timid person? I have
my doubts ; from what I have seen and read I should
imagine they rush to combat as a hungry man does
to a meal. Miss Wodehouse cannot prove that the
motor stimulus and the motor gratification of the
combat are not enjoyable things and are of the nature
of a normal physiological activity in the absence of
which normal life would be impossible. She
will surely recall those savage races of men
who seek a gratification of their heightened motor
impulses by laceration of their bodies. To such
men this is pleasure, and not pain. It is one of the
most fatal mistakes to imagine that because to fight
and be lacerated would be to some people a painful
and fearful thing, that therefore it is so throughout
the whole animal kingdom. It is not, I believe,
even true for man. On the steppes of Tartary the
women are not happy unless their husbands beat
them periodically ; they imagine they are not loved
if they do not receive this attention. There can be
but little doubt that prize-fighters and others are

A REJOINDER 169

incapable of feeling pain to the extent that more
normal people do. Why then does Miss Wodehouse
think that mortal combats are not desirable ?
They result in the elimination of the weak
and the survival of the strong, who fear not
strife and relatively feel not pain. Surely that is
a desirable state of affairs. It is better to
have a strong stock than a weak one; one that
cannot feel pain, or, feeling it, can endure it with
Spartan silence, rather than one which shrinks away
at the sight of any implement capable of inflicting
pain. If Nature has evolved that race, surely it is
superior to that which the “ We” is endeavouring
to bring to a fearsome and miserable existence.

Very much the same considerations hold for that
other supposed horrible state of things, which I
am accused of commending as desirable, where a
certain race of “ants carefully nurse the larve of
beetles, which will presently eat the baby ants.”
But is there any evidence at all that this is a painful
process ? Even if we suppose it to be so, is it more
painful than would be the death of the beetle larvex,
which would perish from starvation if they had not
the baby ants to eat ? If Miss Wodehouse shudders
at the fate of the one, does she also shudder at the
fate awaiting the other? These things are unavoid-
able; they are an integral part of the operations of
Nature; and the Kea Parrot which swoops down
upon the back of sheep and is said to extract their
kidneys, and the butcher-bird which impales beetles
and frogs upon thorns to a tree trunk, are doing no

170 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

more than Man is doing. We must in reviewing
such events depart from particular aspects and
come to the general ones. Man and the butcher-bird
and every other organism are impelled by the instinct
of seli-preservation. To preserve itself the butcher-
bird does one thing and Man another. No artificial
alteration of the environment can modify or destroy
this instinct. We may as well lament that the
earth is not Mars, as to bewail the existence of this
instinct in animal life. We have to recognise that
it exists, and that every battlefield and every revo-
lution brings it to the surface in all its nakedness
and ethical horribleness, as a quality deep seated
and inherent in Man. We have also to recognise a
further fact. The moment a race loses such an
instinct, its end is near. It will be destroyed by one
whose instinct of self-preservation is strong.

Miss Wodehouse asks, ‘“‘Seriously, whatisthis Nature
which includes and justifies the doings of all animals
but man? Which render infallible all mstincts and
aspirations but his?” “I can find no _ profit,”
she says, “in this way of using words.” Neither
can I, and that is why I did not use them in that way.
I should not, for instance, ascribe aspiration to the
lower animals. But I pass this by, for I desire to
come to the implied and supposed infallibility of the
instincts and aspirations of some men, perhaps those
for whom Miss Wodehouse may conceive some hope
and place them among the “ We.” Let me recite
the facts. A girl of eighteen was in a London work-
house. A male friend of hers and a ne’er-do-well

A REJOINDER 171

was outside of it, for the moment. By some mutation
of chance he had come into possession of half-a-crown.
He proceeded to the workhouse and asked if the girl
could come out of it. When asked why he desired
her to come out, he replied ‘‘ because he had half-a-
crown, and as he did not know when he should earn
another, he would like to marry her now
from the heights of metaphysics we may be informed
whether this is instinct or aspiration, and whether
it is fallible or infallible?* In another London
workhouse there is a woman inmate with numerous

1?

Perhaps

illegitimate children by several different paramours.
Such events are quite common. Is this too an
“infallible aspiration” of man’s? The sentiment
which at the cost of thrifty and respectable people
maintains such persons, may also be regarded, I
presume, as another human infallible instinct, or
may it be an aspiration! I will not multiply these
instances, though I have records of hundreds of
them. Truly “no profit can be found” in such
metaphysical language as the “infallible instincts

>

and aspirations of Man,” but, as Huxley would
have said, only in the “ veracious facing of the ugly
facts of life.”

We will come finally to section three of Miss
Wodehouse’s criticism. She calls this the most
serious of all her objections to my plea for the opera-

tion of a more virile sentiment in human affairs.

* While this article is passing through the Press, the Hvening News of
July 9th, 1910, publishes the application of a pauper who had an income
of sixpence weekly, to the Gravesend Guardians, to help him pay the cost
of a marriage certificate. His ‘“‘ young lady”? was in the workhouse. Is
this, too, one of the infallible instincts of Man which are so superior to
those of that Nature which Miss Wodehouse impliedly condemns ?

172 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

She attributes to me certain ‘‘ assumptions of a very
remarkable nature as to the unit qualities of the
mental world.” I at once disclaim having made
anywhere in my article a single assumption as to
the nature of mental unit-characters. Nowhere in
Miss Wodehouse’s article can I find the least reference
to any specific case, which in fairness she should
have quoted, word for word. That they exist and
will be one day formulated, I have little doubt. I will
presently give some tentative evidence suggesting that
such unit-characters may exist. But if my present
readers will read again pages 57-59 of the article on
‘Virile Sentiment,” they will be able to see what I
actually said in the matter. In a few words, the
substance of my remarks may be thus summarised :
It was contended that in regard to some of the
qualities of man, the evidence is pretty clear that
there is segregation in their hereditary transmission
from one generation to another; that there was no
reason to believe that the mental and moral qualities
of man are transmitted in any way different from
the physical qualities. As examples of the trans-
mission of mental qualities, I cited the historical
cases of the eloquence of Marcus Antonious and of
the high statesmanlike qualities that were known
for many generations to descend in the family of
Brutus. Since then I have been working at human
pedigrees, and it seems clear, that whatever may be
the nature and the number of the unit-characters, -
if any, involved in such qualities, that the mathe-
matical faculty and inventive genius are hereditarily

A REJOINDER 178

transmitted as such. If Miss Wodehouse will read
Dr. Adams Woods’ book on “Inheritance in Royalty,”*
she will find abundant historical instances of the
transmission of normal mental and moral qualities,
and of high intellectual capacities. But the actual
existence, nature, and number of the possible unit-
characters involved is a matter for future
investigation. More than this I have nowhere im-
plied.

In the passages which I have already indicated
I spoke of the hereditary transmission of those
qualities that make the “loafer, the wastrel, the
congenital drunkard, the habitual criminal, the
congenitally tuberculous, the mentally deficient, the
thriftless and generally incapable persons.” Does
Miss Wodehouse deny the inheritance of these
defects ? I gather not, for she says “‘I yield at once
to my opponent the obvious exception of such
definite deformity in the mind or brain as shows
itself in insanity or feeble-mindedness’’; and she
admits “there is good ground for believing that
these may be units.” Having made that admission,
I must confess I fail to see the justification of her
attitude towards mental traits which are normal.
Does she wish us to believe that normal and abnormal
qualities of mind or body constitute two separate
and distinct kingdoms of characters? If so, what
explanation is forthcoming of the fact that feeble-
minded children are born of the same parents who
produce normal children; that in families where

* Reviewed in this number of the Journal.

174 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

insanity has been known in each generation for several
generations, some sons and daughters are sane and
others are insane; that sane parents may produce
insane offspring; that in families where “hooliganism”
exists and can be traced at least in two generations,
there can be found in the same generation of brothers
and sisters some who are hooligans and others who
are respectable and hard-working persons? I am
speaking from personal knowledge derived from
investigations not yet complete, and I find it impossible
to fall in line with Miss Wodehouse’s attitude. If
these things occur in the same parentage, and an
abnormal feature may be regardéd as “a unit-
character,’ why not the other, which appears to
be its alternative character ?

Miss Wodehouse has attributed to me an attitude
in regard to mental unit-characters, which as a
cautious man of science, I did not adopt, and which
I was very careful to avoid. But since she has raised
the question, I am not at all averse to discussing it on
general grounds. I would like, however, to say, for
the interest of those who are not conversant with
Mendelian methods, that a general discussion is
not Mendelism, but is of a converse nature. I am
now merely concerned in dealing with certain
theoretical considerations.

Miss Wodehouse says that she cannot regard
those qualities which we praise or blame in sane men
as being due to simple hereditary units. Now, how-
is it possible to test this question of the existence
of unit-characters in human mental life? By

A REJOINDER 175

precisely the same tests that we apply to it in all our
experimental cases. We have two antithetic or
alternative qualities to deal with. [i they are
transmitted as segregable characters and they appear
in the descendants in certain ratios, we interpret the
collective phenomena on the basis of unit-characters.
No cases of this kind have, as far as I am aware,
been investigated by rigorous Mendelian methods.
But still I think there is some evidence which points
strongly in the direction of the segregation as unit-
characters of these subtle mental differences that
distinguish sane men from each other. Let us
imagine what would happen to a normal person if it
were possible to extract from his nerve cells that
which we can all conceive as possibly being a unit-
character, namely, the Nissl granules.* What would
be the phenomena resulting from such a simple
change in the constitution of the nerve cells? As
far as we can gather, from the slight physiological
evidence we have before us as to the part played by
these granules as sources from which the nerve cells
derive their stores of energy, it would not be a
simple or single phenomenon, expressed in a single
word. They would be a whole group of phenomena
indicating profound organic mental and physical
disturbances. If this be the case, what validity is
there in Miss Wodehouse’s contention that the
mental qualities which we admire or blame in sane

* There is no need in this article to deal with the nature of these
granules. That they represent a something from which nerve cells appear
to derive their energy, is sufficient and accurate enough for my present
purpose.

M

176 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

men appear to group themselves into groups ?
Assume that it may appear to be the case, is it
really so? May not a whole group of qualities—
inherited as a whole—be simply due to some simple
hereditary factor, such as the Nissl granules, or to a
few factors hereditarily coupled together? When
such a contention as that maintained by my opponent
is accepted by her, is she not merely making an
assumption ? She is assuming that appearances are
realities. If we must make assumptions at all, at
least let us do so in accord with our available
knowledge, and not in discord with it.

There is yet more to be said against her con-
tention. Physiological knowledge leads us to the
conclusion that our spontaneous and reflex actions
depend upon the existence of certain groups of
nerve cells, collectively spoken of as nerve centres,
which may act either singly or in combination with
others. The nerve centre that controls the beating
of the heart is lodged in a certain area of the
hind-brain; that of speech, which appears to be
asymmetrical, in another area; that of audition in
another, and so on. Now, in the course of individual
developement, whence came these groups of cells ?
Recent embryological investigations of the experi-
mental order show us clearly that, not only groups
of cells, but whole organs, may take their origin
from a single cell or blastomere, in the early stages
of the segmenting embryo. If that cell is destroyed
the organ which arises from it will be absent in the
definitive (adult) stage. Such a cell may be regarded

A REJOINDER 177

as the carrier of the unit-characters which determine
the number and the qualities of the cells of a particular
group in the adult. What does it matter if such an
embryonic cell carries one, two, three, or more unit-
characters? So long as it is that cell which has
dropped out from the hereditary mechanism, the whole
group of unit-characters carried by it behave as a
single-whole, and the adult organism will have lost not
one but a number of qualities. It is conceivable that
the differences which distinguish some hooligans from
some respectable people, which mark the brilliant
person from one a little less brilliant, which contrast the
lethargic with the active, and which stamps the differ-
ence between the orator of Celtic fire and overflowing
language with the unimpassioned person of few and
adequate words, may be due to the presence or absence
of such embryonic cells carrying one or more unit-
characters. Or, the absence of such cells may be rather
potential than actual, and due to the presence of some
inhibiting factor, which, although the early embryonic
cell or cells were present, may have inhibited their
subsequent multiplication by division.

These contentions I am quite aware are at
present hypothetical, but they arise from the
knowledge of our day. If we must go forward in
advance of the knowledge of the present, then let us
follow the road which that knowledge best indicates,
rather than the one which runs in an opposite
direction.

But we can look at the question in another way.
An individual may be conceived to be made up of a

178 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

bundle of characters not separable from each other
and transmitted as a whole. That is the old view
of inheritance. Under such a conception we look to
the transmission, not of characters, but of individuals.
But this conception is being rudely shaken, and in
many instances clearly does not express the truth.
In human life, and in mental traits, it obviously does
not hold in certain cases. For if it did, how do we
explain the fact that the mother’s mental and the
father’s physical capacities may pass to a particular
child ?. .Clearly in such cases there has been a separa-
tion of definite characters from individuals, and their
recombination in another. It is in this way, among
others, that unit-characters behave in hereditary
transmission. As far as it goes, therefore, such a
fact indicates the existence of unit-characvers in Man.

In further discussing the question along this line, |
I may cite some instances of what may possibly be
examples of a unit-character, the presence of which
produces a characteristic trait, which have come under
my personal notice. The people who are concerned in
these cases I have known intimately throughout
the whole period involved in each. Imperfect, as
scientific demonstrations, though they are, I am the
more tempted to describe them, since by so doing it
may be possible that the attention of others will be called
to the nature of what must be quite familiar observa-
tions. I assume that Miss Wodehouse will grant that
speech is related to mind; and that any characteristic
intonation which may be manifested may be regarded
either as a unit-character or as a group of such

A REJOINDER i

characters which are hereditarily transmitted as a
whole. Now, I know an instance where a young
girl child when three years old had the same charac-
teristic intonation in her voice that marked the
speech of a feminine cousin of her father’s. The
young child had never seen this cousin, and the
father’s speech was quite devoid of the intonation.
It could not therefore be due to imitation or in-
struction. The young child’s brother did not manifest
it, neither the father nor his two brothers ; neither
the two grandparents, nor any of their brothers.
Neither did the only sister of the cousin, nor any of
her brothers, or either of her parents. Though
characteristic it was essentially a feminine intonation.
It must therefore have been carried as a recessive
character in the gametes of the child’s father and
paternal grandfather, and the cousin must have
received it through the gametes of the child’s grand-
uncle. I do not see how we are to interpret this case,
except on the basis of segregable unit-characters. Of
course, it is only right I should say that in comparing
the intonation of the voice in the two people con-
cerned I am trusting entirely to ear and memory,
and that the comparison has not been made with the
two people side by side, nor under other conditions
that scientific precision would demand. But I do
not think I am mistaken, and I recognised the intona-
tion some years ago, as an ordinary fact of life. It is
only now that Miss Wodehouse has raised the question
that I recall the matter.

180 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

This instance recalls to me another event of a
very similar kind. Some years ago I knew a lady
under her married name only. Her maiden name
I did not know until the event occurred which
I am about to describe. She was, among other
things, interested in Celtic folk-lore and symbolism.
I have often conversed with her, and I had
noticed when speaking to anyone she had a very
characteristic style of expressing herself, not in
her choice of words, but again as what I cannot
better and yet hardly correctly describe than as an
intonation. Two years ago I was in Iona, and was
introduced to a certain gentleman from Edinburgh.
Upon walking one day through the ruined Nunnery and
Cathedral, and discoursing with him upon the meaning
of the various symbols sculptured out of the stone
ornaments, I imagined that I must have heard him
before. But no events which I could recall brought -
me in any way into relation with him, and I
dismissed the matter. During one of the subsequent
sentences which he uttered in describing a certain
symbol, so exactly did his intonation resemble that
of the lady who had discoursed on a very similar
topic several years previously, that I could have
no doubt he must be a relation of hers. Accord-
ingly I asked him if he were not a brother of Mrs.
, and he answered that he was. I also know
the sister of this lady, and her mode of speech
has nothing in common with either her brother or
her sister. They were reared together as children,
and we cannot, I think, attribute this resemblance of

A REJOINDER 181

speech to mere unconscious imitation, otherwise the
other sister should have manifested it. The resem-
blance in the intonation was so close that had I not
known it to be a gentleman before me, I should
certainly have thought it was the lady.

Miss Wodehouse says “that a great part of the

social value of a man depends not on anything that
we can believe to be simple qualities, but on com-
binations of these.” This is precisely what I en-
deavoured to say in my article when I wrote :*
“An organism does not manifest a single quality
alone, but is made up of a complex combination of
many qualities. Some of these qualities, be they
structural or psychical, are themselves not simple,
but complex. Some of them are independent of
others in the hereditary transmission, but others
are correlated and always go _ together.
These facts render all questions of social interest
extremely difficult to consider, and are the best justi-
fication for the Jlaisser faire attitude.” Because
matters are so complex, does Miss Wodehouse think
that her transcendent “We” is more qualified to
deal with them than Nature? She condemns her
own attitude with her own words. It is because
these things are so seemingly complex that I have
urged we should leave them alone.

With regard to the influences of education and
to Miss Wodehouse’s contention “that some part
of the social value of individuals depends upon the
fact that organs increase their capacity by use ;

* Page 13.

182 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

that a wise training may increase the power of
taking responsibility ; and that a boy with strong
enjoyment of bodily pleasures, whose desires if
unwisely indulged may turn to devils within him,
but who if temperately trained may keep the love
of beautiful and pleasant things as a deep rich under-
tone to all his life, making that life delightful to
himself and to all around him.” All these conceptions
and possibilities we may recognise, but they have
nothing to do with my article. Whether the boy
with strong bodily pleasures will be a good or bad
citizen, depends not on his nurture but his nature.
Ii with these strong pleasures he is yet capable of
responding to good influences, he will do so. But if
his inherent characters render him indifferent to
such influences, he will be swept along the path
which leads to the gratification of those strong
pleasures. All through her criticism my opponent
has been dealing with the good, capable, and
responsive citizens; while in mine I dealt with
the bad, incapable, and irresponsive ones. I have
never said that a good citizen will not be a good one,
nor a responsive one irresponsive. But what I did
urge was the folly of believing that inherently and
congenitally bad and irresponsive citizens could be
turned by education into good and responsive ones.
Miss Wodehouse has not endeavoured to controvert
that plea, but has taken a line of argument entirely
foreign to the purpose of my article, and has implied
that I disbelieve or oppose precisely those things
which I do as a matter of fact accept as obvious

A REJOINDER 183

truths. If Miss Wodehouse contends that she can
by “temperate training instil a deep rich undertone
into the lives ”’ of all boys, I am afraid, if she attempts
it, she will experience many disappointments. I
have in mind just now two young boys of a hooligan
family, and if Miss Wodehouse would care to under-
take such an instillation, and if those philanthropists
who believe that “‘ golden conduct can be wrought
from leaden instincts” will test the courage of
their convictions by defraying the cost of the process
of instillation and of the keep of these boys from
now until they are twenty-five or thirty, and will
give them the ordinary liberties of citizens, we shall
have come down from metaphysical platitudes to
mundane biological facts, and have ascended to the
experimental verification or destruction of our
beliefs.

These considerations hold, too, for the common-
place of ethics cited by her, namely, “that nothing
in heaven or earth is good without qualification,
except the good-will.” But if there be no good-
will the “‘ common-place of ethics” has no meaning ;
while the biological fact that the relatively good and
bad are hereditarily transmitted is full of pregnant
significance.

Miss Wodehouse has urged that the civic value ot
a quality may be rendered negative or positive by
the “direction of purpose and will.” She thinks
it is difficult or even not possible for natural science
to judge the nature of this direction and this purpose
and will aright. She says “ that from the standpoint

184 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of moral science, it is to be urged with all possible
emphasis that to treat such direction as a simple
quality, transmissible as a deformity is transmissible,
is impossible in every way; it is absurd; it is
mythology.” Has Miss Wodehouse ever read of
the Jonathan Edwards’ and Jukes’ families? If not
I commend them, not only to her attention, but to a
reverent study. She will then find that mythology
becomes fact and absurdity becomes reason. She
will find that while metaphysics has been soaring in the
Empyrean regions of speculation and abstraction,
incontrovertible fact has been walking on the earth.

Let me make one disclaimer of my opponent’s
statement. I have not said that “purpose and
will”? may be regarded as a simple quality. I did
not deal with the subject at all. But I am prepared
to say and to prove that the capacity of forming
wrong purpose, the capacity of determining will in
the wrong direction, are both hereditarily trans-
mitted. I am prepared to state it in another way,
and to say that there are some people who can never
form a right purpose, nor develope a right will, nor
say the right thing at the right time, nor do the
right thing at the time it should be done; and that
these incapacities are hereditarily transmitted and
are not cured by education. I do not know whether
this is a ““common-place of ethics,’ but I think
everyone will recognise it as a common-place
of life.

Miss Wodehouse throughout her criticism has
misunderstood the standpoint from which my article

A REJOINDER 185

was written. Consequently she has been criticising
many matters which she herself has raised,”and which
find no place in the plea I urged for a more virile
treatment of the affairs of human life. When she
urges “ that from the side of psychology, nobody can
say at present, except to a minute extent, what the
inherent unit-characters of mental qualities are,”
she is dealing with one of these self-created subjects
of easy criticism. To play at nine-pins by putting
up the pins of your opponent in the most favourable
position for bowling over, is, of course, a facile way of
demonstrating his stupidity. But I confess I prefer
to arrange my pins myself. The question which
concerns us for the present, as a body of cautious
citizens, is not whether it is yet demonstrated that
mental traits are transmitted as Mendelian units or
not, but whether they are hereditarily transmitted
at all. Upon that matter there is no question. It
is undeniable. Any intelligent and observant parent
can answer it. Children think and play in some
things just as their parents thought and played at
the corresponding age. They may manifest little
tricks that were the peculiarity of one of their grand-
parents, whom they have not seen. To endeavour
to turn my plea from its sociological bearing and from
those facts which are sufficient and legitimate tor
practical affairs into an academic groove, is but to
cloud the issue which my plea raises, and to beg the
question with which it is concerned.

Similarly, that vague and unsubstantiated accusa-
tion impliedly brought against me in the closing

186 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

paragraph of Miss Wodehouse’s criticism “of en-
couraging metaphysicians to slur distinctions, to
draw easy a priori conclusions, and to commit sins
of rough and careless work,’ may serve well as a
peroration; but, unsupported by adequate citations
from the article which she criticises, cannot help
students of natural science to strengthen their belief
in the existence of the scientific spirit in the methods
of metaphysicians. But if it is possible that meta-
physicians are susceptible to the wicked encourage-
ments of erring biologists, is it not time they resigned
their position alike as intellectual speculators and
critics ?

If metaphysicians are swayed by extraneous and
irrelevant influences, what value can we attach to
Miss Wodehouse’s criticism? Are we justified in
accepting her obiter dictum concerning ‘the real and
valuable political truth which les behind the scorn
thrown on environment’? It may be that we are
impelled to think that political convictions have in-
fluenced the judgement more than those harsh and
ugly facts which none of us like. We may be
driven to believe that when once Miss Wodehouse has
admitted the crucial fact “ that mere environment is
truly of very little account compared with the
presentation to us of objects which we are prepared
to love,” to endeavour to tone it down by the doubttul
hope that “a clean environment may be just the
chance for which the developement of a questionably
existing instinct of bodily comfort was waiting,”

A REJOINDER 187

suggests an attitude of mind which persists in in-
dulging in futile hopes at any price. “To live in
hope though we die in despair” may be good counsel
to those for whom life has in store nothing more solid
than aspirations which remain unfulfilled, but it is
neither science nor sound counsel to a nation that has
forgotten all that was good in its religion and has
ignored the best of its traditions. We cannot rest a
nation’s destiny upon a metaphysician’s “may ” ;
but only upon Nature’s “is.”

But though, for the sake of argument, we may
grant the possibility of her hope, and suppose that
on a given day in the life of a youth born of hooligan
parentage with a similar grandparentage behind it,
there may arise a spontaneous and burning desire to
become washed with hyssop and to become changed into
a saintly citizen, at somebody else’s expense, and that
he only awaits the coming of the nght environment
created around him by the national grandmother and
her retinue of State officials, how futile is this meta-
physical abstraction compared to the mundane and
concrete biological fact that given an organism with
right inherent desires, the right thing will be done,
even under the most adverse environment. Is it not
better to have the noble man unscathed and un-
scathable by the fires of temptation than to endeavour
to render indestructible that which is incapable of
transformation? I commend to Miss Wodehouse
two names that must be ever honoured by those who
admire dauntless and brave characters—George
Stephenson and Captain Cook. They achieved their

188 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

greatness without national doles or the expenditure
upon them of metaphysical hopes and “mays.” I
would fain recommend the biography of these two
men to the study of metaphysicians. It is possible
that if Metaphysics began and ended with a complete
study of these two lives, it would avoid those pittialls
and erroneous conclusions into which a wider if more
superficial study appears to have led it. I think all
will agree that it is better to have a nation of
Stephensons’ and Captain Cooks’, wrought into
great citizens by their inherent worth, than it is to
have one of incompetent clerks created by County
Council Scholarships out of persons who would have
been alike more useful and ornamental as manual
workers. Scholarships of this sort are themselves
but the outcome of unsound metaphysical abstractions
and social hebetations.*

* For further elaboration of the plea in regard to the incidence of
Plague and to the relative insensibility of some animals and men to
pain see Postscript, page 208.

METHODS AND RESULTS.

A Note Regarding Variation in the Single Combs
of Fowls.

By RAYMOND PEARL,

In the first number of the Mendel Journal, a copy of
which has just reached me, I find a number of pages
under the heading of ‘‘ Variation in the Single Combs
of Fowls. Some Mendelian Comments,’ devoted to a
rather violent and caustic criticism of a recent paper*
by my wife and myself on this subject. Inasmuch
as ‘‘ Ardent Mendelian,’ whoever that person may be,
in these “‘ Mendelian Comments” gives an _ entirely
and absolutely incorrect statement of (a) the purpose
with which the paper he criticises was written, and the
problem with which it deals, and (6) my _ general
standpoint with reference to the problems of inherit-
ance, | feel bound to make the corrections which
stand in the present note. A failure to reply would,
I fear, be taken by the readers of this Journal to mean
that I really hold the opinions attributed to me by
“Ardent Mendelian.’”? In this reply I must state at
the outstart that it is not my purpose to attempt to
embellish what I have to say with such a wealth of
rhetorical ornament as is displayed in the writing of
** Ardent Mendelian.”’ If, as “‘ Ardent Mendelian ”’ would
I suppose contend, Mendelians are all right and _ bio-
metricians are all wrong in their views about inheritance,
I venture to think that the interested biological public is
rather more likely to be convinced of this fact by a plain
and clear statement of the reasons why it is true than it
is by the methods of sarcasm and ridicule which he
adopts.

* Data on Variation in the Comb ofj{the Domestic Fowl. Biometrika.
Vol. VI. (not IV.) pp. 420-432. 1909.

190 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

The points which I wish to make in this note are :—

(1) A clear and correct statement of the purpose
with which our study of variation in single combs was
undertaken.

(2) An attempt to show that this purpose was a
scientifically justifiable one.

(3) A definite statement of my position in regard
to the problems of inheritance in general.

(1) ‘‘ Ardent Mendelian ”’ states that the objects of
the investigation reported in the paper criticised were
(1) to answer the “one question as to whether single
combs or their various grades breed true’”’ (Mendel
Journal, p. 183); (2) to determine “whether these
different varieties of single comb may be hereditarily
transmitted in accordance with Mendelian principles ”
(loc. cit. p. 184) ; and (3) to “‘ cast doubt upon Mendelian
conclusions ”’ (loc. cit. p. 193). Each one of these state-
ments is absolutely and entirely incorrect, and I hereby
challenge ‘“‘ Ardent Mendelian” to bring forward any
evidence from the paper he criticises to justify them.

As to what were the objects of the paper I cannot
do better than quote from the original: ‘ All studies
of this kind take their point of departure in an attempt
to analyze a broad Mendelian category. In Mendelian
discussion ‘single comb’ is a ‘unit character.’ All
‘single’ combs are put together in one category,* all
‘pea’ combs in another. But nothing is more certain
than that all single combs are not alike in respect to
any feature whatsoever, even including their ‘ singleness.’
How much and in what ways do they vary? Do the
variants within the category mendelize ? Are all variants
exactly equivalent in crossing with other categories ?
An answer to these and other easily suggested questions
could not fail, it seems to us, to throw light on the
problem of the constitution and physiology of the gametic
determinants of ‘ unit characters,’ assuming that such
determinants exist.

‘In this paper we have endeavoured to give a clear
and, so far as possible, quantitative description of the

* This, I may say, was written before I had seen Rep. Evol. Comm.
for 1908.

COMBS OF FOWLS 191

nature and amount of variation normally occurring in
a homogeneous pure-bred~ strain of Barred Plymouth
Rock hens in respect to the form and size of the comb.
The aim of the paper is purely descriptive, and it is regarded
by the authors as preliminary to the analytical investigation
of comb inheritance.”

The portion of this quotation which is here italicized
one would suppose to be a sufficiently clear statement
of the fact that the writers were studying or about
to undertake the study of the inheritance of comb
characters by the application of Mendelian methods
and that the present investigation was simply preliminary.
By ‘an analytical investigation of comb inheritance,”’
I meant and still mean a Mendelian investigation, in so
far as that I know of no way whereby one can determine
how a particular type of comb is inherited other than
by breeding birds which possess this type of comb amongst
themselves and with other breeds of fowls and studying
the individual pedigree records so obtained. Such
_ investigations I have been engaged upon for nearly
_ three years* now, and while I have not counted up
the number of pedigreed chicks that have passed through
my hands in this time, I fancy that it is certainly not
so far from the ‘“ 12,500” with which ‘‘ Ardent Men-
delian ” endeavours to confound and overwhelm me.
I protest most vigorously against the intimation that
I am so stupid as to undertake a purely descriptive
biometrical investigation of variation, and only that
kind of an investigation, for the purpose of determining
whether the domestic fowl “‘ breeds true ”’ with reference
to comb characters !

(2) The next point which I wish to consider is as to
whether the objects which we had in mind, as set forth
above, in undertaking the investigation and publishing
the paper under discussion, were biologically valid.
I think they were, though I freely admit that there is
room here for a difference of opinion (which is not the
case in regard to the matter of fact raised under 1).
While I grant unreservedly (and have, indeed, in the

*It should be said that the Biometrika paper under discussion was
written in the early fall of 1908, though it did not appear until well on in,
1909.

N

192 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

papers* from my laboratory tried to emphasize) that
the somatic condition of a character is, generally speaking,
an unreliable criterion of its behaviour in inheritance,
yet I am very strongly convinced that the careful and
thorough study of somatic characters and their variation,
quite apart from the study of their gametic determinants,
is a very important, though distinct, branch of biology, and
one which at every turn may be of help to the student of
heredity. I am most heartily in sympathy with that
point of view in biology lately so ably championed by
Prof. Wm. E. Ritter, which aims to investigate “ things
as they are”’ in biology, not as they “‘ might be” or
‘ought to be’ on this, that, or the other theory.

It seemed to me that within the broad category of
‘single comb ” there might exist more than one gametic
type. Fully understanding (contrary to the intimations
of ‘‘ Ardent Mendelian ’’) that the only way ever to
settle whether or not this was the case was by means
of the breeding pen and the individual pedigree record,
nevertheless I thought and still think it a useful and
valid piece of preliminary research to determine what
different kinds of combs actually occur in a “ pure
bred ’’} flock of birds, particularly since I was using the
birds from this very flock in Mendelian experiments.
It seems to me that ‘“‘ Ardent Mendelian ’’ virtually
admits this himself, since he picks out on the basis of
our figures alone four “ possible gametic types” of
single comb. Hitherto in Mendelian writings I have
never seen any reference to more than one gametic type
of single comb, excepting for the suggestion as to the
different types of single comb base made by Bateson
and Punnett in Rep. Evol. Comm. 1908. To have so
successfully gained recognition for the idea that there

* (Cf. for example. Ztschr. f. Abst. u. Vererb.-Lehre, Bd. Il., pp.
257-275. 1909.

+‘ Ardent Mendelian ”’ objects to our use of the terms “‘ pure bred”
and “‘ homogeneous.” To set his mind at rest I will at once say that I did
use those terms in the much maligned “ fanciers’”’ sense. On a strict inter-
pretation of the case such usage is, I admit, open to criticism, but just how
I was to describe the actual facts regarding the past history of the birds
at this Station without either the use of these terms or a long dissertation
on the subject Ido not know. It would convey an utterly wrong impression
regarding the true breeding history of these birds to say that they were
heterogeneous or not ‘‘ pure bred.”

.

COMBS OF FOWLS 193

might be more than one such genotype in regard to
other characters than the base of the single comb, is,
it seems to me, no small point to the credit of our paper.

The piece of work here under discussion was, as has
been said, undertaken and carried out as a contribution
to the descriptive anatomy of the domestic fowl. It
is no more justly to be criticised for not being a Mendelian
investigation than is any text book of human anatomy.
It is my conviction that in spite of the lucubrations
of “ Ardent Mendelian” there still remains in biology
room for the ideals and methods of careful and accurate
descriptive anatomy.

(3) Finally I wish to state as clearly as possible,
so that there may be no room for misunderstanding, my
position regarding the general problems of inheritance.
I should not think of doing this, since my personal
point of view is of no particular interest to anybody
but myself, were it not for the fact that views are attri-
buted to me by “ Ardent Mendelian ” which I do not
hold, and because he singles me out as an example
of a school of thought respecting inheritance with which,
as a matter of fact, | am not at all in agreement. My
position is simply this: I am thoroughly convinced
of the great usefulness in helping to solve biological
problems of the application of appropriate mathematical
methods. Being of this mind, I have endeavoured
so far as possible to perfect myself in the use of such
methods, inasmuch as it would seem the part of wisdom
to learn to use correctly any scientific tool which one is
to use at all. But the fact that I have used such mathe-
matical methods in my work should not imply in the
slightest degree, so far as I can see, that I agree with
any person’s theoretical views regarding heredity. There
would seem to be as much justification to assume that
a person subscribed to the doctrine of the quadrille
of the centrosomes, for example, because he used a
microtome !* As a matter of fact my own study of

* In the writer’s opinion it is extremely unfortunate that the impression
should have become so prevalent among biologists that the use of biometric
methods implies per se a belief in any particular view of inheritance.
This idea, one feels sure, has kept biometric methods from taking the place
in the biological armamentarium which they justly deserve to occupy.

194 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

inheritance has led me to the opinion that the so-called
“law of ancestral inheritance ’’ probably has very
little relation to the actually important and _ essential
facts of inheritance in plants and animals. On the
contrary, I am led, primarily as a result of the investi-
gations carried on in this laboratory during the past
three years regarding the inheritance of, and effect of
selection upon a character exhibiting fluctuating variation
(egg production or fecundity in fowls)* to believe that
inheritance is in general in accordance with Johannsen’s
‘pure line” scheme. The fact of “line ’’ inheritance
for a character showing such wide fluctuations (= phaeno-
typic variation, Johannsen) as does egg production
is made very obscure and difficult of analysis as
compared with the characters of self-fertilisng plants,
by the circumstance of sexual reproduction. But of
the fact there can, in my judgment, be no doubt. Further-
more, I may say that it is my opinion that the general
viewpoint respecting inheritance comprised under the
idea of “‘ pure lines,” which is so clearly and forcibly
set forth by Johannsen in his recent book, is the most
fundamental, accurate, and comprehensive view of
heredity yet proposed. The relation of Mendelism to
this view is evident.

“Ardent Mendelian” calls me an “ardent bio-
metrician.” If by this he means merely (which he
obviously does not) that I am an ardent advocate of
the proper use of mathematical methods in biology,
including Mendelian studies, I accept the designation.
If, on the contrary, he means (which he obviously does)
that I “ ardently ’ uphold the views regarding inheritance
which he attributes to me he is in most complete error.

The “ardent” espousal of schools of biological
thought seems to me to be somewhat absurd. Unless
I quite mistake the import of the scientific method it

* Cf. in particular the following papers: Pearl, R., and Surface, F. M.
A Biometrical Study of Egg Production. Part I. Variation in Annual
Egg Production. U.S. Dept. Agr. Bur. An. Ind. Bulletin 110, pp. 1-80,
1909. Studies of the Physiology of Reproduction in the Domestic Fowl.
II. Data on the Inheritance of Fecundity Obtained from the Records of
Egg Production of the Daughters of ‘‘ 200-egg”’ Hens. Me. Agr. Expt.
Stat. Bulletin 166, pp. 48-84, 1909. Is There a Cumulative Effe ct of Selec-
tion? Data from the Study of Fecundity in the Domestic Fowl. Ztschr-.
f. Abst. u. Vererb.-Lehre, loc. cit.

“COMBS OF FOWLS 195

implies above everything else the maintenance of a
critical spirit, both in regard to observations and _ to
theories. Dogma, whether it be Mendelian or “ bio-
metric,” has, it seems to me, no place in science. It
has appeared to many biologists that the standpoint of
some of the workers along Mendelian lines- has been
that a critical attitude towards Mendelian results or
theories was necessarily a hostile one. Such a position
is, of course, in the long run not tenable. The present
writer, and he feels tolerably sure that the majority
of conservative biological opinion is with him on this
point, proposes to continue in his study of inheritance,
to maintain a critical attitude towards all methods
and ideas, whether Mendelian or otherwise, trying all
and holding fast to those which are good. Nobody is
going to be argued, whipped, or ridiculed into the adoption
of any view of heredity. If the basic and fundamental
Mendelian data and ideas regarding inheritance cannot
withstand the most searching criticism which can be
brought to bear upon them (the writer believes that
they can) then the sooner they are relegated to the
scrap heap the better it will be for biology. To seek to
avoid criticism or to crush and annihilate it by militant
rhetoric is not only futile but foolish.

Biological Laboratory,
Maine Agricultural Experiment Station,
Orono, Maine, U.S.A.

A Note Regarding Variation in the Single Combs
of Fowls.

A REPLY BY ‘ARDENT MENDELIAN.”

Weare afraid that Dr. Pearl in his reply to some comments
of ours, concerning the memoir published by him in
« Biometrika,” and which he has we cannot help thinking
ungenerously called a “rather violent and caustic criti-
cism.’ has not done us the honour to read that criticism
with sufficient care. Had he done so, he would have learned

196 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

that none of the imputed statements were written by
us. We were extremely careful, in all essential points,
not to write our own interpretations of Dr. Pearl’s
utterances, but to quote them fully and without
modification.

When Dr. Pearl accuses us of ‘stating that the
objects of his investigation were (1) to answer the one
question as to whether single combs or their various
grades breed true; (2) to determine whether these
different varieties of single comb may be hereditarily
transmitted in accordance with Mendelian principles ;
and (3) to cast doubt upon Mendelian conclusions,”
he is clearly under a misimpression as to the object of our
criticism. What was stated was this* : ‘‘ The authors have
propounded a number of questions, but the central thesis
turns upon the one question as to whether single combs or
their various grades breed true.” This is quite a different
thing to asserting that these questions were the objects
of his investigation.

Now did Dr. Pearl propound these questions or
not? If we turn either to his original article in
‘ Biometrika ”’ or to his reply, we shall find the answer.
We may quote his statemént verbatim. “‘ All ‘single’
combs are put together in one category, all pea combs
in another. But nothing is more certain than that all
single combs are not alike in respect to any feature
whatsoever, even including their singleness.t How much
and in what way do they vary ? Do the variants within
the category Mendelizet? Are all variants exactly
equivalent in crossing with other categories?” In
slightly different words,{? these are precisely the questions
which we said Dr. Pearl had propounded in his
paper, and it was not asserted that they were the objects
of his investigation.

Let us come to what we actually did say was the object
of his investigation. Since this was the crucial point
around which the criticism centred, our invariable rule

* Mendel Journal, No. 1, October, 1909, p. 183, fourth line from the
beginning of the article.

+ This is only another way of stating that single combs do not breed
true.

{ This is only another way of asking whether the various grades olf.
single comb breed true, and whether they are transmitted according to
Mendelian principles.

SINGLE COMBS OF FOWLS 197

of quoting fully the statement which we purposed criti-
cising was followed. On page 184 it was stated : ‘‘ The
apparently real object of the investigators, that with
which they commenced their investigation, seems to
be contained in the following statement: ‘In this paper
we have endeavoured to give a clear and, as far as possible,
quantitative description of the nature and amount of
variation normally occurring in a homogeneous pure-
bred strain of Barred Plymouth Rock hens in respect to
the form and size of the comb.’”’ And now, Dr. Pearl
in endeavouring to put our putatively aberrant pen
right, quotes in his reply (pages 190-1) this very sentence,
as explaining the object of his investigation ! This is just
what we said was the object of his investigation as stated
in hisown words. Surely Dr. Pear] must have overlooked
this part of our article.

In another matter Dr. Pearl has misread the comments
which we ventured to pass upon his conclusions. Nowhere
was it asserted or implied that he was “so stupid as to
undertake a purely descriptive biometrical investigation
of variation, and only that kind of investigation, for the
purpose of determining whether the domestic fowl
‘breeds true’ with reference to comb characters.” Our
criticism was confined wholly to Dr. Pearl’s own state-
ments and conclusions, and had he carefully read
page 185, he would have surely noticed the sentence
in which was indicated again the real problem we had to
consider. ‘‘ The object then before us is a study of the
range and nature of the variation in the single comb of a
certain race of hens.” That is precisely what Dr. Pearl
tells us was the nature of his enquiries in the sentence
which we have just extracted from his reply, and quoted
above.

In our article two general objections to the conclusions
arrived at by Dr. Pearl were raised. First, it was
contended his methods were invalid. Second, that the
so-called homogeneous material was not homogeneous at
all but markedly heterogeneous. And that, therefore,
conclusions based upon material which is assumed to be
one thing but is in reality the reverse, can be of no value.

Now Dr. Pearl, in his reply (p. 191) “freely admits
that there is room for a difference of opinion as to whether

198 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the object of his investigation was biologically valid.”
The dominating and all-embracing object we should
bear in mind was to measure (quantitatively describe)
the variation of this so-called homogeneous material.
Since Dr. Pearl admits it is possible that this object may
have no validity there is nothing to be gained by repeating
here those considerations which we gave for regarding his
biometrical methods (namely, mass measurements) as
wholly invalid for the purposes of the investigation.

It was further contended that the somatic condition of
a character may be quite unreliable as a criterion of its
gametic behaviour in inheritance. Dr. Pearl now frankly
admits that it is so (p. 192). Having done this he has de-
stroyed altogether the foundation of “‘ Biometrics” asa valid
instrument for dealing with problems of inheritance.
For that which can alone measure somatic characters
cannot give valid conclusions on problems of inheritance
which depend upon gametic behaviour.

With regard to our second criticism, that the material]
investigated by Dr. Pearl was not homogeneous, he
has attempted no real answer to it. He says he “did
not use the term ‘homogeneous’ in the fancier’s sense ”
(footnote, p. 192). But he does not tell us in what sense
he did use the word. It is not, it seems to us, any reply
at all, to say he could not see “‘ just how the actual facts
regarding the past history of these fowls was to be told,
without describing them as a homogeneous race.” But
this particular race of hens is either homogeneous in some
definite sense or it is not. If it is homogeneous, the first
canon of science requires the strict definition of the term
employed. And, if it is not homogeneous, then no matter
what the inconveniences, the use of the term is unjustified.
As a matter of fact, Dr. Pearl did describe the past history
of the birds without reference to this term when, in his
original memoir, he stated ** that they had been carefully
and closely selected in their breeding for more than
twenty five years.”” This,surely, would have been sufficient
description of his material, and it would, by itself, have
been quite accurate, without the introduction of a term
which Dr. Pearl, under the light and stress of criticism, now
virtually admits has no meaning at all, in the context in
which he employed it.

SINGLE COMBS OF FOWLS 199

Another objection which was urged against the homo-
geneity of his material was “that we cannot by mere
somatic selection, however long it may be continued,
obtain a homogeneous race of single combs in respect
to any of their characters, except as the result of a happy
and exceedingly rare accident.’” Now Dr. Pearl admits the
justice of this criticism, for he says, as we have already
pointed out, in his reply (p. 192) “that the somatic
condition of a character is, generally speaking, an un-
reliable criterion of its behaviour in inheritance.” And
this race of hens, selected on the old somatic basis in
vogue twenty years ago, and which has been continued to
the present, can therefore have no claim of any sort,
on Dr. Pearl’s own admission, to be regarded as homo-
geneous.

Thus, on all the essential points which we criticised,
Dr. Pearl virtually admits the justice and validity of the
criticism.

There is one further point in Dr. Pearl’s reply which
calls for notice. He says (p. 192) “‘it seemed to him
that within the broad category of ‘single comb’ there
might exist more than one gametic type.” Now, we do not
question that Dr. Pearl conceived, even before the
appearance of our criticism, the possibility of there
existing more than one gametic type “‘ within the category
of single comb.” But we do know, as the note appended
to the article in which that criticism is expressed shows,
the Editor of ‘‘ Biometrika” declined to allow us to
reproduce the figures of four particular combs which we
had selected from Dr. Pearl’s illustrations. But he was
willing that we should reproduce any one of Dr. Pearl’s
three plates complete. As a concession, and upon our
suggestion, he subsequently kindly allowed us to reproduce
both the four selected figures and one whole plate
of figures. Now there can bé only one object in
desiring this reproduction of a whole set of figures,
as they were arranged by Dr. Pearl, and which were quite
immaterial to our purpose. And that object is to demon-
strate what the Editor of “‘ Biometrika ”’ conceives to be a
case of continuous or fluctuating variation. And, if these
figures conceivably show continuous variation, where,
then, we may ask, is the conception of gametic types ?

200 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Clearly, the Editor of ‘‘ Biometrika ”’ and his biometrical
contributor do not see “‘ eye to eye.” But, apart from a
consideration of this sort, Dr. Pearl does not anywhere
in his original paper allude to gametic types among single
combs. But what he does allude to are “ variants.”
Now ‘variants,’ as used in the biometrical language
of Dr. Pearl’s paper, are wholly somatic, and not gametic,
in conception. Whatever conceptions Dr. Pearl may have
had in mind, certainly the gametic ones were not expressed
in his original memoir. Perhaps in the shadow of the
Biometrical ‘‘ Field Marsha] ”’ they froze at their incep-
tion, and they awaited the more genial atmosphere of the
‘* Mendel Journal,” for their fruition.

Dr. Pearl seems to imply (p. 193) that we have
attributed to him views regarding heredity which he does
not hold. If we understand him rightly, and have
correctly followed his context, Dr. Pearl appears to think
that we have ascribed to him a belief in the biometrical
‘Law of Ancestral Inheritance.”’ We should be exceedingly
sorry to attribute to anyone beliefs which they do not
hold. We can quite sympathise with Dr. Pearl’s anxiety
to be dissociated from that burning and_ blackening
chestnut of the biometrical harvest. But surely it is a
little ungenerous to seek an opportunity of discarding
a fallen idol and a shattered faith by accusing us of
statements which we have not made. We have nowhere
attributed to Dr. Pearl a belief in any theory of
inheritance. His methods, his statements, his conclusions,
and his material were criticised, but nothing more. The
fact that Dr. Pearl has spoken of our ‘militant rhetoric ”
and of the ‘‘ Law of Ancestral Inheritance ” suggests to
us that he has confused together two distinct articles,
namely, “The Present Position of the Mendelians and
Biometricians ”’ and the one entitled “ Variation in the
Single Combs of Fowls; some Mendelian Comments.”
In the latter, no ‘‘ militant rhetoric ’’ of any sort occurs,
and the ‘‘Law of Ancestral Inheritance” is not
mentioned. In the former article, which does not deal
with Dr. Pearl, the author of this Law is mentioned,
and the article was advisedly written in the style of
martial imagery. But it was not intended that the
cap should fit Dr. Pearl. Of course, if he should like

SINGLE COMBS OF FOWLS 201

to put it on, only for the purpose of creating an
opportunity of throwing it off, that is an exercise which
he is at perfect liberty to practise. But it is unkind of
him to accuse us of perpetrating the cruel act of placing
such a veritable crown of thorns as the “ Law of
Ancestral Inheritance ”’ upon his head.

With regard to the maintenance of a critical spirit in
dealing with observations and theories in science, we
are all agreed. But we may, in conclusion, express the
hope that those who are subjected to criticism should
endeavour to fairly read the comments and to grasp the
spirit of the critic. If that were done, “ militant
rhetoric ’’ would not be found where it does not exist,
and “‘ caustic comments’? would assume the appearance
of an honest and even genial attempt to deal with
problems in which many find an interest, but who
approach them from different standpoints ?

Nothing was further from our intention than to make
any “‘ caustic comments’ upon the memoir of Dr. Pearl
and his wife. The paper from the standpoint of Mendelism
appeared to require comment. With much of Dr. Pearl’s
recent and experimental work we are in accord, and could
only write of it in terms of the fullest admiration.

MISCELLANEA.

Apogamy and Hybridisation.

Mr. C. H. Ostenreip, of Kébenhavn, who in 1906 brought
out a paper on Apogamy and Hybridisation of the Hieracia,
popularly known as Hawk-weeds, repeating some of Mendel’s
experiments, has just published an account of the results of
some further experiments on apogamy and hybridisation of the
Hieracia from 1906 to 1909.* The plants experimented on
were obtained from a wide area, north, south, east, and west of
Europe, and included many from North America, besides the
ofispring of previous experiments.

The method of castration was a complete shave with the
razor, cutting off the top of the unopened head within two or
three days of expansion ; this operation removed all the stigmas
and anthers. Every precaution was taken to ensure isolation
of the seed, the soil in which it was sowed being first baked—
very necessary when experimenting with such a common and
widely distributed genus as the Hieracia.

The experimental results obtained by Mr. Ostenfeld as the
outcome of castration of the flower heads, suggested the necessity
of a cytological investigation of the embryo sac and surrounding
nucellus of the ovules. Prof. O. Rosenberg undertook this. He
made examinations of the developing apogamous ovules and found
the chromosomes of the egg-cells unreduced, 7.¢c., their number
equalled those of the body cells.

Mr. Ostenfeld carefully summarises all the current theories
on the connection between mutations, their constancy, and
apogamy ; he regards Winkler’s opinion, that in parthenogenetic
or apogamous plants there is great likelihood of a mutant keeping
constant, as the truest view of the question up to date, and is
inclined to believe that apogamy influences the constancy of a
mutant and causes its persistence, but is not the cause of the
mutation.

* Castration and Hybridisation Experiments with some species of
Hieracia, by C. H. Ostenfeld. Sertryk of Botanisk Tidsskrift. 27 Bind.
3, Hefte, KObenhavn, 1906; and

Further Studies on the Apogamy and Hybridisation of Hieracia (Experi-
mental and Cytological Studies on the Hieracia, by C. H. Ostenfeld and O.
Rosenberg. Part III.), by C. H. Ostenfeld. Sonderabdruck aus “ Zeit-
schrift fiir induktive Abstammungs-und Vererbungslehre.” Band III.
Heft 4. 1910.

MISCELLANEA 203

One particularly interesting “sex-mutant” arose from a
cross made by Mr. Ostenfeld between Hieracium excellans,
which bears female flowers only, and Hieracium aurantiacum,
which is hermaphrodite. The primary hybrid of F, was, like
H. excellans, i.e., female only. It was isolated, and 53 individuals
obtained in F,. These were, of course, developed apogametically.
Of these 52 were like the primary hybrid, but one differed in
several features and was hermaphrodite with copious pollen.
{t was sterile on isolation, and did not set any seed. Mr. Osten-
feld speaks of it as a sex-mutant.

Of special interest is his discovery that two apogamous species
i.e., H. aurantiacum and H. pilosella are fertile when the latter is
pollinated by the pollen of the former species. Nineteen indi-
viduals were obtained in thisexperiment, of which one was an
indubitable hybrid.

Amongst other interesting points shown by his work, Mr.
Ostenfeld found all forms of Hieracium umbellatum normally
sexual except one which is apogamous; but he states that,
setting aside this species, he believes himself justified in declaring
that almost all the numerous species of the sub-genus Archieracium
are apogamous. He tells us further that he found some species
apogamous and capable of cross fertilisation, while others
were only apogamous and incapable of cross fertilisation.

Mr. Ostenfeld pomts out that Professor Bateson’s view that
no indisputable examples of non-segregating hybrids have been
found amongst plants is upheld by his experiments with
Hieracia, which prove that the constancy of certain hybrids
is due to apogamy.

Apparently all apogamous hybrids are not constant, for in
Mrs. Haig Thomas’ experiments with apogamous seed from an
extracted F, white Nicotiana,* derived by the selfing of an
F, hybrid of N. Sylvestris x N. affinis there were produced in
Fs all the shades of reds, purples, and whites with coloured
under-surface found in F, and Fy. It would seem, therefore,
that apogamous plants are not necessarily constant.

A beautifully executed coloured plate containing drawings
of the parents and 23 hybrid offspring F,, F,, and F3 of
Hieracium excellans x Hieracium aurantiacum accompanies the
memoir,

A New Theory of Sex Heredity.

In a letter to ‘ Nature,’ February 24th, 1910, Mr. Frederick
Keeble, Professor of Botany at the University of Reading, pro-
pounded a new theory of sex heredity based, he states, on the

* This plant had white flowers with coloured under surface.

204 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

presence and absence theory of Professor Bateson and Professor
Punnet.

On Mr. Keeble’s suggested hypothesis maleness and femaleness
are independent allelomorphs, each with its presence and absence
designated thus: ““Mm” and “Ff.”’ Proceeding on the usual plan, the
scheme presented contains among 16 individuals nine hermaphro-
dites with varied possibilities, three males, three females, and one
sexless. Amongst the nine hermaphrodites is one zygote, in
which both sexes are doubly present, and symbolically represented
as MM FF, and four of the type Mm F f, where each contains
only a half-dose of the two sexes. Naturally the question arises
as to the actual sex which either type of zygote, 2... MM FF
and Mm Ff, will manifest. Both contain maleness and female-
ness in equal amount. Other theories of sex regard maleness
as being dominant in some cases, and in others femaleness.
But Dr. Keeble, falling back upon the familiar fact that double
begonias which normally bear female flowers, may be induced
to develope male flowers upon starvation of the plants, postu-
lates the conception that it is external conditions, such as nu-
trition, which determines the definitive sex of zygotes of either
these two types. He thinks that in general the number of males
and females among zygotes of the MMF'F and MmFf type will be
about equal, though wide departures may be expected under
conditions which favour the development of one sex more than
another. The question is one which experiment alone can
decide.

Among the remaining hermaphrodite types, 7.c., Mm FF
and MM Ff, the former, it is supposed, will produce female
organs and the latter male.

Four of the remaining types will be unisexual, containing only
maleness or femaleness, and may be represented as MM ff,
Mm ff,mmFF,mm Ff. _ The one remaining type will be
sexless, i.e, mm ff. Naturally it must be supposed that
MM ffand Mm ff will bear male organs and mm F F,m m Ff
female organs whatever the nature of the external conditions.
The mm f f type, if viable, will be sterile.

Dr. Keeble proceeds to show that many interesting problems,
such as prepotency, partial sterility, homosporous and heteros-
porous ferns (the latter bearing spores which produce both male
and female or hermaphrodite prothalli, and the latter having
two sets of spores, one large which produce female prothalli,
and the other small which produce small male prothalli), the high
rate of mortality accompanying spore formation, and the absence
of sexual reproduction in certain alge, may receive an intelligible
explanation on the basis of his hypothesis, in part elaborated by
the collaboration of his colleagues, Miss Rayner, Miss Pellen, and
Mr. Jones.

MISCELLANEA 205

Dr. Keeble’s hypothesis, that it is starvation which induces
the appearance of male flowers in double begonias of the postu-
lated type MM F F and Mm If, and by implication that
it is high feeding which produces the development of female
flowers, while not inconsistent with the cases he had in view, is
yet not consistent with the fact that another variety of the same
plant, Begonia Gloire de Loraine, so much cultivated as a stove
plant, forced under heat and richly fed, which produces only
male flowers until the end of the flowering season, when one or
sometimes two female flowers appear. The cultivation of the
melon furnishes another example of the appearance of abundant
male flowers in spite of rich feeding, the female flower being much
rarer and appearing later.

The following is Mr. Keeble’s scheme, showing the distri-
bution of the nine different types of zygotes among every 16
individuals, which accompanies his paper in “ Nature,” Vol. 82,
No. 2104, February, 1910 :—

MM FF
MM Ff
Mm FF
Mm Ff
MM ff
Min ff
mm FF :
mm Ff 3m F.
mm ff hemict.

9 MF.

Dihybrid
Scheme.

3 Mf.

pot eet DS ae be ea

A Note on Mrs. R. Haig Thomas’s Article
on Parthenogenesis.

In her interesting paper on “ Parthenogenesis in Nicotiana”
in the Mendel Journa/ for October, 1909. Mrs. R. Haig Thomas
suggests that Nicotiana Sanderae may be simply the result of
parthenogenetically produced seed of N. Forgetiana, not the
result of crossing that plant with N. affinis, as has been alleged.

The chief ground for her belief that N. Sanderaz is not a hybrid
appears to lie in the fact that it breeds true from seed, a
“phenomenon which is not expected to occur, on Mendelian
principles of gametic purity and segregation.”

Now the authoress shows that N. Sanderae is capable of
forming seed parthenogenetically, and suggests that it is for this

206 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

reason that even when growing alongside of other “ varieties”
(species ¢) “ of Nzcotzana in the open it always seeds true,” and
this suggestion carries with it the implication that all the seed of
N. Sanderae are produced parthenogenetically.

Mendelian segregation is not to be expected in the case of
parthenogenetically produced offspring. Thus the evidence on
which N. Sanderae is regarded as not a hybrid is, to say the least,
somewhat weak.

Furthermoce, it is not shown that N. Forgetiana exhibits
the phenomenon of parthenogenesis, although this is of course
possible. If this were shown, greater weight might be attached
to the suggested origin of N. Sanderae, but in the absence of this
proof the origin of V. Sanderae seems certainly not less ‘* shrouded
in mystery’ than it was before.

It is conceivable that a hybrid, such as N. Sanderae is alleged
to be. should breed true by producing seed parthenogenetically.

Royal Horticultural! Society. Frep. J. CHITTENDEN.

A Reply to Mr. Chittenden’s Note.

Mr. F. J. Ca1rrENDEN’s criticism of the doubt which i expressed
respecting the hybrid nature of Nicotiana Sanderae, in a short
paper on ‘‘Parthenogenesis (Apogamy)” in “ Nicotiana,” t
is based upon the supposition that ‘‘ Mendelian segregation is.
not to be expected in the case of parthenogenetically produced
offspring.” But within my experience segregation has occurred
among apogamous plants. I will cite the case:

An Fy N. sylvestris x WN. affinis ; white upper surface,
coloured under surface, was treated for apogamy, by cutting off
the anthers and stigma in the young bud, and ripe capsules were
gathered on the 3lst of August, 1909. The seed was sown 4th
Sept. ; and germinated 12th Sept. 1909. In May, 1910. all these
F, apogamous plants, some sixty in number, flowered under glass,
and split into the reds, purples, and whites with coloured under-
surface which we would expect in the case of self-pollinated
seed ; unfortunately, the ratio of the different colours was not
counted before the plants went off flower, but in June fourteen of
them were planted in the open border. These flowered again in
September, and the colours were counted :—

White, with coloured under surface. _—_ Red. Purple.
10 3 1

+**Mendel Journal,” October, 1909.

MISCELLANEA 207

Further, the ripe seeds in an apogamus capsule are usually
fewer in number than those in a selfed capsule, and it may there-
fore be inferred that all the ovules are not capable of apogamy.
Given this inference, it is not difficult to imagine that some
N. Forgetiana were reproduced apogamously among the hybrids
made by Mr. Sander, and chosen for their deeper colour to con-
tinue breeding from.

I fear it is not possible, until some traveller again imports it
from South America, to ascertain positively that N. Forgetiana
is apogamous, for in reply to a letter of enquiry Mr. Sander wrote
to me April 23rd, 1907, as follows :—“‘ We regret to say we have
neither seeds nor plants of N. Forgetiana, as the plant was
deemed not worth keeping after the hybrids were obtained
from it.” It seems a pity that a plant which produced such
splendid results horticulturally and financially in the cross
with N. affinis should be destroyed instead of being crossed
with other varieties of Nicotiana. Again, all the Nicotiana
species and varieties I have observed under cultivation are each of
them distinguished by three gradations of colour—pale, medium,
and dark in distinct shades, the medium shade most numerous,
the pale and dark far less frequent ; and these same three grades
of colour exist on the under surfaces of the so-called White
Nicotianas, Affinis and Suavolens. Now, it is conceivable that
Mr. Sander’s traveller may have brought over N. Forgetiana
in one only of these colours, the medium, which might further
confuse the issue, as it would seed all three shades. This I have
found experimentally in selfed plants.

Varieties of Nicotiana seeding true in the open ground
subjected to insect crossing, and growing within two feet of one
another, seemed to demand some explanation ; in the case of
the N. Tabaccums, this is found in the fact that fertilization
takes place just before the bud expands, but N. Sanderae and
others have not that habit, and apogamy in these might partly
explain it, though not altogether, as apparently all the ovules
are not apogamic.

Rost Hata THomas.

208 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Appendix to Mr. Mudge’s Rejoinder to the Criticism of
Miss Wodehouse.

The Incidence of Plague and the Relative Insensibility
Of Hooligans to Pain.

Postscript To PAGE 151. “ Thus the plaque is benign to the race
in the long run,” &e.

WHILE these pages were passing through the Press, I felt curious
to ascertain whether as a matter of history, quite apart from
biological considerations, however plausible and cogent they may
be, the plague does actually tend under the ordinary conditions
of life, to eliminate particular classes of people, and thereby to
exercise a selective value in the evolution of a community.
During my quest I came across, among others, a well-known
book, namely, Daniel Defoe’s “ Journal of the Plague Year.”*
In order that I might gather a right impression of the events of
that period, namely, 1665, and obtain a true conception of the
nature of the author’s experiences, and of the observations which
he had gathered from eye-witnesses, I carefully read the book
through. I think anyone who will do the same will be able to
arrive at a general conclusion something like this: that in the
course of a great and terrible epidemic such as the plague of
1665 was, there is an actually heavier incidence of the disease
upon the foolish, the reckless, the criminals, and those who are
of dirty instinct or habit.

Let us deal with the foolish and reckless first. Defoe des-
cribed certain precautions which were enjoined upon the people,
and he tells us “It must be acknowledged that when people
began to use these cautions they were less exposed to danger,
and the infection did not break into such houses so furiously as
it did into others before; and thousands of families were pre-
served by that means. But it was impossible to beat anything

* As scientific evidence this book cannot of course be quoted. But
it does not necessarily follow that all evidence which is not strictly scientific
is not true. Defoe was only six years old during the Plague year, but he
had an uncle and other relatives who were in London, at the time, and he
became acquainted with others who were intimate with the incidents of
that year. Moreover, he had access to volumes, some written by medical
men, which appear not to be obtainable now. ‘There is, therefore, no
reason to doubt the essential accuracy of his records, especially as the book
appears to have been written as a means of administering precaution and
tendering advice to Londoners in view of the threatened extension of the
plague which was raging at Marseilles in the years 1720-21.

MISCELLANEA 209

into the heads of the poor. They went on with the usual im-
petuosity of their tempers, full of outcries and lamentations when
taken, but madly careless of themselves, foolhardy, and obstinate
while they were well. This adventurous conduct of the poor
was that which brought the plague among them in a most furious
manner, and this, jomed to the distress of their circumstances
when taken, was the reason why they died so by heaps; for I
cannot say I could observe one jot of better husbandry among
them—I mean the labouring poor—while they were all well and
getting money than there was before, but as lavish, as extrava-
gant, and as thoughtless for to-morrow as ever; so that when
they came to be taken sick they were immediately in the utmost
distress, as well for want as for sickness, as well for lack of food
as lack of health.”

This, then, is the contemporary, or nearly contemporary,
record of the incidence of the plague, and it seems to have fallen
upon the foolish and the reckless—which then, as now, appear
to be more frequently found among the poor than in other social
classes—“‘ so that they died by heaps.” Itis pathetic, no doubt ;
but we must not overlook the real significance of this incidence
because of that. The gist of the matter, indeed, is very simple.
Foolishness and recklessness are not the products of poverty,
but poverty is the consequence of inherently foolish and reckless
natures’. That is why the poor are poor; that is why civic
defectiveness is more largely developed in them as a class than
in other classes; it is because the inherently defective tend to
sink downwards into the lower social strata. The twentieth
century does not differ from the fifteenth in this matter. And,
if a great epidemic were to sweep over England to-day, the
Defoe of our time would write precisely what the Defoe of two
hundred and forty-five years ago wrote. The “ poor are always |
with us,” but it is too often forgotten to add, “and are always
the same.”

As a further illustration of the reckless and wasteful nature
of the poor we read: “‘There was a most excessive plenty of all
sorts of fruit, such as apples, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, and
they were the cheaper because of the want of people; but this
made the poor eat them to excess, and this brought them into
fluxes, griping of the guts, surfeits, and the like, which often
precipitated them into the plague.”

In yet another part of the “ Journal” we read as follows :
‘They not only went boldly into company with those who had
tumours and carbuncles* upon them that were running, and
consequently contagious, but ate and drank with them, nay,
went into their houses to visit them, and even, as I was told,

* Of the Plague.

210 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

into their very chambers where they lay sick.” ‘* Nay, even into
the same beds, with those that had the distemper upon them,
and were not recovered.”

Now let us consider the criminals, and the incidence of the
disease upon them. ‘That there were a great many robberies
and wicked practices committed even in this dreadful time I do
not deny. The power of avarice was so strong in some that they
would run any hazard to steal and to plunder ; they would break
in [to houses] at all hazards, and without regard to the danger of
infection take even the clothes off the dead bodies.” ‘‘ It is,
indeed, to be observed that the women were in all this calamity
the most rash, fearless and desperate creatures, and as there were
vast numbers that went about as nurses to tend those that were
sick, they committed a great many petty thieveries in the houses
where they were employed.” These statements speak for
themselves, and I need not further comment upon them, except
to say this: that very probably a great number of persons of
thievish propensities became nurses, not to nurse, but in order
to utilize the opportunities for stealmg. If these passages and
others in the “ Journal” have any meaning, they signify that
the thieving and pilfermg instincts took their possessors into
danger, and led the majority of them to their destruction.

It is often said that the plague strikes all persons alike, irre-
spective of strength or weakness. There are reasons to justify
us in doubting this belief, and Defoe’s ‘‘ Journal”’ strengthens
these doubts. There is no reason why we should doubt that the
plague, like malaria, inflicts some fatally, others not fatally, and
others not at all, In other words, the plague, not only socially
but constitutionally,exerts an evolutionary influence, eliminating
the susceptible and leaving the immune. There is, for instance,
the case of John Hayward, under-sexton, gravedigger, and bearer
of the dead. ‘‘ This man carried, or assisted to carry, all the
dead to their graves, and who were carried in form (that is bodily
and individually), and after that form of burying was stopped,
went with the dead-cart and the bell to fetch the dead bodies
from the houses where they lay, and fetched many of them out
of the chambers and houses; for the parish was remarkable for
a great number of very long alleys, into which no carts could
come, and where they were obliged to go and fetch the bodies
a very long way.” ‘“‘ Which work he performed and never had
the distemper at all, but lived twenty years after the Plague.”
“His wife at the same time was a nurse to infected people, and
tended many that died in the parish, yet she never was infected
neither.”

Then there is the case of the “ piper,” who one night having
drunk too much, lay down upon a stall in the street, and was taken

& >

MISCELLANEA 211

up for dead by the bearers, placed in the dead-cart, and upon
and around him a number of dead were laid. All the while
that the bearers were collecting their gruesome cargo, and piling
the bodies into the dead-cart, the “piper” slept soundly,
surrounded on all sides by the plague-stricken dead. He was
nearly buried alive. But in spite of his intimate contact with
the dead, he did not contract the plague. It should also be
remembered that this ‘‘ piper,’ from the nature of his calling,
mingled freely with people of the lower classes, upon whom,
according to Defoe, the incidence of the plague was very heavy,
and must have come many times into contact with persons
suffering from the disease, either manifest or not.

From Dr. Boghurst’s ‘‘ Loimographia ’’ we may extract the
following, which shows how though some persons may come into
the most intimate and prolonged relationship with the infected,
throughout an extended period of time, in fact during the whole
of the plague year, yet they do not contract the disease. “I
commonly dressed forty sores in a day, held the pulse of
patients sweating in their beds half or quarter of an hour together,
let blood, administered clysters to the sick, held them up in their
beds to keep them from strangling and choking,* half an hour
together commonly, and suffered their breathing in my face
several times when they were dying; ate and drank with them,
especially those that had sores; sat down by their bedsides and
upon their beds, discoursing with them an hour together.”

It is not necessary to give any further quotations. These
serve to indicate my general purpose. It seems, therefore, there
are those who are immune to the disease; those who are only
difficultly susceptible ; those who fall easily. The quotations
further show—and a full reading of the “Journal” would
demonstrate this even more cogently—that the disease does
manifest an incidence in its effects and carries off the foolish,
reckless, vicious, dirty, and thievish in greater numbers than those
who are wiser, more discreet, cleaner, and more capable of
adjusting themselves instinctively or intuitively to sudden
emergencies and new conditions. In as far as it does that,
plague serves to purge a community of undesirable units and to
leave it sounder in those attributes that are essential in civilised
communities. It exercises a selective and therefore evolutionary
effect upon the race which it visits. I have been assured hy
travellers, some of them medical men, that in other epidemic
diseases, such as yellow fever, the incidence of the disease is very
much heavier upon those whose habits are dirty and licentious

* This evidently indicates the pneumonic or more infectious form of
plague. To allow such to “‘ breathe in one’s face ’’ means almost certain
infection to susceptible people.

212 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

than upon the clean and those of temperate habits. The latter,
in fact, are relatively seldom attacked. Whether by these
means we pay too high a price for evolution is not a question
with which I am now concerned. Perhaps the annals of the
future may supply the answer, when our defective citizens—
defective in clean instincts, in discreetness, in thrift, in ordinary
judgement—have so accumulated that our army of sanitary
officials shall have become so augmented that it cannot be further
enlarged on account of its prohibitive cost, and it will therefore
be unable to suppress or control the manifestation of the
defective qualities of the accumulated horde of defective citizens.
Then these imperfectnesses of character may manifest themselves
in a way which will surprise us. [I am only desirous to point
out the dangerous nature of the road along which our modern
sentiment is urging us, and to emphasize the consideration that
all its hopes are futile, because it has overlooked the fact that in
saving certain citizens from the consequences of their own
spontaneous deeds, this sentiment is evolving a sadly defective
race,

Postcript to page 168. “It is one of the most fatal mis-
takes to imagine that because to fight and be lacerated would be
to some people a painful and fearful thing, that therefore it is so
throughout the whole animal kingdom. It is not, I believe, even
true for Man,” &c. Pages 168-9. “ There can be little doubt that
prize-fighters and others,” &c.

Since these pages were in the Press, there has been published
in the “‘ New York Medical Record,” an account of an extremely
interesting psychological study of the gang of hooligans who have
recently terrorised New York. These researches were made in
the Department of Psychology of Columbia University by Dr.
Siegfried Block, A.M., M.D. The research raises many problems
of serious import to civilisation, and it entirely confirms the
general contentions which were put forward in my original
article and in my reply to Miss Wodehouse’s criticism. But
with the general results we shall hope to deal in our next number.
Only one point it seems necessary to direct attention to now,
because it is an exper’mental verification of the contention, that
all animals, and certainly all men, are not equally susceptible to
pain, and that any argument based upon the assumption that
they are, such as that urged by Miss Wodehouse, is
invalid. Dr. Block tells us that these hooligans “ are remarkably
insensitive to pain.” This being so, Miss Wodehouse’s lamenta-
tion over “‘ mortal combats between jealous wooersand the exter-
mination of cattle by the bite of an insect” loses the pathos it
was no doubt intended to excite, and the point of the argument
is so truncated that it is no longer capable of cogent application.

REVIEWS.

Mendel’s Principles of Heredity—2a, W. Bateson, M.A.,
F.RS., V.M.H., Fellow of St. John’s College, Professor of
Biology in the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, at the
University Press. 1909.

ProFeEssor Bareson’s book will remain as the classic exposition
of Mendelism. No man more than he has served by the brilliance
and patience of his work, and the insight indicated by his methods,
to place Genetics, or the study of Heredity, upon what is in reality
its first enduring foundation. Whatever may be the amplifica-
tions and extensions which future investigation may necessitate,
we do not think there is much doubt that the basis of the Science
of Inheritance, which is now being reared by the Mendelian
School, will remain as a permanent edifice in biological science.
The conceptions of gametic segregation and gametic purity have
come to stay. That the processes embraced within these con-
ceptions play a part in inheritance and in evolution is clear
enough. Whether they are the sole agencies at work, or whether
their part in Nature, though limited, is of wide extent, isa
question for the future to answer. But no conception of Nature
which omits them can be complete, or have any pretence to be
regarded as full or sound.

If inheritance and evolution are wholly or in part based upon
gametic segregation, then our conceptions of the essential nature of
the phenomena of variation will benecessarily profoundly modified.
For, as is pointed out in the article in this Journal on “ Mendel’s
Life and Work,” it is difficult to picture the process of evolution
as merely a matter of the blending of minute incremental varia-
tions all tending in one direction, while the processes going on in
the sex-cells are those of segregation. We may as well try to
imagine that St. Paul’s Cathedral was reared by a continuous
welling upward motion of liquid stuff, while all the time we know
that it was built up of solid, separate blocks, deftly laid and
arranged, one by one. It was not constructed by a flowing pro-
cess, but by the sequential addition of separate though small
steps, each block and brick of its masonry representing a step
upward.

Thus we have before us these two conceptions of evolu-
tion as a process based on variation. It is clear, to start

214 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

with, there can be no evolution without change. A change in
structure or function is variation. The direction of evolution
will necessarily depend upon the “ selection ” of certain changes
and the “elimination” of others. The great biological controversy
of the present time centres around the question, What is the
nature of these changes or variations ? If there are two species,
one bigger and the other smaller, one swift of foot and the other
less swift, the essential problem before us is, Were the changes
by which the smaller and less fleet of foot evolved into the bigger
and the swifter species of the nature of a thousand and one im-
perceptible stages, or did they partake of the nature of a series of
definite and appreciable steps ? Those who hold to the view of
‘* continuous variations ’’ maintain the former thesis, while those
who believe that “ discontinuous variations ” supply the material
of evolution, hold to the latter view.

Let us try and form a tangible mental picture of the difference
between an evolution proceeding on the basis of continuous
variations, and that which proceeds on the basis of discontinuous
variations. In the evolution of the larger from the smaller species
are we to picture a number of the individuals among this species
as varying to an inappreciable degree in size in the direction of
being larger, and that as the result of the mating of such indivi-
duals there arises a race, definitely and permanently larger than
the parent species, though so slight in extent as to be barely appre-
ciable ? And, accepting Darwin’s proposition, that it is conceiv-
able a variation once arisen may continue to vary for many
generations in the same direction, and, therefore, in the course of
time the summation of a series of barely appreciable differences
will ultimately result in an appreciable advance in size. Or, are
we to believe that the difference in size arose by either a single
jump or by a series of small but appreciable steps ¢

Now, at this point we need to be careful to draw another
mental picture of the difference between the two processes. So
far, we have as it were, pictured the outside of the process ; but
it is very necessary to picture also that of its mner mode of
working. When we picture the outside of the process, we have
in mind the body itself of the individuals. But the mner picture
focusses our attention upon their reproductive cells or gametes.
Now, when an individual’s body varies in size, even to an inappre-
ciable extent, upon what does this variation depend? Upon
the answer to this question rests or falls the case for evolution
by continuous variations. Is the change a permanent one and
maintained in inheritance? For if it be not preserved in here-
ditary transmission, it has no evolutionary value, since evolution
is simply progress in form and time. Or is it merely a temporary
one—a passing response to environmental conditions, and

PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY QD

merely an expression of that plasticity which evolution has im-
posed on all living protoplasm ? In other words, does it depend
upon some definite change in the architecture of the germ-cells
and is therefore transmitted from one generation to another ?
Or is it simply a matter of a nutritional responsive capacity of
the body-cells, an event for this generation only, and the outcome
of a passing influence of environmental combinations? If it be
that, its manifestation through succeeding generations will
depend upon the continued presence of these same environmental
influences. But if it is not that, then its manifestation will be
independent of particular combinations of environmental in-
fluences, and throughout long ranges of geographical distribution,
and under diverse conditions, will exhibit its particular quality,
whether it is size or any other.

Now, it is known that there are species, the individuals
of which live under very different conditions, and yet preserve
an identity of specific characters. We may cite the case of a small
snail (Helix arbustorum var alpestris) which is found living above
the snow line on the Alps and also in the marshes of Hoddesdon,
in Herts. Notwithstanding that these conditions are wholly
different, the individuals living in the one region are not distin-
guishable from those living in the other. Or, we may show the
same thing by taking a converse case, namely, where distinct
forms within a species maintain their characteristic differences
though grown under the same conditions. The vernal whitlow
grass is a case of this sort. This species has a large number
(about 200) of forms which differ from each other in several
features. These forms breed true, both in their local stations
and when brought together and reared in botanical gardens.
Take, for instance, two of these forms, one with narrow leaves
and the other with a broader foliage. They have been cultivated
side by side, and yet each form retains its own peculiar features
in a quite uniform way. In Nature, on the geographic borders
of the limits of the different forms, intermediates are not known.
Hence, it is clear that some minor and greater differences of
character which mark the individuals of many species are of
fixed gametic origin, and though in some cases small in amount,
are yet quite distinct and unblendable. Experiment alone can
decide for certainty whether these forms are really unblendable
when crossed. For the present, we have only the evidence of
the absence of intermediate forms on the geographic limits of
the overlapping groups. But still it is known that in other
species similar differences do not blend in inheritance.

Then there is the wide range of comparative studies, where
in comparing the extremes of numerous variations of very
different kinds, we fail to find evidence that intermediate stages

216 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

exist. In the case of the dog-whelk, very common around the
English coast, the differently coloured and banded varieties are
distinct, and though they have been seen breeding together,
nothing in the nature of blends or intermediates occur.

It is therefore clear that the differences which distinguish
some forms from others are “ discontinuous” and do not blend
in the hereditary transmission, but segregate. The question
which the future has to answer is no longer whether discontinuous
variations exist at all, nor is it any longer a matter of upholding
in an unqualified fashion the contention that evolution is based
wholly on the blending and summation of continuous variations,
for the existence of discontinuous variations is now a fact. But
the question is one of whether evolution is wholly a matter of
discontinuous variations, or whether it is partly this and partly
due to continuous variations.

All that can be said in the way of general considerations and
of essay speculations has already been written. The answer of
the future to these questions lies in experiment. No doubt,
observation of Nature has its value in suggesting new problems
and in controlling the interpretations of the experimental evidence.
But, by itself, it is insufficient to permit us to arrive at definite
and certain conclusions, which can be regarded as incontro-
vertible.

Professor Bateson’s book on “ Mendel’s Principles of Inherit-
ance” thus comes as the exposition of the experimental method
in biological science. In effect, he says: “‘ We have done with
essay-writing, and the time is ripe for the application of experi-
ment to all the problems of inheritance, variation, and evolution.”
In the present book the author has preferred to restrict his treat-
ment of the subject to the concrete facts of inheritance, as they
have been ascertained by experiment. The consideration of the
theoretical conceptions which those facts suggest he has left to
be dealt with in another book.

We may now glance, in a general way, at the contents of the
book and some of the problems with which it deals. In the intro-
ductory chapter there is an account of some pre-Mendelian
writings, and it includes Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” and
his ‘‘ Animals and Plants Under Domestication,” as well as those
of Francis Galton, Weismann, and some of the earlier works of
De Vries. The account of the pre-Mendelian writings is followed
by a statement of the way in which Mendel’s paper was re-
discovered and of the new methods which he introduced into
the study of inheritance. There is also, in this chapter, a
description of the Mendelian principles illustrated by reference
to some recent experiments in breeding hybrids derived from a
cross between tall and dwarf sweet peas.

PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY 217

In many ways Chapter IT. is an'important one, since it describes
the nature of the material with which Mendelian experiments
have dealt, and to which Mendelian principles have been shown to
apply. Some of the characters, the inheritance of which have
been studied by Mendelian methods, are not only structural in
nature, but several of them are physiological. The different
habits assumed by plants are among some of the characters
which have been investigated. Some individuals in a race are
tall and others dwarf; some have a branching habit, others are
unbranched ; some straggle and others are erect; some are
biennial and others annual; some wheats are susceptible to the
attacks of the “ rust-fungus,”’ while others are immune. These
habits, with the exception of the biennial and annual habits,
and the straggling and erect habits, which require further investi-
gation, behave in inheritance according to Mendelian principles.
Among animals, the peculiar round-about motion of waltzing
mice and the normal habit are known to be transmitted in
Mendelian fashion. Hairiness and smoothness of the epidermis
of plants, the prickliness and smoothness of fruits, lax and
dense ears in wheat, starchy endosperm and sugary endosperm,
short hair and long hair in ‘rabbits and guinea-pigs, the various
forms of combs in fowls, and eye-colour and various abnormalities
in man, and a large number of other characters, for which the
reader should refer to the book itself, have already been shown
to behave in inheritance as Mendelian factors.

How extensive has been the work which has dealt with the
transmission of colour in plants, animals. and Man alike, may be
gathered from the fact that four chapters, namely, four to eight
inclusive, are wholly concerned in describing the phenomena
relating to colour-transmission. Perhaps in no other character is
a knowledge of inheritance so certain, and of such a great degree
of refinement, as in that of colour. Heredity and sex, and some
interesting problems related to the subject, are dealt with in
Chapter X. The existence of Mendelian inheritance in Man is
discussed in Chapter XII. In Chapter XV. the bearing of
Mendelian principles upon old biological conceptions is dealt with
in a tentative and suggestive manner. Here we find a discussion
of the nature of Mendelian units and of segregation ; the possible
moment at which segregation occurs is indicated ; the nature of
reversion and variation, discontinuity in variation and the
relationship of Mendelism to Natural Selection is dealt with in
a lucid and inspiring fashion.

The final or sixteenth Chapter deals with the practical appli-
cation of Mendelian principles. In this chapter we are introduced
to several extremely interesting matters. We learn that our old
conception of a pure-bred race or individual must be profoundly

218 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

modified. Here the art of the breeder is at once touched by
the introduction of a new standard of precision. The possibilities
of raising horticultural novelties is much increased ; “ rogues”
may be with more certainty eliminated or prevented from appear-
ing; and “types” may be fixed within a few generations,
where previously years were spent, and, even then, in many cases
only to end in futile results. Most important, perhaps, is the
lesson which the newer knowledge of Genetics has to teach us, that
some types are unfixable.

The last section in this chapter deals with the sociological
application of Mendelism. We commend every advocate of
social panaceas and of legislative interference with natural processes
to read this part of the book. In a few well-chosen sentences,
the author gives expression to the judgement of every biologist,
alike of the present and the past, who has given to social problems
adequate and unbiassed thought. For nothing is more evident
to the naturalist, than that we cannot convert inherent vice into
innate virtue, nor change “ leaden instincts into golden conduct,”
nor ‘‘ transform a sow’s ear into a silken purse,” by any known
social process. Our vast and costly schemes of free compulsory
elementary education, of County Council Scholarships and
evening classes, which are among these social processes supposed
to possess the magic virtue of transforming the world into a
fairy land, may be a delusion and a danger. And so, too, may
be all the other well-intentioned but costly panaceas that harass
and tax and eventually destroy the fit in order to attempt—for
they can never achieve—the salvation of the unfit.

The chapters which we have indicated, namely, .—XVI. are
included in Part I. of the book. Part II. cannot fail to be of
general interest. It gives an account of Mendel’s life, and shows
what sort of man he was, and what were the methods of his work.

Gregor Mendel was during part of his life an Abbot, yet there
is little in his appearance, as it is depicted in the portrait repro-
duced in Professor Bateson’s book, to suggest the priest. But
there is something manifested in his countenance which escapes
analysis ; it is evident that he was a kindly and tolerant person,
for although the face is wholly masculine, there is that in 1t which
indicates a feminine gentleness and patience with little things.
His character was doubtless of a complex nature: possibly there
were combined in it the sternest resolution and the sweetest
docility ; and the academic spirit of the Cloister and the College
were commingled in happiest harmony with the utilitarian
capacity and clear thinking of successful practical life.

Gregor Mendel was not eminent in the popular sense, for he
was not a “ rope-dancer in the market place,” nor a charlatan
standing on a self-exalted pedestal, but he was great because he

THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 219

was what Nietzsche would have called a “‘ Creator.” He came
into a branch of knowledge that was in chaos and he gave us
order; he found there stagnation and he converted it into pro-
gression; he saw multitudinous facts dead because they had no
consistent interpretation, and he gave them life. The magnitude
of the task that he accomplished and the nature of the debt that
posterity owes to him, only those who fully know the state of
hereditary studies in his day can properly appreciate.

The reader of Professor Bateson’s book will find a great deal of
matter of absorbing interest. He will find problems that have
escaped elucidation for centuries glowing under the newer light of
the Science of Genetics. At last we see the only way by which
problems of inheritance can be effectually and _ scientifically
attacked. The facts of geographical distribution, of the inter-
relationship of species on the overlapping bounds of their common
territory, may suggest problems for investigation, but they cannot
by themselves supply a truthful answer. The problems of evolu-
tion and of variation to-day give promise of receiving correct
answers. We cannot, of course, yet close the book of knowledge,
for we have only just passed its preface and reached its first real
page; but we no longer grope in semi-darkness, for now we have a
method by which we can put to Nature a single definite question,
and get from her a single and definite answer to every question
we choose to put. That is an enormous gain. This method
is the most powerful instrument biological science has ever
wielded, and the intellectual conception that les behind it and
supphes the motive power must be ranked among the greatest
of her victorious achievements.

With regard to Man, it is now clear that what medicine, social
reform, legislation, and philanthropy have failed to accomplish,
can be achieved by Biology. Tell the student of Genetics what
type of nation we desire, within the limits of the characters which
the nation already possesses, and confer upon him adequate powers,
and he will mould it, by the process of elimination. It is not too
much to say that if he were instructed to evolvea “fit” nation—
that is, one of self-reliant and self-supporting individuals—in the
course of a few generations there would be few workhouses,
hospitals, unemployables, congenital criminals, or drunkards.

The Family and the Nation.—4 Study in Natural Inheritance
and Social Responsibility. By William Cecil Dampier
Whetham, M.A., F.R.S., and Catherine Durning Whetham,
His Wife. Longmans, Green, & Co., London. Ts. 6d. net.

PrruHaps in no book of its size has so much information of the
greatest value, from the civic standpoint, been incorporated, nor

220 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

written in such a charming style, as Dr. Whetham’s “ Family
and the Nation.” From its Preface to its concluding page are
to be found felicitous phrases that serve to carry home and fix
upon the mind ideas which had but vaguely floated before it.
There are many in this nation of ours who feel strangely perturbed,
haunted by vague fears that something is wrong in the body
politic, and yet who cannot define their fears or express the nature
of the intellectual restlessness which they feel whenever they
think of our social problems. To them the book of Dr. Whetham
and his wife will give coherency of thought, definiteness of
idea, and will express their experience in a beautiful language.
It may do more eventhan that. It is to be hoped it will arouse
the nation—or at least those who have undertaken to lead opinion
and initiate action—to a sense of the danger of the over-valued
altruism and emotional sentiment which seems to be guiding its
destiny now.

The general aim of the book can be best indicated by a few
sentences culled from the Introduction: “ The efforts of men of
science, philanthropists, and statesmen have been directed for
centuries towards improving the general environment of the race,
and of late years with conspicuous success.” . . . “ But in
our wise and beneficent search for better conditions of life, we
must not forget the other influence which, even more than en-
vironment, goes to make personality. To improve the conditions
in which life is passed and by which it is moulded, is but part,
probably by far the smaller part, of the problem. The deeper
question, the conscious solution of which is opening out to all
civilised nations, is how to maintain, and if possible to improve,
the innate quality and character of the life itself.” The answer
to this latter question is given in the book itself. The main-
tenance of quality is achieved by inheritance alone. In the
Introduction the authors point out that enough is known of the
problems of heredity in lower forms and in Man, “to give us,
here and there, certain principles which should be borne in mind
when we are considering proposals for legislative or social action.”
They point out that until recently the effects of individual con-
duct or of social legislation on the innate qualities of a people
have been ignored, perhaps not even suspected. We suppose that
deficiency in the knowledge of these effects must apply to our states-
men, philanthropists, and the community generally, for fifty years
ago, andagain sixteen yearsago, Herbert Spencer warned hisnation,
in his characteristically vigorous and lucid language, not only of
the futility of legislation, but of its disastrous tendency in creating
new evils as well as in failing to remedy those it set out to mend.
He it was who asked us to ‘‘ Change our vague idea of a bad law
into a definite idea of it as an agency operating on people’s lives,

THE FAMILY AND THE NATION _ 221

and we see that it means so much of pain, so much of illness, so
much of mortality. A vicious form of legal procedure, for
example, either enacted or tolerated, entails on suitors, costs, or
delays, or defeats. What do these imply? Loss of money,
often ill-spared; great and prolonged anxiety; frequently
consequent illness; unhappiness of family and dependents ;
children stinted in food and clothing—all of them miseries
which bring after them multiphed remoter miseries. Even
to say that a law has been simply a hindrance, is to say
that it has caused needless loss of time, extra trouble, and addi-
tional worry; and among over-burdened people extra trouble
and worry imply, here and there, breakdowns in health with
their entailed direct and indirect sufferings. Seeing, then, that
bad legislation means injury to men’s lives, judge what must be
the total amount of mental distress, physical pain, and raised
mortality, which these thousands of repealed Acts of Parliament
represent !”’* This warning was published in a magazine of
wide circulation in this country; but it appears, as Herbert
Spencer fully expected, to have received no adequate heed. It
is, therefore, all the more to be welcomed that Dr. Whetham and
his wife should once more, in a rather different way, and with a
wider experience and an expanded knowledge before us, repeat
the warning, and ask anew our consideration of the problem.

It is clear we cannot continually harass through the agency
of taxation and by other means the more self-respecting, the
self-supporting, and generally better portion of the community,
for the benefit and maintenance of the thriftless, the foolish, the
lazy, and drunken, without in the long run definitely modifying

* Herbert Spencer had been calling attention to the fact that an Act of
Parliament would not be repealed if it were beneficent in operation, and
that it can usually only be repealed with difficulty—as witness many
vicious unrepealed and active laws of our times—and then only after it
has inflicted intolerable wrong and prolonged suffering. Then he pro-
ceeded to show how vicious the great mass of legislation was by citing the
remarkable fact that since the Statute of Merton (20 Henry III.) to the
end of 1872, there had been passed 18,110 public Acts: of which, Mr.
Janson, Vice-President of the Law Society had estimated that four-fifths
had been repealed. The same gentleman also stated that during the three
years 1870-71-72, 3,532 Acts had been repealed, partially repealed or
amended, and of these 2,759 had been wholly repealed. __ In order to ascer-
tain whether this rate of repeal had been maintained, Herbert Spencer
referred to the volume of ‘‘ Public General Statutes,’ which is issued
annually,and noted the number of repealed Acts for the last three Sessions
of Parliament. These would be the three Sessions immediately preceding
the year 1884. Leaving aside numerous amended Acts, the result was
that in this short period 650 Acts were repealed. Doubtless a number of
them were laws which were obsolete; others had been demanded by
change of circumstances, but seeing how many belonged to the current reign
and were of quite recent date, it must be inferred that in multitudinous
cases, repeals came because the Acts had proved injurious.

222 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the innate nature of the race. For, as the authors point out, the
struggle for life, incessantly at work in the lower world, affects
Man also. Selection will tend to modify the character of a
nation as it modifies the flora and fauna of a country.

Therefore, the first care which we must manifest with regard
to every legislative proposal or contemplated social change is:
“‘ Will it tend to favour the growth of those elements of the
population which already are known to be of national worth ? ”
‘* Will it tend to check the reproduction of those who the present
fragmentary knowledge already points out as detrimental to the
community ?”” We have but to ask these questions, and then to
look at our legislative machine, our party caucus, to the hungry and
penurious portion of our Democracy, and to such of our unscru-
pulous politicians as are working their way to the front, to find
a sufficiently clear answer. But when to these agencies, all
working for evil, we add the achievements of philanthropists, of
hospitals, of infirmaries, of workhouses, of the boarding-out
system, and of the socal agitation in part led by certain medical
men and in part by Fabians, we have not only an answer but a
demonstration.

But there is another question of very grave importance and
without the existence of which that of selection has no national
meaning. There is nothing gained by a rigorous selection of the
best, unless it is propagated in such numbers that the individuals
representing it are passed on to succeeding generations in adequate
numbers. There must not only be success in life, but also a
“ dominant fertility” of those who succeed. It is obviously useless
for the best citizens to succeed if they leave the breeding of the
race to the worst citizens. Clearly, it is even more disastrous if,
by legislation and altered social customs we allow the degenerate
types of citizens to both succeed and breed. Yet to us it appears
that this is precisely what we are doing in many walks of life.
In politics, personalities of the type of Thersites flourish, and are
raised to positions of eminence :—

“ Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue:
Awed by no shame, by no respect controll’d,
In scandal busy, in reproaches bold:
With witty malice studious to defame,
Scorn all his joy, and laughter all his aim :—
But chief he gloried with licentious style
To lash the great, and monarchs to revile.
And much he hated all, but most the best:
Long had he lived, the scorn of every Greek,
Vex’d when he spoke, yet still they heard him speak.
With wrangling talents form’d for foul debate,
He’s but a factious monster born to vex the State.”

THE FAMILY AND THE NATION = 223

Not only in politics of a period not more ancient than the last
election, but, we are afraid, in Nonconformist pulpits, types
deserving of the anger of a Ulysses are also to be found. The
sterner but loftier sentiment of three generations back would have
made short work of that degenerate type of leader which we now
usually call a demagogue. That these men escape punishment
and suppression, not only in England, but in most of Western
Europe, is one of the signs of the weakening and degeneration of
national tone. And this tone, we are afraid, but reflects the
intellectual attitude of the nation which tolerates it. Whether
this is due to an inherent incapacity to foresee its dangerous
consequences ortoaninnateslothfulness that must see the very edge
of the precipice before it will resort to action, time and the result
can alone decide. In lower walks of social life the same success
of degenerate types is seen. They reap the fruits of harvests
which others have sown. They are accommodated, clothed,
washed, and fed in palatial workhouses ; they are treated with
the minutest care and the best skill in infirmaries, which are much
more than comfortable ; their shghtest ailment is attended to with
expedition and dispatch; they are visited by district visitors,
and attended by district nurses ; charitable institutions vie with
each other in relieving their merited miseries ; religious bodies
convert them into cunning hypocrites, so that every family contains
a Roman Catholic, an Anglican, an Episcopalian, a Presbyterian, a
Methodist, a Baptist, a Calvinist, a Jesuit, a Wesleyan, a Primitive
Methodist,anda Jew. These familiesdoubtless would also contain a
Mahommedan,a Buddhist, a Confucianist, and a Laotryist, but that
these are creeds outside the range of charitable disbursements in
this country. Their children are educated for nothing. An
attempt 1s made tv shoot them up the social rampart against their
wills in a remarkably expeditious lift, called ‘ Scholarships.”
They are fed for nothing and invited to come again. At some-
body else’s cost, they are medically inspected, the only intelligible
reason for which is that more officials—another degenerate type
of citizen—may be given employment; for certainly we cannot
suppose that a cleft palate, a congenitally malformed heart or
brain, a club foot or scattered and prematurely-decayed teeth
are going to be remedied by a doctor’s inspection. Not only are
we not satisfied in a futile medical inspection, but now we are
going to medically treat them for ills which cannot be cured.
And so on, doing everything for them—even liberating them from
prison wher a Home Secretary, dazzling in the limelight, pays a
visit to the prisons, never remembering that the leopard cannot
change his spots, and that where we have social chamceleons,
the birch sometimes succeeds in obtaining the requisite change of
colour where peurile sentiment fails.

P

224 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

But to come back to the book. Considerations of this sort
and many others justify us in feeling disquieted as to the direction
in which the evolution of our nation is tending. We clearly cannot
go on restricting the birthrate of our better citizens, hampering
them increasingly in the struggle of life, while at the same time
the birthrate of the inferior stocks is rismg and their deathrate
decreasing, and life is made easier for them by the compulsorily
enforced altruism of the other citizens, without some day in
the near future being called upon to face disaster.

Life, no doubt, is a difficult and stern affair. But, as the
authors of Family and the Nation say in a passage of
singular beauty: ‘“* Out of the very agony and weariness
of the strife, is born that social and moral sense which
gives to man his highest attribute and noblest reason for
existence.” If before the goal of human perfection is reached
we reduce this agony and weariness, or lessen the strife, we are
undoing that process which raised man to his present state. But
notwithstanding this, as the authors are careful to point out,
‘of late years, the means of keeping alive the falling and fallen
have grown with ever-increasing speed. Hach advance in medical
skill, in knowledge of Pathology or Hygiene, each new moral
effect to cope with external evil, results in prolonged life for the
members of weak and unsound stock, and still more significant,
a lessened mortality among their children. There is often an
inchnation. to deprecate the struggle for life, an endeavour to
minimise its effects, to mourn with the loser rather than to
rejoice with the winner.”

When we endeavour to trace the origin of this softened senti-
ment which is so solicitous of the defective and the weak, so
strangely heedless of the beauty of the strong, we are brought
face to face with religious conceptions, religious change, and
religious decay. In the older days, well within the memory of
some of us as children, the dominant conception of our religion
was that this life was a “ probationary training ground for a
higher one which was to succeed it.” For better or worse, this
conception is decaying, and no worthy ideal has taken its place.
The cry of resignation “‘ Thy will be done,” or of that “I am in
the hands of the Lord,” uttered in almost every home within the
land, and inscribed on many tombstones, not more than forty
years ago, is now heard in but a few, though its inscription still
continues. We apparently no longer believe in that great belief,
carrying within it the germ of national salvation, and anticipating
by many centuries the biological truths of to-day: ‘“ My God,
“in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the
“snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. Thou
“shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow

THE FAMILY AND THE NATION — 225

“that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in
“darkness ; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
“A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right
“hand; but it shall not come nigh thee; there shall no evil
‘befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”
Were it necessary to preach biological truths in the exalted
language of imagery and addressed to a people to whom the
methods and aims of science were unknown, is there any better
language than this of the Psalms, to preach to men a sublime
resignation to the powers of their own fitness or unfitness? If
a man is naturally alert and wise of understanding, he is not
caught by “the snare of the fowler.” If he is innately brave,
the “terrors of the night”? have no meaning for him. If he be
constitutionally strong, having that chemistry of blood and tissue
which renders him immune or only difficultly susceptible to
disease, he will escape the “ pestilence that walketh in darkness
and the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” And, if he be
not wise and strong, do we want him to be a breeding centre for
our nation? The Psalmist in effect said ‘“ No,” but modern
social sentiment says “ Yes.” Here, then, is an opportunity for the
Church. It nfay further justify its existence by its social service.
It is not ritual but guidance that the nation wants. Behind the
Psalmists and the Prophets stands the justification of Biology.

- We now no longer resign the faltermg to the call of the
Inexorable. Save life at all costs, and disregardful of every
national requirement, prolong it under all circumstances, is the
attitude we have substituted.

In appealing to the community to face the social problem
which confronts us, two classes of men—each characterised by
its own code of belief—present themselves. There are those who
have no belief in a future State. ‘‘ To such minds,” the authors
believe, “ pending the revival of a deeper faith, the thought of
the future welfare and improvement of the nation may supply
the ideal necessary for a worthy life.” But those ‘‘ who regard
each man’s frame as the dwelling-place of an immortal soul, will
feel more the awful responsibility that is ours to determine, by
our individual and corporate action, whether or no the bodies
and minds of succeeding generations shall be fit temples for such
sparks of the divine, fit habitations in which they can expand
and develop until they are worthy of a sublimer sphere.” Those
who for years have been engaged in an attempt to obtain a recog-
nition of more rational methods in dealing with the congenitally
hopeless, civic and physical wrecks of civilisation, have long
recognised that one of the greatest difficulties athwart their path
is the theological conception of man’s relation to a future state.
The pure biologist can, of course, express no opinion upon this

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conception. It lies outside his legitimate domain. But it is
perhaps permissible for him to accept the conception as it stands,
and to plead that it is a nobler thing to invest the “ divine spark ”
in a beautiful and healthy body, than in an ugly and repulsive
one. If the great object of religion is to teach a noble ideal of
life, and is to lead men to love the beautiful in conduct and
thought, surely that end will be the better attained, if the love of
beautiful bodies and repugnance of stunted, distorted, and
abnormal ones, becomes a prevailing tone of Society. That
frame of mind which loves beauty in structure will be less
apt, we should imagine, to love ugliness of conduct, than
minds which delight in “ broken reeds.” And this prevailing
tone is only possible when those who “give tone” to Society are
themselves so innately constructed that beauty spontaneously
appeals to them. But quite apart from an abstraction of this
sort, there remains the consideration that if there be any relation-
ship at all between the merits of men on earth and their trans-
formed selves in another sphere, then it is the bounden duty of
the Church to exert itself to the utmost to see that only a sound
and noble stock is propagated on the earth. For surely it is the
highest duty to ensure that its efforts shall stock*that subliimer
sphere with high souls worthy of their place. But if there be no
such relationship, then the Church and its present efforts are
futile. They would have no meaning. Ifit does not matter what
our bodies and conduct are in this world, because irrespective of
anything we have been or of any deeds we have done on earth,
we are all equally to be angels in a higher sphere of life, then the
whole base upon which the teaching of the Church is founded
falls away. It has nothing which can appeal to man. Such an
attitude is, of course, hopeless and spiritually meaningless.
Therefore, it seems to us, that the Church has by the progress of
biological knowledge been brought face to face with a problem
to which it must give at once a definite “ Yea” or “‘ Nay.” or
cease any longer to be either the spiritual or material guiding
light of its nation. It is in duty bound to fall into line with the
Eugenic movement of to-day, and in season and out of it, rising
supreme over every other consideration, to preach that it is
sinful for defective stocks to propagate and equally sinful for
sound stocks not to multiply.

It will thus be seen that the book of Dr. Whetham and his
wife raises within its pages many interesting problems. To those
who read it, many others will present themselves, as_ they
have to us. The introductory chapter is followed by one on
the “Scientific Study of Variation and Heredity.” Chapter JII.
deals with “ Inheritance and Variation in Mankind.” In Chap-
ters IV. and V. the subjects are “‘ Inheritance of Mental Defect,”

DARWIN’S ORIGIN OF SPECIES — 227

and “ Ability ” respectively. | Chapters VI. and VII. consider
the important questions of the “ Rise ” and “‘ Decline of Families ”’
respectively. Chapters VIII., IX., and X. deal with problems
of the “ Birth-rate,” the effects of a selective birth-rate, and the
causes of a declining one are very fully considered. Chapter X1.
gives general conclusions, and summarises the previous chapters.

GPa:

Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species.—Addresses,
&c., in America and England in the year of the two
Anniversaries. By Edward Bagnall Poulton, D.Sc., MA.,
F.RAS., Hope Professor of Zoology in the University of
Oxford. Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. Price 7s. 6d. net.

Tuts book is dedicated to Alfred Russel Wallace. It is divided
into seven Sections or Addresses, and there are four Appendices.

The first Section attempts to give a brief account of the
history which led up to and followed the publication of the
theory of Natural Selection and the Origin of Species. It is
entitled “ Fifty Years of Darwinism,” and was one of the cen-
tennial addresses in honour of Charles Darwin which were read
before the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
at Baltimore, on January Ist, 1909. To the present generation,
that has been born long after the struggle which the enunciation
of the Origin of Species and the Descent of Man called into
tempestuous existence, and that finds itself living in a
period of complete intellectual liberty—perhaps in some directions
too complete—this Section of the book cannot fail to be of the
greatest interest and stimulus. It is difficult for the young men
of to-day to fully appreciate the magnitude of the great victory
which was achieved for freedom of “thought during the earlier
half of the fifty years that began with the publication of the
Origin of Species. So deeply rooted were the religious convictions
of men, so firm a hold had the orthodox conception of Man’s
origin upon men’s minds, that even some of the scientific savants
of the period who eventually recognised the success of the new
doctrine of Organic Evolution, did so with feelings of regret,
and others who ultimately accepted it, felt a reluctance
in so doing. How fearsome was the spirit that pervaded many
—even men of science—at that period, may be gathered from a
quotation of a letter which Darwin sent to Fawcett on September
18th, 1861: “ Many are so fearful of speaking out. A German
naturalist came here the other day, and he tells me that there
are many in Germany on our side, but that all seem fearful of
speaking out, and waiting for some one to speak, and then many

228 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

will follow. The naturalists seem as timid as young ladies
should be, about their scientific reputation.” Fortunately, the
period produced its man; one who, having become convinced
of the verity of organic evolution, fearlessly disregarded con-
ventions and consequences, and became “‘ the great and beloved
teacher, the unequalled orator, the brilliant essayist, the un-
conquerable champion and literary swordsman.’ Thus _ has
Thomas Henry Huxley been happily described by Sir Ray
Lankester.

The influence which his friends exercised upon Darwin, and
especially the debt which in one direction he owed to Lyell,
and in another to Huxley, is also dealt with in an interesting
manner in this Section of Professor Poulton’s book. Here, too,
we read a vivid account of the almost inexplicable opposition
which was offered to Evolution by the great anatomists, Richard
Owen and St. George Mivart. :

In this Section, Darwin’s attitude towards the idea of
evolution by means of mutations is set forth, and the fact that
he had considered the possibility of the progress of evolution by
large variations is considered. And, in order to leave his reader
in no doubt as to Darwin’s repudiation of “ mutations” as
factors in evolution, Professor Poulton cites a paragraph from a
letter which Darwin sent to Lyell, in which he criticised some
statement of the late Duke of Argyll. Here Darwin spoke of
“the variation in the bill of a bird ‘born’ with a beak the
one-hundredth of an inch longer than usual.’ The letter then
proceeds to say, ““ The more I work, the more I feel convinced
that it is by the accumulation of such extremely slight variations
that new species arise.” Apparently, one of the chief con-
siderations which influenced Darwin to repudiate mutations as
steps in evolution was “that it seemed to him in almost every
case the adaptation of structure was too much, too complex,
and too beautiful to believe in its sudden production,” It
is, of course, clear from this statement that Darwin regards a
mutation as being necessarily of large moment, a kind of sport or
monstrosity. That is not the view which Mendelians hold of
mutations. But to this point we shall return.

Lamarck’s hypothesis of the hereditary transmission of
acquired characters and the recent attempt of Francis Darwin to
amplify it, together with Weismann’s theory, are also considered
in this Section. The chapter is brought to a conclusion by a
singularly eloquent tribute to the pathos of the dramatic conflict,
out of which intellectual emancipation arose. “ The distance
from which we look back on the conflict is a help in the endeavour
to realise its meaning.”” . . . ‘‘ We have passed through one
of the world’s mighty bloodless revolutions ; and now, standing

DARWIN’S ORIGIN OF SPECIES — 229

on the further side, we survey the scene and are compelled to
recognize pathos as the ruling feature.’ . . . “‘ There were
sons of great men to whom the new thoughts brought deepest
grief, men who struggled tenaciously and indomitably against
them. And full many a household unknown to fame was the
scene of the same poignant contrast, was torn by the same
dramatic conflict.”’

Section II. deals with the personality of Charles Darwin.
This is perhaps, from the general standpoint, one of the most
fascinating chapters in the book.

In Section IIT. Professor Poulton controverts, and we think
successfully so, the old and oft-repeated error that between the
love of science and the love of literature there is an incom-
patibility which renders the pursuit of both impossible. The
author goes to great pains to show that Darwin’s attitude to
art and literature in his later life has been greatly misrepresented,
and even indeed perverted. There seems to be a _ widely
prevalent idea that the nearly exclusive study of science
leads to a loss of appreciation of poetry or music. Probably no
greater error was ever promulgated as a general statement, and
certainly not as a particular one applicable to Charles Darwin.
Professor Poulton shows that it has no foundation. On the
other hand, we believe there are, perhaps, some cases. where it
could be more truthfully contended that the study of science
succeeded in arousing dormant faculties and in exciting a love
of music, poetry, and literature. For there have been persons
in whom there existed little appreciation of the beauties of the
arts until they had succeeded in arousing their interests in
science. But the truth of the matter is probably not to be found
in considerations of the influence of the pursuit of science upon
literary faculties, or vice versa, It is probably not a matter of
training or of general education. It is one which doubtless finds
its explanation in the nature of the person himself. If a man
inwardly loves both science and literature he will appreciate
both. If he has a passion for the rigid analytical work of science
and also for the flowing rhythm and expansive conceptions of
poetry, he will find pleasure in the practice of both, in their due
seasons. It would not be difficult to name an eminent German
scientist, whose love of art was so great that the precision and
accuracy of his scientific records were sometimes in danger in
consequence. We need only recall the name and work of
Tyndall to remind us that beauty and fire of literary expression,
combined with a poetic fervour, are consistent and compatible
with a scientific training and a life devoted to science. But
after all, however varied may be our interests, what we can
actually accomplish is determined by the shortness of life and the

230 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

limitations of daily time. Ars longa, vita brevis is true in this
respect, as in others. Many men accomplish very little of a
definite nature in life, not because they are incapable or unworthy,
but because they attempt the impossible and endeavour to
express in deeds their all too varied interests. Such men are
not uncommon in the scientific world. It was once said of
Lord Brougham “that he would have been an excellent lawyer
had he known a little law.’ There are, unfortunately, men in
every calling of life, who like Brougham have such a
varied interest in things that it may be said of them, “ they
would be better workmen at their calling if they but knew a
little more of their work.’ Men of science, as well as those of
art, have to remember this, in order that something definite
and tangible may constitute the edifice which their life leaves
behind it.

In Section IV. Professor Poulton gives an account of Darwin’s
connection with the University of Cambridge, one of whose
great and illustrious sons he was. It would be impossible here
to give a proper idea of the fascinating interest of this chapter.

Sections V. and VI. deal respectively with the “ Value of
Colour in the Struggle for Life’ and of “‘ Mimicry in the Butter-
flies of North America.’ Both these sections are largely written
from the historical standpoint, in order to restate, presumably
in hght of present-day controversies, the bearing which the
facts of colour and mimicry have upon the conception of evolution
by means of continuous variations and of the origin of adaptations
through Natural Selection.

Section VII. cannot fail to be of the greatest interest, since
here, we understand, a series of characteristic letters which
Darwin sent to Mr. Roland Trimen are published for the first
time. As we read Mr. Trimen’s account of his first acquaintance
with Darwin, there are revived again the memories of the old
prejudices which the appearance of the Origin of Species
aroused in 1859. And, as for the letters themselves, “‘ we feel,
again and again, as we read them, the presence of the bright,
courageous spirit that could pierce the dark shadow of lifelong
pain and discomfort, and preserve undimmed its humour and
its breadth of view.”

The Appendices A, B, C, and D are a little polemical in
nature. Appendix A revives the old controversy as to the
existence of single or multiple origins of species. Appendix B
considers Darwin’s attitude towards the question of evolution
by mutation. Professor Poulton points out that Darwin’s
critics and others from time to time called his attention to the
possibility of evolution through the agency of “ monstrosities ”’
or ‘“‘ sports,” and that Darwin very carefully at different periods

DARWIN’S ORIGIN OF SPECIES — 231

considered the matter, and decided that, in his opinion, evolution
did not proceed in Nature by such means. Professor De Vries’
statement that Darwin believed evolution occurred both by
mutations and by the accumulation of fluctuating variations, is
traversed by Professor Poulton. If we read him rightly, his
attitude is that Darwin denied altogether the probability of
evolution in Nature by mutation. It is certain that in some of
his letters, Darwin has on more than one occasion expressed, what
was for him, very decided opinions adverse to modifications of
species by sudden jumps. But it is only fair to bear in mind,
that Darwin himself said “that no definition can be drawn
between monstrosities and slight variations (such as his theory
requires) though he suspected there was some distinction.”
That was in the year 1860. In 1873 he said, “ It is very difficult
or impossible to define what is meant by a large variation. Such
oraduate into monstrosities.”’ We cannot, therefore, very clearly
see the real justification for believing that evolution can proceed
by slight variations and yet not by larger ones or monstrosities,
when no definition which can express real differences between
them can be framed. Here, in fact, Darwin was face to face
with the difficulty which faces us to-day. Are these small
variations—the so-called fluctuating variations—in reality, in
some cases atany rate, simply small mutations? That is, variations
which really express definite features due to gametic factors and
which are capable of hereditary transmission. And, further, is it
possible that under the one term, namely, “ fluctuating varia-
tions,’ we have been all along including two externally similar
but intrinsically different phenomena? Are some of these
variations really small mutations and the others merely individual
responses of a plastic organisation to differences in environmental
influences? Professor Poulton becomes satirical upon this
point, and in alluding to the fact that the Mendelian has recognised
the possibility that some small variations are in reality mutations
of small moment, has twitted them with the hope that they
may yet “save their face”’ by calling the same thing (Darwin's
small variations) by another name (small mutations). But this
mode of controversy is a double-edged sword. For suppose the
future shall demonstrate that there are two kinds of small varia-
tions ; those which are germinal and those which are environ-
mental. The latter are not inherited, the former are. We must
distinguish between them. For is it not the function of science
to analyse? The difference between the Present and the Past
in our conception of these things is that now we are beginning to
perceive the possibility that there are two kinds of fluctuating
(small) variations and propose to distinguish them in our minds
by calling them different names. Is that scientific or not? At

232 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

any rate, if there are those who “ save their face’ by resort to an
ordinary scientific habit, namely, that of distinguishing different
conceptions by different names, there are certainly those who
may be in danger of losing their reputation for scientific acumen
by seeing only one phenomenon where two in reality exist.

However, apart from these polemics, which are inevitable in
all new forward movements, there is much, indeed the greater
part of the volume, which is of more peaceful interest to all who
would know something of the great controversy which began
fifty years ago and of the works of the eminent man, out of and
around which, the conflict arose and centred. For those
of this generation, the battle is practically over, and the fight
for intellectual emancipation has ceased. But how that battle
began, how it was fought, who were its great leaders, who the
faithful and unfaltering, who the doubtful and seceders, and
how the great victory was finally attained, and at what cost,
are questions of abiding interest that must appeal afresh to every
succeeding generation. In the pages of Professor Poulton’s
book, once more the great controversy is unfolded before our
eyes, and we can almost feel again its pathos and its tragedy,
but yet too, we feel the glory and the thrill of battle, and rejoice
in the conquest which the great leaders won for all who shall
succeed them,

Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty.—By Frepertcx
Apams Woop, M.D., Lecturer in the Biological Department
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; late Instructor
in Histology and Embryology in the Harvard Medical
School. With One Hundred and Four Portraits. Henry
Holt & Co., New York.

OF all subjects that deserve treatment by scientific methods we
may, perhaps, regard History as having a paramount claim. So
great is the influence of the events which it is its especial function
to record, and so important to the welfare of mankind is a correct
appreciation and interpretation of its facts, that not only is
no apology needed for an attempt to deal with History by night
methods, but it is a matter of surprise that no attempt to deal
with the subject on anything like scientific principles was made
until John Richard Green published his ‘‘ History of the English
People’ in 1888. It is perhaps a matter of significant value as
showing how great things are done from inner promptings, and
not from extraneous sources—be they designated educational or
otherwise—that with Green, the historian, “‘ the study of history
was with him never a matter of classes and fellowships, nor was

MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY = 233

he in his work touched by the rivalries, the conventional methods,
the artificial limitations, and the utilitarian aims of the schools.
College work at Oxford and history work went on apart, with
much mental friction and difficulty of adjustment and sorrow of
heart. Without any advisers, almost without friends, he groped
his way, seeking in very solitary fashion after his own particular
vocation.”

To those whoregard History—as we all do nowadays—as some-
thing more than a record of Kings’ births, ascents to the Throne,
and descents to the grave, or desultory or vivid descriptions,
varying according to the temperament of the writer, of battles
and disasters, retreats and victories, Richard Green’s attempt to
present the facts of English History not as isolated events, but
as factors in a process of evolution, came as a welcome departure
from the time-worn method in vogue in his day. He endea-
voured to show the relationship of deeds accomplished in the
Past to the consequences which the Present paid for them and
the Future reaped. To himself he would say: “A State is
accidental ; it can be made or unmade, and is no geal thing to
me. But a nation is very real. That you can neither make
nor destroy.” To him History had its philosophy, and whether
he was conscious of it or not, this philosophy centred around
the idea of evolution. To him the story of a great people is
not to be found in the ecclesiastical annals of a period which are
too often but the records of the mere squabbles of priests, but
must be sought in the things men did, in the institutions they
evolved, in the names of their streets, in the memorials of their
guilds, in the nature of their market-places, in their struggles
over poll and toll and tax, and in their social customs.

Dr. Frederick Adams Wood, dealing not with the history of a
nation but of a social class, has endeavoured to further extend
the application of scientific methods to the elucidation of historical
problems. There is no social class that lends itself so well to
scientific treatment as the Royal Class. In the first place, it is
limited in numbers, and, therefore, the whole field of investigation
can be more completely explored than any other. In the second
place, its individuals live in such publicity, and their deeds are
of such interest or importance, that they are more fully
recorded than those of any other class; and _ through
these records an estimation of the character of the men and
women who committed them can be formed. Court diaries and
biographies, moreover, contain the expression of personal judge-
ments which contemporaries were able to form of the character
of the royal personages with whom they camein immediate contact.
It seldom happens that a King has escaped such an estimation
of his character by one contemporary alone, and it is, therefore,

234 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

possible to weigh several estimates of a particular royal personage,
and, to obtain a kind of mean result. For practical purposes
such an average judgement will doubtless approximate very nearly
to the truth. Certainly it is as near to the truth as we can possibly
get. By thus endeavouring to weigh the intellectual, moral,
and physical worth of the kings, queens, princes. and princesses
whose characters Dr. Adams Wood has attempted to investigate,
he has eliminated from his enquiry that most disturbing of all
factors—the personal equation. By standardising, as it were,
the average judgements thus obtained, it is possible to trace the
hereditary descent not only of definite types of intellectual,
moral, and physical traits, but also within a margin of error, of
the different degrees of their developement. Dr. Adams Wood’s
method of ascertainmg facts and arriving at conclusions,
are such that “the basis of his book is placed in the hands of his
readers, so that anyone doubting the truth of his assertions can
easily take a few characters at random and look them up.” We
have so looked up his estimations of the chief Portuguese royal
personages which are described in the three pedigrees on pages 209,
210, and 213, and, on the whole, we endorse the values which
the author has assigned to them. They represent, we think,
very fairly the general verdict of History.

Now, how far do these three pedigrees justify us in believing that
intellectual and moral qualities are transmitted by inheritance
with the same degree of inevitableness and inexorableness as the
physical characters ? We think they fully justify such a belief.
If we start with Alfonso IJ., the founder of the Kingdom of Portugal,
we shall notice that while his father, Henry of Burgundy, is valued
highly in the scale of morality, his mother Theresa, though a very
able and accomplished woman, had a bad character, and wasviolent
and passionate. Her low grade of moral character is indicated
in the pedigree by the symbol X. We can trace this symbol
throughout all the three pedigrees, marking in a symbolic way the
relentless operations of inheritance, and justifying the old adage
‘*That what is bred in the bone comes out in the flesh.” But
what is yet more important, since it shows that neither sex nor
environment are answerable for moral character, is the fact that
this symbol sometimes attaches to a woman’s name and some-
times toa man’s. Moreover, it may indicate a particular brother
or sister, while the others are not so stigmatised. Yet they have
been reared under the same influences. Coming back, then, to
Alphonso I., we find him of decidedly higher morality than his
mother but not so high as his father. In neither of his
three children does his mother’s low degree of morality appear.
He married Matilda, of whom little is known. It may be taken
that her moral nature was not notorious or some record would

MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY 235

have certainly been forthcoming. In the third generation of
descendants from Alfonso I. we find Alfonso III., who, though a
great warrior and statesman, was an unprincipled tyrant, again
indicated by the symbol of low morality. Now, there is no other
person in the pedigree, except Theresa, where this “unprincipled
tyranny” and low morality could have emanated. For the
various families which were introduced by marriage into the line
of the descendants of Alfonso I., were of a high grade of morality,
or their general character was such that they have been described
as “kindly and pious,” “virtuous and highly eulogised,” and
‘able and moderate.” Following the descendants of Alfonso ITI.
we find the same symbol of low morality appearing by the side of
the name of Alfonso IV., who was brave and able, but cruel and
tyrannical, and by that of his daughter Mary, who was a wicked
and revengeful queen, while her brother, ‘ Peter the Rigorous,’ was
a wise, able, and just ruler. Following down the line of descent
of ‘ Peter the Rigorous,’ through the next two generations, where
the pedigree terminates, we find that his descendants are, with
but two unindicated cases, all of high order from the moral stand-
point. They are “ moderate and enlightened” or “ liberal and
accomplished ” or “‘ accredited with the highest praises for the
possession of many virtues.” It is interesting to note that much
of this high standard may be due to the introduction of Philippa,
sister of Henry IV. of England, who had an elevated character
and many virtues, into the pedigree, by marriage with John I. of
Portugal. This fact is worth emphasizing, because there is a
tendency in the popular conception of these problems, to regard
the female part of the line as having less influence than the male.
The pedigrees contained in Dr. Adams Wood’s book will dispel
this erroneous idea if they are studied carefully enough.

Theappearance of many new characters, intellectual and moral,
in the various lines of descent which are traced in these pedigrees,
are accounted for clearly by feminine introduction. Such a case
occurs, for instance, in the pedigree of Maria Theresa, on page 180,
She married Francis of Lorraine, in whose ancestry individuals
of intensely religious feelings do not occur. But both the mother
and the grandmother on the father’s side of Maria Theresa were
intensely religious. Maria Theresa herself is not so indicated.
But her son, Joseph II. of Austria, was austere, and his interest
in religious matters as manifested by his ecclesiastical policy was
deep and intense. We may in passing say that we cannot agree
that the epithet ‘“‘ bigoted ” which is applied to him by the author
is altogether justified. We do not think that a Holy Roman
Emperor, such as Joseph II. was, who brings himself into conflict
with the Holy See, by issuing an edict of toleration, granting
freedom of worship to all Protestants and to members of the

236 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Greek Church within his realm, can be truly regarded as bigoted.
Neither can we think that an Emperor who transfers the censor-
ship of books from the clergy to laymen of liberal sympathies
can be regarded as a bigot. We are inclined to think this epithet
is accidentally misplaced. Thus the descendants of Charles V.
of Lorraine (great-grandfather of Joseph II. along the father’s
line) manifested no decided religious bent until it was introduced
through the Empress Maria Theresa, from her mother and grand-
mother,

There are those who believe that indolence, viciousness,
licentiousness, dissoluteness, inferior capacities, stupidity, im-
becility, and insanity are the products of the environment, and
are begotten in the slums of cities or engendered in the stress of
life. To them we commend a careful study of the “‘ Chart of
Modern Spain,” which faces page 154 of Dr. Adams Wood’s book.
This chart deals solely with the descent of royal personages, to
whom were accessible all the charms that render life smooth,
whose wishes were commands satisfied in the moment of
their utterance, to whom all activities were open and the
means of participating in them were freely forthcoming. Yet,
living under the best conditions that the civilisation of their time
knew. the Royal Stock inscribed upon this chart contained
individuals manifesting the undesirable qualities we have just
enumerated. It may be contended, as we are afraid it has often
been by people who are content with unsupported assertions
that carry comfort to their own preconceived ideas of the nature
of things, that licentiousness and imbecility are equally the pro-
duct of a Royal Court and the slums. That such a contention
has no validity, notwithstanding its wide acceptance, is clearly
shown by the fact thatin the Royal family which contains violent,
passionate, licentious, and feeble-minded members, there are
others who are normal, virtuous, amiable, and wise. But what
this chart does show, is that once degenerative characters are
introduced into a line of descent, and individuals of degenerate
families are married to each other, they may be perpetuated
through succeeding generations. In this chart, for instance,
they pass down through six generations, and would continue to
pass on indefinitely, so long as the mode of selection of the worst
individuals,and the inbreeding which the chart shows to have
occurred, are continued. Historians and others have been too
apt to assert that inbreeding which is more common in Royal
families than in others, leads to sterility and the termination of
the stock. But, as Dr. Adams Wood points out, there is not
only no indication of it in this case, but on the contrary, nearly
every marriage was prolific of children, even amongst the closest
blood relations.

MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY 237

That the circumstances which are attendant upon Royal
Courts have nothing whatever to do with the origin or encourage-
ment of licentiousness or weak lives, but that the mode of life, the
mental level of the persons concerned, their ambitions and aspira-
tions, and their capacities or incapacities are dependent upon
their inherent nature, is clearly demonstrated by an examination
of the Pedigree which contains the individuals of the House
of Orange. Probably, in the history of the world there has
never been a family which in its civic attainments and its high
abilities of a varied order has surpassed that of this great and
noble house. Their members have reigned in different countries,
and yet the rough manners and low standards of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries did not produce one depraved
Prince of Orange, and the daughters of the house were noted for
their many virtues.

The same lesson of the futility of environmental influences to
overcome the congenital and inborn qualities, be they physical,
mental, or moral, is shown by the remarkable and, we may add,
cogent case of the descendants of a brother of Peter the Great,
who are described on page 221 of Dr. Adams Wood’s book.
For political reasons five of these descendants, all brothers
and sisters of one family, were, while infants, imprisoned. Their
imprisonment lasted for thirty-six years. One of the five children
was almost an imbecile and showed occasional symptoms of
insanity. He was violent and eccentric. Now if this child stood
alone we should no doubt be told by the people whose faith is
pinned to environmental influences as a causal agent, that this
imbecility was the consequence of thirty-six years of severe
imprisonment. But it so happens there were four other children
imprisoned under the same conditions and for the same period
of time. Yet they were all normal. Indeed, one was much
above the average and at the time of her release was “a woman
of high spirit and elegant manners.” Upon her release “she
wrote a letter of thanks to the Empress so well expressed as to
. excite admiration how she could have obtained sufficient instruc-
tion during her long confinement.” The explanation of this
remarkable case is clear upon an examination of the Pedigree.
Inheritance is its keystone. The father of these children was
Anthony Ulric, of Brunswick, an excellent but mediocre man.
Their mother was Elizabeth Anne, eccentric, extremely capricious,
passionate, and indolent. Their maternal grandmother was
Catherine, lively and good humoured and not peculiar in any way.
Their maternal great-grandmother was the Empress Ivan, who
was an imbecile, was epileptic, and pious. Thus the imbecility
of the eldest of the five children is derived from the maternal
ereat-grandmother, while the high spirit of the youngest child

238 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

appears to have descended from the maternal grandmother.
The mediocre qualities of the other three children were derived
partly from the father and partly through the mother.

One other point of great interest, because it confutes a dogma
too well but not too wisely loved of Democracy, is revealed by
Dr. Adams Wood’s research. This dogma is to the effect that
royal and aristocratic blood is only saved from degeneration by
occasional sprinklngs of plebian blood.* Unfortunately for this
poetic conception an appeal to fact lays it low in a prosy dust.
Peter the Great, though a man of “extraordinary will and
energy,’ was at the same time violent and epileptic. His
brother, Ivan, was an imbecile and epileptic. Another brother,
Feodor, was also an imbecile. His sister Sophia had great
force of will and ambition, and was intriguing and cruel.
Now, it happens that the father of these children was the Czar
Alexis, who was wise, temperate, and virtuous. In his day “ it
was the custom for the Czars to choose their wives from a large
number of their subjects. The most charming girls in the king-
dom were brought to the court for their sovereign’s inspection, the
most beautiful of all being selected and made legal queen. Alexis
was married twice, and on both occasions to a peasant girl, as was
his father before him. Yet. despite this treble introduction of
plebian blood, epileptic children came from both his marriages,
and the epileptic and imbecile psychosis has been transmitted to
succeeding generations. Now the facts suggest that the degenera-
tive character was not introduced by the peasant girls who married
Alexis, but probably came from some of his obscure ancestry.
Healthy though the peasant stock was, we see that it was ineffec-
tual in regenerating a defective royal stock, and, it therefore
follows, as a logical corollary, that royal and aristocratic blood,
when it retains its virility and greatness, does so in virtue of
its own innate qualities.

Dr. Adams Wood’s book contains not only much of the greatest
interest, but of the highest importance. For the first time there
has been brought together the pedigrees of Royal Houses, so
arranged that the relationship of the various members can be
seen at a glance or easily ascertained. Moreover, for the first
time, we have before us a definite standard by which we can
measure to an approximate degree of accuracy the moral and

*1t was to usa matter of great surprise, when a short time ago
we read a sentence written by the Right Hon. G. W. E. Russell, ina
little book entitled ‘‘ Collections and Recollections,” second series, in
which this popular delusion was again expressed. We will give the
sentence as it stands: ‘‘ The ever-increasing dilution of the English
aristocracy with elements drawn from other strata has prevented, or
at least arrested, decadence.” We should certainly like to hear the
scientific evidence in support of this statement.

ANIMAL EVOLUTION 239

intellectual worth of royal and other individuals. In the light of
this Biologico-Historical research, we must as a nation recast our
too prevalent modern ideas, and in regard alike to Democracy,
Aristocracy, and Royalty, seek to place our recent and developing
national policy upon a sounder and more rational basis. We
shall learn that our oldest traditions, fast losing their hold upon
a people who have passed through the stage of being a nation of
shopkeepers and are fast becoming a nation of slaves—slaves to
democratic demands of rights and neglects of duties and to con-
ceptions of the equality of men, and to the system of the propping
up of weaklings by the steel props of officialism—have been more
firmly and truly based on the solid ground of Nature than we at
present conceive. Good blood first, good blood last, good blood
always, that is the lesson we can gather from Dr. Adams Wood’s
research. Degeneracy in Royalty like the same quality in lower
social classes, is due to bad blood. Greatness and nobleness in
Royalty is due to good blood. Good stock may be spoiled by
contamination with bad blood is the lesson engraven in deep-set
inscriptions on almost every page and every pedigree in Dr.
Adams Wood’s book. No greater lesson exists to be learned by
any nation. For what is true of Royalty is true of humbler
classes. The nation which shall first learn the lesson and apply
its knowledge, pressing forward ruthlessly and fearlessly to the
goal of a worthy Manhood, an efficient and noble Kingship, and a
patriotic Citizenship, is the nation that will win and hold the
world, GOP. M.

Herbert Spencer and Animal Evolution— Zhe Herbert
Spencer Lecture, delivered at the Museum on the 2nd
December, 1909, by Gilbert Charles Bourne, M.A., D.Sc.,
Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, MCMX. Price 1s. 6d. net.

This booklet contains the substance of the first Herbert
Spencer lecture which is to be annually delivered at Oxford
University. Professor Bourne, who is the Linacre Professor
of Comparative Anatomy at Oxford, has in a very interesting
way brought some of Herbert Spencer’s conceptions into the light
of modern biological knowledge. More especially has he dealt
with that clearer light which experimental Embryology throws
upon some of the most fascinating problems of Biology, and
incidentally upon Sociology.

The first part of the Lecture, among other things, deals with
Herbert Spencer’s belief in the transmission of acquired characters.
This is followed by an account of Weismann’s refutation

240 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of the doctrine. Then comes the most interesting and central
part of the Lecture. Essentially it is a consideration of the
nature of the germ-plasm as we can élucidate it by our knowledge
of experimental Embryology. This part of the Address is not
long, but it is very clear and is illustrated by several figures.
It is moreover of great importance on account of the light which
it casts upon the nature of the germinal substance. It should be
read by every statesman, politician, social reformer, and philan-
thropist.

The central feature of the embryological experiments here
described is that what the organism will become, depends not on
the environment, but on the nature and constitution of the
germ-plasm. Let it be remembered, this is not an assertion,
not a conception born of emotion, not a daughter-expectation
begotten of a father-wish, but a simple, demonstrable fact
observed and always to be observed, in the experimental labora-
tory. It was ascertained yesterday, it can be verified to-morrow.

Professor Bourne speaks not as a Sociologist but as a Zoologist.
His attitude to social problems—which inevitably Zoology must
trench upon—is indicated in the following sentence: “ It is not
the business of a zoologist to offer solutions of social questions.
But he is within his right if he tenders to those whose business
it is to study these questions such evidence as is relevant.” We
are not altogether in agreement with this attitude. It seems to
us that those who can best solve social problems are they whose
work and experience have brought them into contact with the
actual foundations upon which they rest. We do not say
biologists are the only persons who can approach them. But we
do think that the certainty of experience and the strength of
conviction which arise as the outcome of first-hand knowledge of
life in its widest manifestation are essential to a full, a right, and
a fearless understanding of these difficult questions. Doubtless
there may be room for two classes of biologists : those who decide
to remain in the calm and dispassionate air of the laboratory
and those who prefer to enter the complex arena of human life
outside, and to apply their academic knowledge and experience
to the questions which there arise. There is an advantage
certainly in such a subdivision. It may be that the conclusions
of those who have brought their biological knowledge to bear
upon human affairs, may ‘be the more readily accepted by Society
generally, if they are supported by the evidence of those biologists
who have stood outside the strife and heat of the arena, where
scientific knowledge and method must inevitably come into
contlict with partisanship, and with those preconceived ideas
upon the rise or fall of which, Schools and Creeds rest their
existence.

ANIMAL EVOLUTION 241

Regarding Professor Bourne’s Address in this light, accepting
his conclusions as those of an eminent Zoologist who views social
questions from the calm perspective of the laboratory, we note
two conclusions which seem to us of special value. The first is
this: “‘ We should hold fast to Herbert Spencer’s conviction that
mankind is governed by the same laws as govern the animal
kingdom, and that no true system of Sociology can be offered
which does not take full account of those laws.” This, we may
say in passing, is one of the facts which is among the objects
of the Mendel Journal to bring home to the minds of men. We
welcome this pronouncement of Professor Bourne all the more,
that it comes from him as a Zoologist purely and not as a
Sociologist.

The second conclusion to which we refer is stated in the
following sentence: ‘‘ You will probably be inclined to the
opinion that the conclusions to which Zoology has arrived are
not sufficiently secure to warrant an attempt to apply them to
affairs of State. Be it so. But it is a fact commonly overlooked
that ideas derived from biological science are being applied to
the affairs of the State, and that some who would hurry on the
march of progress wish, consciously or unconsciously, to apply
them still further. But these ideas are founded on the conclusions
reached fifty years ago, and science has moved far forward since
then. Itis to be feared that much that still passes for “‘progress”’
is really regress, for it is founded on mistaken conceptions of the
operations of Nature.”

The chief idea to which this sentence refers, is the possibility
of the transmission of acquired characters. If we have to discard
this idea, in the form in which it has been promulgated since its
conception, it may be asked how we can rely upon any other,
even the latest of biological conceptions. If this one must be
thrown over, what guarantee have we, that those which occupy
the pedestal of thought to-day, may not to-morrow, in their turn
be tumbled into fragments on the ground. It should, however,
be remembered that the hypothesis of the transmission of acquired
characters, arose as a speculation and was tacitly accepted as a
supposed self evident truth. It was never based upon unques-
tionable experimental evidence. The newer conclusions of to-day
are. They are the products of the experimental laboratory and
the experimental garden. The facts thus ascertained are endur-
ing; fresh knowledge cannot alter old facts. If we must apply
biological conclusions to human affairs, and if we are impelled
to hurry on the march of events, let us, at any rate, be sure we
are applying the enduring portion of Biology, and that we do not
advance beyond its well ascertained facts. That in essence is the
plea of Professor Bourne, and everyone will agree it is the soundest
that can be made.

249 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

The conclusions of modern Biology, those which rest upon
the irrefutable basis of experiment, certainly lend no support to
the cardinal feature of present social sentiment. Not only do
they not render any corroboration of the ideas upon which this
sentiment is based, but they indicate clearly enough that these
ideas are diametrically opposed to truth, and are largely the
outcome of a confusion of cause with effect. Gi Pawe

The Late SIR FRANCIS GALTON, F.R.S.

News of the death of Sir Francis Galton reaches us as
the pages of this Journal pass to the press from their
final revision. We have not
therefore the opportunity of
presenting to ourreaders a full
account of his scientific and
other work which is so inti-
mately concerned with pro-
blems of Human Inheritance.
But the death of one who,
more than any other person,
called attention in the
early forties, to the import-
ance which heredity played
in the phenomena of life in general and of human
attributes in particular, cannot be passed over
without some word of appreciation, however im-
perfect, in a Journal which deals with problems
that centre around the application of Heredity to
human affairs.

Sir Francis was in his own personality a very clear
illustration of that process of inheritance which he
did so much to expound. His maternal grandfather
was Erasmus Darwin, the poet-naturalist, and both
his father and paternal grandfather were men
of scientific ability. Krasmus Darwin married twice,
and Sir Francis Galton was his grandson by one wile,
while Charles Darwin was his erandson by the other.
Sir Francis and Charles Darwin were thus cousins.
The Galton-Darwin- Wedgwood alliance of families was
indeed a striking example of the influence of stock in
the production of eminent men. The Galton family
became connected through marriage with the Darwin
family, by the marriage of Mr. S. T. Galton, of
Duddeston, W arwiekshire, with a Miss Deceit
daughter of Erasmus Darwin. The Wedgwood family

Photo) [Elliott & Fry.

244 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

entered the alliance through the marriage of a Miss
Wedgwood with Dr. Robert Darwin. Of this marriage
there were six children, and Charles Darwin, the
great naturalist, was one of them. From these three
allied families, in five generations, comprising about
sixty individuals, there are no less than sixteen
eminent men, showing exceptional scientific ability.
Of these, nine are Fellows of the Royal Society.

Sir Francis was born in 1822, and died on Tuesday,
January 17th, 1911. He was thus eighty-nine years
of age at the time of his death. He was one of the
many eminent men of science which Cambridge
University can claim for its own, since he graduated
at Trinity College in 1844.

He was a man of very varied attainments, to
which we are afraid the popular conception of his
achievements does but little justice. In the popular
mind he is mainly remembered as the author of the
finger-impression method of identification. Yet this
work, valuable though it be, is but a small part of his
contribution to knowledge or to human affairs. His
earlier days after leaving Cambridge were devoted
to travelling and to the publication of his observations.
He was indeed a pioneer among the explorers of the
Dark Continent, for in 1844 he spent two years in
ascending the White Nile. This was followed in
1850 by an exploration, in company with Dr. John
Anderson, of Damaraland and the Ovampo country
in South-West Africa. He next turned his attention
to Meteorology and made the first serious attempt
to chart the weather on an extensive scale. Subse-
quently, in about 1863, he devoted himself to the
study of inheritance, and ever since his life has been
occupied in working at the subject. Space does not
now permit us to deal with this part of his work as it
deserves. No real conception of it can be conveyed
to the mind of readers in a short dissertation. But
we hope in our next number to publish a full account
of his work upon inheritance and of the fruits which

AN APPRECIATION 245

it has borne, and the harvest it is yet destined to
produce.

Meantime, we can perhaps give no better indica-
tion of his real greatness, as distinguished from
eminence, than by reciting his utterances of virility,
pronounced as recently as 1909, which are among
the last he has given to his countrymen. In a recent
article* he wrote: ‘‘ I have studied the causes of civic
prosperity in various directions and from many
points of view, and the conclusion at which I have
arrived is emphatic, namely, that chief among those
causes is a large capacity for labour—mental, bodily,
or both—combined with eagerness for work.” ‘A
prosperous community is distinguished by the alert-
ness of its members, by their busy occupations, by
their taking pleasure in their work, by their domg it
thoroughly, and by an honest pride in their com-
munity as a whole. The members of a decaying
community are, for the most part, languid and
indolent, they shirk work when they can do so, and
scamp what they undertake.” “ Prosperous com-
munities are also notable for enjoyment of life, for
though their members must work hard in order to
procure the necessary luxuries of an advanced
civilisation, they are endowed with so large a store
of energy that, when their daily toil is over, enough
of it remains unexpended to allow them to pursue
their special hobbies during the remainder of the
day. In a decadent community, the men tire
easily and soon sink into drudgery ; there is conse-
quently much languor among them and _ little
enjoyment of life.”

Recalling these words now, when he who wrote
them has passed from the world, leaving the memory
of his greatness and social insight, they remain
as a warning to a nation, which by the signs of its
times already shows evidence of that decadence

*«« The Eugenics Review,” July, 1909.

246 THE MENDELFJOURNAL

and absence of strenuousness that mark the road
along which a nation marches to its destruction.
It is a significant matter that in the newspapers
which recorded his death there also occurred the
records of “that sinking into drudgery, of that
languor, of that little enjoyment of life, of that
indolence, of that shirking”’ which the great, but
alas, during life too silent, counsellor indicated as
the sure signs of communal decadence. His wise
counsel and sure intellectual penetration are no longer
with us in the flesh, but his work lives, and they whom
that work has inspired remain to carry it, if possible,
to fruition. In that sense, this Journal, in part,
may claim to be one of his heirs.

Taylor, Garnet/, vans, & Co., Ltd., Printers, London and Manchester.

A. & BF. DENNY

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Woman’s Progress in Relation to ee
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z The
Mendel Journal

ALTERNATIVE HEREDITY OF MENTAL TRAITS
Frederick Adams Woods

CS wimg OF HUMAN TYPES IN SPAIN
Rose Haig Thomas

: PRIMITIVE EUGENICS 0 2B Torday.
HEREDITY OF RACING STAMINA IN THE
THOROUGHBRED HORSE .. J. B. Robertson

SOME SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ARISING
FROM INHERITANCE IN RACE HORSES

Geo. P. Mudge
HEREDITY IN GOATS _... sn of .. C, J. Davies
A FAMILY OF DEGENERATES .. W. J. Rutherfurd
“MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES” Me .. . The Editor
HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT _.... Louis Cobbett
A PLEA FOR THE OPERATION OF A MORE VIRILE
SENTIMENT. A Further Reply... Geo. P. Mudge
INHERITANCE OF HUMAN ee
(Cataract)... ‘i W. J. Rutherfurd
OCCURRENCE OF elas IN SLICCESSIVE. GENERA-
TIONS e3) Be : .. W. J. Rutherfurd
MENDELIAN CONSIDERATIONS AND LENTICULAR
CATARACT i i SY .. The Editor
INFANTILE MORTALITY se ty .. The Editor
MISCELLANEA
Copyright All Rights Reserved

; Printed and Published for the Mendel Society by
TAYLOR, GARNETT, EVANS, & Co., Ltd., 54, Fleet Street, London, E.C.,

_. and Manchester, England. ;
No. 3 Price 62 cents. nett

Agents in the United States of America:
G. E. Stechert & Co., 151-155, West 25th Street, New York.

THE MENDEL JOURNAL

CONTENTS

ALTERNATIVE HEREDITY OF MENTAL TRAITS

F. Adams Woods
SEGREGATION OF HUMAN TYPES --- Rose Haig Thomas
PRIMITIVE EUGENICS ue aa ae ee E. Torday

HEREDITY OF RACING STAMINA IN HORSES
J. B. Robertson

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND STAMINA IN

HORSES See ¥ Geo. P. Mudge
HEREDITY IN GOATS ... ah re ae .. C. J. Davies
A FAMILY OF DEGENERATES _...... 5a W. J. Rutherfurd
INHERITANCE AND MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES

The Editor

HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT ..... fae Louis Cobbett
A PLEA FOR MORE VIRILE SENTIMENT IN HUMAN
AFFAIRS sat ace 3 ve ee Geo. P. Mudge

INHERITANCE OF LENTICULAR CATARACT
W. J. Rutherfurd

OCCURRENCE: OF TWINS IN SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS
W. J. Rutherfurd

MENDELIAN CONSIDERATIONS AND PEDIGREE ON

LENTICULAR CATARACT .......... The Editor
PEDIGREES AND INFANTILE MORTALITY ... The Editor
MISCELLANEA
MENTAL QUALITIES AND MENDEL’S LAW... .... A. F.

DUN AND CHESTNUT COLOUR IN HORSES C. J. Davies
SEX LIMITATION AND EYE COLOUR IN FLIES

An Abstract

FORM OF NOSE AND SEGREGATIVE INHERITANCE
Editorial
NATURAL OR INSTINCTIVE EUGENICS on Editorial
THE CORONER AND A BIOLOGICAL FACT... Editorial

LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD OF SCOTLAND AND
‘““THE MENDEL JOURNAL”... nae act Editorial

Page
5

17
31

37

93
104
a E7/

128
137

146

167

173

183
189

196
197

199

200
203
205

207

A Pedigree showing the Hereditary Transmission of Genius and
its Alternative Inheritance with Mediocrity.

Montmorency é
Conde 3 Coligny
| l | oe
Lours I. ANNE LovriszE = Gasparp I,
Distinguished Famous Constable Mediocre. | Marshal of France.

General.

of France.

Able commander.

Henry I. Henry I. Six OrHers GASPARD II.
Brilliant soldier. Distinguished Mediocrities. Renowned French
legislator. Admiral
Henryl.) — CHARLOTTE Orange. Louise
Prince of Condé Strong, heroic WILLIAM THE “Remarkable
Ambitious and | character. Not un- SILENT powers of mind.

successful. |

|

usually intellectual.

“Tllustrious founder
of the Dutch
Republic.”

i

|
LOUIS THE GREAT.

Celebrated AMAND
general. Weak, inferior.
Palatinate.

Freperick V.
Good though mediocre.

|
SOPHIA

ELIZABETH
Remarkably Great force of
intellectual. character and

intellect.
|

Georce I. or ENGLAND
Mediocre.

|

DororHea
Ambitious, proud,
virtuous, and refined.

|
FREDERICK THE

GREAT
Of the highest ability.

WitiaM

Soria CHARLOTTE
“The Philosophical Queen.”
| Very intellectual and vigorous.

FERDINAND and

Not remarkable.

|
ANNE
Duchess de
Longueville.

Angelic
disposition.”

|

|
ongueville._ lL
Great ability. |

JULIANA
Strong character.

WRC
“One of the greatest
captains of modern
times.”

ELIZABETH
Remarkably good character.
Mediocre intellect.
|
Hohenzollern
GREAT ELECTOR
Great capacity
in peace and war.

Lov ISE
Excellent
character.

| |
= Freperick I.
| Ostentations
| and childish.
Freperick Wittiam I, or Prussra
Eccentric, tyrannical, avaricious.
Remarkable will.
A shrewd administrator.
|
HENRY
Exceptional ability
in peace and war.

sopHia’ ULRICA
“The Minerva of the
North.”
Very intellectual.

Freperick Henny

Distinguished
Stadtholder,

|
Wittiam II
Of brilliant promise,
Died young.
]

|

|

WILLIAM III.
One of the greatest
of England's kings.
A precocious genius

|
AMELIA
Remarkable intellect.
Noted as a musician.

|
GUSTAVUS III. OF SWEDEN

Very brilliant.

Mendel y ournal

No. 3 September, 1912

ALTERNATIVE HEREDITY OF MENTAL
TRAITS.

FREDERICK ADAMS WOODS, M.D.,
Lecturer in the Biological Department of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology; late Instructor in Histology and
Embryology in the Harvard Medical School, Boston, U.S.A.

Tue sharp contrasts in traits of character between
children born of the same parentage and educated
under the same surroundings is often a matter of
wonderment, and such variations in the human strip,
reckless as they at first sight seem in their wide
individualistic expressions, have often deterred belief
in the value of heredity. The real lesson is quite the
reverse, and these same contrasts, when rightly
understood, form, perhaps, the strongest argument
in favour of mental inheritance. They support the
belief in the essentially predetermined nature of such
differences as commonly exist between man and man,
and bring the whole question of family and individual
vicissitudes within the scope and understanding of
the germ-cell theory.

Alternative heredity is exemplified when any two
contrasted qualities are present in a stock, either as
outward body manifestations or as inward germ-cell
determinants, and these qualities are passed onward
from generation to generation without neutralising
each other, or, in other words, without mutually

6 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

destroying the contrast. Qualities black and white,
good and bad, are in the parentage and in the stock.
The offspring must be made up and entirely com-
pounded out of either black or white or good or bad,
one or the other, this is the “‘ alternative.” In the
case of sheep the creature must be, as we all know,
clearly and absolutely either one thing or the other.
This is alternative heredity working at its perfection.*

How far is this true for mental and moral traits ?
Though man cannot be divided into good and bad,
great and small, there is nevertheless much more
alternative heredity at work than is commonly
supposed. This can be the more readily demon-
strated if one divides individuals into three classes.
Let the great mass be placed in the middle or common
grade, and then watch the appearance and reap-
pearance of either one of the types belonging to the
extreme ends of the scale, either the rare superior or
the rare inferior. If these types are traced through
long pedigrees of human beings by studying inten-
sively families where most of the brothers and sisters
and uncles and aunts can be traced and accounted
for, the phenomenon of alternative inheritance can
be seen to have an universal value. Hverywhere we
find certain children inheriting the peculiarity in
question, while, if the records are complete, it is
ey clear that others do not.

= The ees alternative heredity, was in use before the Aigo of
Mendel’s law in 1900. It isa broader, looser term than strict Mendelian
heredity, and does not raise the question of dominance and recession. It
does, however, involve the idea of segregation of the germ plasm, and is a
convenient term to employ when “factors” and ‘ ‘units,’ ‘‘ dominance ”’
and “‘ recession” have not yet been unravelled.

HEREDITY OF MENTAL TRAITS 7

No pedigrees are better preserved than those of
Royalty, the names and dates being quite complete.
As I have elsewhere offered proof of the essential
validity and general utility of the historical and bio-
graphical materials,* I will cite some instances to
prove how frequently a peculiar or exceptional
mentality shows its presence in one member of the
family while its absence is found in the very close of
kin.

The House of Hanover had a sprinkling of
pleasure-loving and dissipated princes, but the
majority were quiet and domestic. Frederick Prince
of Wales, Frederick Henry Duke of Cumberland, and
Edward Duke of York, and Frederick Duke of York
resembled George IV. in this particular, and in their
moral nature stood in sharp contrast to George IIL.,
Wiliam Henry Duke of Gloucester, Edward Duke
of Kent, and Adolphus Duke of Cambridge.

The Hohenzollerns in Prussia have had among their
number a few menand women of remarkable mental
endowments, and these also well illustrate the action
of alternative inheritance, the genius springing appa-
rently from the Houses of Orange and Coligny with
Montmorency in the background (see Pedigree). This
first appeared in the Great Elector of Brandenburg, a
son of Elizabeth of the Palatinate, who was one of
the thirty-two grandchildren of William the Silent—
four only of whom had shown the family genius. The
parents of the Great Elector were neither of them

* “ Heredity in Royalty,’ Henry Holt, New York, 1906, and “* His-
toriometry as an Exact Science,” “ Science,’ New York, April 14th, 1911.

8 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

more than mediocre. His son Frederick I. was but
a vain and ostentatious figure-head, but an inter-
marriage caused at least a partial reappearance of the
exceptional type in Frederick William I., of Prussia,
and a second intermarriage produced Frederick the
Great. Four of this generation were almost equal to
Frederick the Great himself. His brother Prince Henry
was a great strategist. His sisters Sophia Ulrica (Queen
of Sweden, “The Minerva of the North’’), Charlotte of
Brunswick, and the Princess Amelia, were noted for
their intellect, while at least four of the other five
brothers and sisters could not possibly be placed in
the same class. Out of all the nieces and nephews of
Frederick the Great it is quite easy to pick seven as
showing in one form or another the family brilliancy,
while at the same time the feeling is strongly forced
on one that, with one or two partial blendings as
exceptions, the others do not. The seven whom I
have included in this group which seem characterised
as “ brilhant ” are Gustavus III. of Sweden and his
sister Sophia Albertina; Augustus Frederick of
Prussia, reputed the best artillery officer in the
Prussian army, who died young; Louis, a son of
Ferdinand of Prussia; Amelia Duchess of Saxe-
Weimar, the distinguished patron of genius and
learning, of Wieland, Herder, and Goethe; sixth,
the celebrated commander Charles William Ferdinand
of Brunswick; and seventh, his brother William
Adolphus.

The House of Montmorency shows in the same way
that genius tends to hold itself as a single entity and

HEREDITY OF MENTAL TRAITS 9

skip about in course of descent. From Eberhard
Montmorency, contemporary of Hugh Capet, to
Anne, the great Constable of France, there were
eighteen generations—one hundred and seven indi-
viduals—yet only two great names, Mathew I., who
died in 1151, and his grandson Mathew II., who died
in 1230. From his death to the birth of the cele-
brated Constable Anne two hundred and fifty-three
years passed, and then a new centre of genius appeared
which probably had nothing to do with the earlier
manifestation, though it may, of course, have been
an extreme reversion. Anne’s second son, Henry L.,
Duke of Montmorency, was a distinguished legislator,
being the only one of seven mature children to attain
high fame, the others representing the mediocre
ancestors. Henry II., the representative of the next
generation, was even more eminent than his father.
He was the only son to reach maturity. His
three sisters were not distinguished for intellectual
qualities. One of these sisters, Charlotte, married
Henry II., Prince of Condé, and became the mother
of Louis the Great Condé, and also of Anne Duchess
of Longueville, celebrated for her beauty, tact, and
diversified talents. The youngest of the children,
Amand, Prince of Conty, in no way inherited the same
qualities. He was an utterly weak and insignificant
person. The marriage of Louis II., the Great Conde,
with Clemence de Maillé de Brezé brought insanity
and degeneracy into the line, and for three genera-
tions brilliancy, debauchery, and eccentricities ran
rampant. There were, however, five other members

10 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of the family about whom little is known, or at least
nothing is readily obtained. The presumption is that
these were mediocre normal and negative persons,
who, having neither gifts nor vices, did not interest
the gossips of the time.

The talent in the House of Bourbon also shows an
alternative tendency, especially in the capacity found
among the relatives of Henry IV. of France. His
father was mediocre, but his mother, Jeanne d’ Albret,
one of the chief supporters of Protestantism, was
distinguished for her talents, virtues, and heroic
qualities. Her father, Henri d’Albret, was of little
account, but her mother was Margaret d’ Angouléme,
famous for her literary work, and gave chief refuge to
the advocates of the reformed doctrine in her time.
Among the five children of Henry IV. Henrietta, who
married Charles I. of England, seems to have had the
brains and spirit, while Louis XIII. and Gaston of
Orleans were unusually weak. Inthe next generation
Anne Marie amply represented the genius of her
grandfather. She was Duchess of Monpensier—
generally known as “ Mademoiselle ”—and belongs
among the few famous military leaders who have been
women. The spirit and daring of ‘‘ Mademoiselle ”’
were indeed remarkable, especially at the capture of
the town of Orleans, where she rendered important
service. She also wrote memoirs which are interest-
ing reading.

This type of active mentality disappeared in the
subsequent generations of the French royal family.
I have accounted for this in “ Heredity in Royalty,”

HEREDITY OF MENTAL TRAITS at

by the force of selection. The marriages of Henry IV.,
Louis XIII., and Louis XIV. were especially disas-
trous, since they introduced the Italian and Spanish,
Hapsburg psyco-neurosis. Degeneracy and vicious-
ness thus introduced did not appear in Elizabeth,
eldest daughter of Henry IV., or in Louis Duke of
Burgundy, father of Louis XV. There is no good
evidence that the two youngest daughters of
Louis XV. were otherwise than normal, and in the
last generation Louis XVIII. and his sisters, Princess
Adelaide and Princess Elizabeth, seem to have en-
tirely escaped the family blight, which in one form or
another had affected certain individuals among their
ancestors since the days of Joanna “the Mad,” who
died in 1555.

The Regent Philip of Orleans was notorious for
his vices, and his daughters have left a bad name ;
but it must not be forgotten that Louis his son and
Philippine the youngest of the daughters were as
remarkable for their virtues as Marie, Charlotte, and
Elizabeth were for their depravities. The mother,
Frances Marie de Blois, was a good character, and the
explanation from alternative heredity, of course, is
that, in morality, some resembled the father and some
the mother. The later history of -the House of
Orleans presents an exception inasmuch as normality
was universal in the two generations following the
debauched “ Egalité.” There were eleven children,
and one or two might have been expected to repeat
the degenerate type.

In the early history of Spain, at the time of the

12 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Moorish wars, strength alternated with mediocrity.
After the time of Charles V. an unfortunate ancestral
combination gave nothing for mediocrity to alternate
with as far as mentality was concerned, save insanity
and imbecility. A few fine moral characters are still
found here and there rising conspicuously among a
mass of lazy or cruel degenerates.

The heritage from the mad Joanna also appeared
in the Austrian line of the Hapsburgs, but did not at
first affect many members. Selection was almost
entirely through normal parentage. Vehse, in his
well-known ‘‘ Memoires of the House of Austria,”
refers to the more recent reappearance of the ancient
ailment, “‘ Whereas the children of Maria Theresa
were all of them healthy, the sons of Ludovica were
afflicted with the hereditary evil of the Spanish
Bourbons, convulsions and epilepsy. The Archduke
John alone was free from it, and all the other sons
suffered more or less from the terrible malady ; the
Archduke Charles very badly, most of all the
Archduke Rodolph. Ludovica’s daughters were free,
but the malady reappeared in the grand-daughters—
as, for instance, in the Archduchess-Co-Regent
Caroline of Saxony.”

The history. of Portuguese royalty is easily divided
into two main periods, that prior to Emanuel the
Fortunate, who died in 1521, which was an era of
great kings, and the subsequent generations composed
of little or mediocre personages. In the early period
Ferdinand I. and Alfonso V. stand out in contrast,
owing to their weakness ; while in the latter period

HEREDITY OF MENTAL TRAITS 13

much alternative heredity is seen on a close analysis
of all the family members, especially evident in the
different types of moral character. In fact, much the
same picture is seen here as among their close cousins,
the Spanish, Hapsburg-Bourbons. Since the middle
of the nineteenth century the Saxe-Coburg and best
Orleans blood has eliminated the insane and abnormal
types, but has not introduced any ancestry containing
great ability.

The early Romanoffs in Russia show a cruel,
passionate, violent, and often epileptic type. This
was absent in the Czars Michael and Alexis, appeared
in Peter the Great, his brother Ivan and sister Sophia,
and in two of his children, but not in his daughter
Anne. The children of another Anne, who had her-
self inherited the Romanoff eccentricities and had
married the excellent though mediocre Anthony Ulric
of Brunswick, are especially interesting, as they show
what the outcome may be after a very exceptional
environment. All the children were taken when
infants and for political reasons imprisoned for
thirty-six years. Ivan, the eldest, was almost an
imbecile, and showed occasional symptoms of in-
sanity. This imbecility might naturally be attri-
buted to the imprisonment, which was extremely
severe; but the characteristics of the other four
children make one suspect alternative heredity pure
and simple. “ Elizabeth, the youngest sister, was a
woman of high spirit and elegant manners. On being
released she wrote a letter of thanks to the Empress
so well expressed as to excite admiration how she

ws THE MENDEL JOURNAL

could have obtained sufficient instruction durig her
long confinement.”

The other children were mediocre, and in no way
peculiar. “They amused themselves with reading,
playing billiards and cards, riding, and walking.
They walk about the town and in the environs, and
drive out in carriages; the princes frequently ride,
and particularly Alexis, who is very fond of that
exercise, and said to be an expert. They not infre-
quently pay visits in the country and dine with the
neighbouring families.””*

Thus among five children exposed to a very
unusual environment from infancy, we find a result
showing dittle influence other than should be expected
from heredity. Three were mediocre, representing
the majority of the strain; one was an imbecile,
corresponding to his mother and great-grandfather,
Ivan; and one was spirited and cultivated in spite
of it all, and rose very nearly as high as any of the
immediate ancestors. Of course, such remarkable
circumstances must have modified the characters of
the four normal children, to some slight extent at
least ; still, even these exceptional cases deviate very
little from what is to be expected from the force of
heredity, if segregation of the germ-cells be taken
into account.

The early history of the House of Oldenburg,
in Denmark, shows little alternative heredity of a
striking sort, but this is because there is little devia-
tion from mediocrity or the average. Of course, if

* Coxe, “ Travels,” Vol. V., p. 19.

HEREDITY OF MENTAL TRAITS . 15

no marked peculiarities are obvious, then there is no
opportunity to contrast its absence. Sweden, on
the contrary, had, just before and after the time of
Gustavus Adolphus, several very remarkable persons
in the royal family. These are quite clearly differen-
tiated from the mediocre types, though transitions
also exist. These transitions naturally exist to con-
siderable extent in all families. It is impossible to
always satisfactorily estimate, classify, and grade
mental and moral differences; but I believe these
transitional individuals are much rarer than is
commonly supposed, and my purpose in writing this
article is merely to call attention to the universal
tendency in mental heredity to give at least a
partially perfect alternative inheritance. I have
often looked for demonstration of pure Mendelian
dominance and recession in psychic heredity, but have
never found it in the material I possess. It may
very likely be that a further splitting up of such
rough first approximations and classifications as I
have been forced to make will bring to light some
unit character that will prove dominant or recessive.
It would seem as if the mental qualities were more or
less formed into one unit, and certain specific moral
types into another, and as if the germ-cells were
trying with more or less success to segregate these
units.

The appreciation: of the general principle of
alternative heredity in human mentality is at least a.
valuable consideration, because it is something which
environment cannot, we must think, tend to cause,

16 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

but rather would tend to obliterate had environment
a power to doso. The fact that these differences are
not obliterated, even among those living in the same
social atmosphere, is a strong argument in favour of
germ-plasm causation. The more minutely one
studies separate families and traces them through
succeeding generations the more one is convinced
that the welfare of the family and consequently the
nation depends on stock. At the same time, the more
one seeks an explanation for the facts of family
variation in any humanly imposed or artificially
created atmosphere of surroundings the more one
finds his expectations fail.

Some Observations on the Segregation
Of Human Types in Spain.
By ROSE HAIG THOMAS.

A PAPER on “ Heredity and the Jew,” by Dr.
Redelyfie N. Salaman, appeared in “ Genetics,” Vol.
I., Part III., in which the author dealt with the
Ethnology of the Jewish people, first historically
tracing the probable origins of the Sephardic and
Ashkenazic, the two Jewish types, and illustrating
with photographs of ancient Assyrian sculpture and
modern portraits the persistence of the Jewish type
from those early times down to our own. He pointed
out evidence of the working of Mendel’s law in the
offspring of marriages between Jews and Gentiles,
and came to the conclusion that the Gentile facial
characters were dominant over the Jewish.

The great interest of Dr. Salaman’s article recalled
to my memory some observations made on human
type segregation in Spain contained in the following
notes, which do not pretend to be more than a mere
sketch ; the notes were jotted down during a journey
through Spain in the spring of 1908 as an attempt
to record whether the two types, 7.e., Visigoths and
Moors, could still be traced, each preserving some-
thing of its purity of race.

The reader should be reminded that the first
invasion of the Moors took place about A.p. 711, and
the Moorish dynasties in Spain extended over a

B

18 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

period of nearly eight centuries, terminating with the
fall of Granada in 1492. Nevertheless, the segre-
gation of the two types may often be clearly
seen, even among the members of a _ single
family. And it is interesting to remember that this
segregation occurs even though more than four
centuries have elapsed since the commingling of the
two races in Spain. In Granada, Cordova, Seville,
Malaga, and all the places visited in Southern Spain,
the extraordinary dissimilarity of skin, eye, and hair
colour between members of the same family showed
a “ split”’ of the most pronounced divergence of type
which drew the notice even of travellers who were
not (as I was) looking for it. One American lady
was heard to express her surprise “‘ at not finding the
dark race of Spaniards ”’ she expected to see, adding
‘there are many as fair as at home.”

THE PROVINCE OF BARCELONA.

The Moors never penetrated so far North-East as
Barcelona. The town of Barcelona submitted to
Moorish rule after the sacking of Tarragona, and thus
escaped the mixture of races which occurred further
South. Here about four-fifths of the population
seem to have brown hair of varying shades; the
children and some adults have often quite flaxen hair,
the complexions are generally fair, and the olive skin
is rarely seen.

From BARCELONA TO VALENCIA.

Travelling along the coast line through Tarragona
and Tortosa to Valencia on a Sunday, crowds of

SEGREGATION OF HUMAN TYPES _ 19

people were collected at every station to see the train,
giving ample opportunity to observe the proportion
of fair to dark, which apparently preserved much the
same ratio as in Barcelona, about three-fourths fair
to one-fourth dark. In Valencia no observations
were made on the colour of the population.

PROVINCE OF CIUDAD REAL.

Alcazar is a junction between the East coast
line and the main line from Madrid to Seville,
and here we had a seven hours’ halt. A man
came into the waiting-room, remaining some time
cleaning the lamp; he had a perfect Nigger crop of
black, woolly hair, tight frizzled curls close to the
scalp, also a very dark skin, but the features were
not Negro type.

At Manzanares, further South on the line, was a
twenty minutes’ halt. Here was seen another man
with an absolute Nigger crop of tight, black, woolly
curls. Otherwise all along the line fair-haired children
and blue-eyed, brown-haired adults abound. At a
station, looking out at a standing train which had
come from the South, amongst a number of heads
thrust out was that of one man with a face almost
pure Negro in type of feature and skin colour, with
prognathous jaw; but the hair, though black, was
smooth and straight. In the three men thus located
in different parts of Spain, the hair appears’ to segre-
gate independently from the features, and also hair
colour and hair structure seem to be two independent
factors.

20 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

PROVINCE OF MALAGA.

Near Palo, a small fishing village four miles from
the town of Malaga, at the door of a cottage, lying
basking in the hot sun, was a family of five small
children—two flaxen-haired, two brown-haired, and
one with coal-black hair and very dark brown skin,
in marked contrast to his brothers and sisters. They
were evidently of one family, being in steps of age
upwards, from the flaxen-haired baby of a few months
old who was rolling just inside the door.

In the town of Malaga was noticed a man with
Negro features and skin colour. He was photo-
graphed. Amongst ten men sitting on a wall in the
sun at the end of the Alameda, one was a Negro in
feature, skin colour, and prognathous jaw, but the
black hair was smooth. On the Alameda at the same
hour, were two boys with Negro skin colour, hair
colour, and eye colour, and one girl having the same
Negro characters.

At Mass in the Cathedral was a school of twenty
girls—amongst them one partially negro featured
with Negro skin colour and prognathous jaw.

One man in the street with exact Negro features,
the wide-spreading upturned nostrils; but his black
hair was straight, and he had a beard.

Another man with the high nose and Arab type
of features, but with a Nigger crop of woolly curls.
Here again we appear to have evidence of the
segregation of the factors for facial features from
the factors for hair.

SEGREGATION OF HUMAN TYPES 21

On the Alameda one of the boot cleaners seen
sitting in the same place every day, was a Mulatto.
(On enquiry it was found he was a Cuban who had
been forty years in Malaga.) He was not married.

Walking on the Mole of the harbour was a very
dark Arab type of Spaniard, raven-black hair and
eyes, carrying a year-old boy with flaxen hair and a
skin of reilk and roses. No fairer child could have
been seen in England, and it was evidently his own
from the tender care he bestowed upon it.

In one or two of the dark-skinned, thick-featured,
prognathous types was noticed a long, flat nose with
scarcely any bridge (not projecting from the face),
but without the wide-spreading, upturned nostril.*

We met a woman in Arab dress, with very dark,
high features, raven-black straight hair, and there
was also a woman selling oranges and vegetables in
the market on the river bank, whose features, hair,
and skin colour were all pronounced Negro type.
Both were photographed.

An old man near the market showed the Negro
type strongly in feature, hair, skin, and prognathous
jaw.

The extremes of fair and dark are very much
greater in Southern Spain than in France or England,
as the dark types are many shades darker than any to
be found in the latter countries, and the features,
more particularly in Malaga, have often a resemblance

* This seems to suggest, as we should on general grounds expect, that

the form of the nose is due to many factors and that these are capable of
segregation. See also “‘ Miscellanies,’’ page 200.—[Ep1ror. ]

22 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

to those of a Negro race. On the other hand, one
would describe the Spaniards, from Barcelona down
the East coast to Valencia and in the centre of Spain,
as a fair race, among whom brown or grey eyes, with
fair skin and brown or fair hair, are the most frequent
combinations, though blue eyes are quite common. In
reckoning with the number of Negro features and
characters found in Malaga, it must be remembered
that commerce with Cuba has played some part here,
and that there has probably for two hundred years
or more, been a constant intercrossing with the
African races from that island. The mixtures of race,
however, probably ceased with the cession of Cuba to
America twelve or thirteen years ago.

THE PROVINCE OF CADIZz.

Amongst the military in Algeciras a great diver-
gence of type is observable. An old woman with
Negro hair and skin colour, but not Negro features,
was noticed in the town.

A very dark Arab type of woman (possibly a
gipsy ?) was seen in Algeciras carrying a flaxen-haired
rosy-hued, white-skinned baby, and evidently her
own, from the care and affection bestowed upon it.
Both in Gibraltar and Algerciras a considerable
number of real Moors in Eastern dress come over from
Morocco. These are nearly as varied in colour and
type of feature as the people of Southern Spain.
One of the Moors had yellow hair and blue eyes ;
another, shorter by a head than several he walked
with, resembled in colour and feature the Negro type.

SEGREGATION OF HUMAN TYPES — 23

The greater number were high featured, dark, and
tall.
No observations were made at Ronda.

THE PROVINCE OF GRANADA.

In the Arab quarter of the town of Granada
called the Albaicin, the descendants of the Moors live
separately from the Spaniards with whom, however,
they occasionally intermarry.

The first interesting case in the Arab quarter was
a blue-eyed child with dazzling white skin, rosy
cheeks, and an aureole of golden curls, a boy of about
eighteen months old in the arms of a woman of true
Arab type, possessing black hair, dark olive skin, and
black eyes. | When asked, she said the child was her
own, and that her husband was “rojo” (fair); the
sight of this little fair-skinned child nestling its golden
curls against the mother’s black head was striking.
A photograph was taken of the two. The guide now
led the way into an old Mauresque house. Over the
balcony hung a fair girl who beckoned us up. We
entered, and found her brother to be a pure Arab,
smooth, raven-black hair, black eyes, and a skin of
the deepest olive brown. The mother stood beside
them, also Moorish type, black hair and dark skin,
but the eyes were grey. I asked what the father was.
The reply was “ Moreno ” (black) Arab type. Toa
question about the grandparents, the mother replied
that her father was “ Rojo,” a fair man, from whence
came her grey eyes. Thus in part was the fair grand-
child accounted for. The segregation of hair colour and

24 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

complexion here seems undoubted. The name was
Gomez. Of this family six photos were made. One
of the girl alone, two of the girl with her mother, one
of the boy alone, and two of the boy with his father.
None of these give the true sharply-defined contrasts
between these people, because the photographs were
taken on ordinary films instead of on panchromatic
plates with colour filters. The expression ‘‘ Arab
type ’’ is a common one in Southern Spain, where the
type is found.

The followmg photos were made in the Arab
quarter: Two “Arab type” boys’ not brothers ;
another dark Arab type woman with her child, the
latter with flaxen hair and very white skin. The
father, she said, was fair. There were also taken
three sisters—one pure Arab type, one intermediate
and a fair baby. (Illustration 1.) A group of
people in the Arab quarter, was also photographed,
and a man with his wife, both very dark, and their
child, a flaxen-haired little one with light-blue eyes.

The larger number of dark over fair persons in
Granada was noticed from the first, and confirmed
by daily observation.

A plan for the more accurate reckoning of the
colour-types of the population was arranged by
counting the persons met with in the streets. My
niece counted the dark and I the fair. We both
walked upon the same side of the street, started
and stopped the reckoning at a given moment. Mixed
types which combined blue or grey eyes, with very
dark skin and black hair, or fair skin with black hair

Illustration No. 1.

SEGREGATION OF HUMAN TYPES — 25

and very dark eyes, were not reckoned. The follow-
ing groups of reckoning show results in the total of
about three-fourths dark to one-fourth fair, being the
reverse of Barcelona, where the population was
approximately one-fourth dark to three-fourths fair.*

Wholly dark. Wholly fair.
Ist reckoning .... 10 ne 4
2nd a a a 5 es 6
3rd . 20 2
4th e 16 4
5th . 31 10
otals) ose. 34 82 ve 26.—= 108

The extremes were widely separate in shade of
colour, the appearance being that of two separate
races. This was the first fairly-accurate reckoning
made, all other observations on the apparent numbers
of dark and fair were based upon impressions, after
walking the streets of the various towns ; as the above
agrees with the impression I had set down of the
proportion of the population colour-segregation in
Granada, it is probable I may have formed a fairly
correct estimate in other towns.

A very fair, flaxen-haired little girl of about seven
years, was photographed alongside of a dark woman
(her grandmother). Her mother was afterwards seen,
and found to be also dark. The father was ‘‘ Moreno,”’
(dark), too, but he was not seen. There were six
more children of this family, all of whom were said

*The Barcelona approximation was arrived at by general impression
only.

26 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

to be fair, but we were unable to see them, and could
not judge of their fairness.

In a doorway were three girls, evidently sisters.
Two were blue-eyed with flaxen hair, one with black
eyes, olive-brown skin, and black hair. These
extremes in one family are the rule in Southern Spain.
I have only once or twice seen a family all fair chil-
dren, or a family of all dark. The manager of the
hotel at Alhambra was a man with dark hair and dark
eyes, but of fairish complexion ; he had a very dark
Arab-type wife, yet their two children, a girl of
four years and a boy of three years, had golden hair
and light-blue eyes.

The Negro crop of tight woolly curls so often
observed in Malaga was not once seen in the town
of Granada. Intercrossing with Cubans is probably
the explanation of its frequent occurrence in the
seaport town.

Referring to the observations made up to the
present, I am inclined to believe that the grey eye is
intermediate, and will breed both blue eyes and brown
eyes, and that probably of these latter the true-blue
breed pure. The percentage of dark over fair persons
in Granada is considerably higher than in the previous
towns visited in Southern Spain, such as Malaga and
Algeciras. This is more particularly true of the
Albaicin or Arab quarter in Granada, where the Moors
from Baeza took refuge, when that city fell into
Catholic hands, in 1227.

THE PROVINCE OF SEVILLE.

In the city of Seville several reckonings were made

SEGREGATION OF HUMAN TYPES 27

in the Moorish quarter in the same manner as in
Granada, the very old people and the types having
combinations of dark hair and fair eyes and com-
plexion, or vice versa, being left out. The result was :—

Wholly dark. Wholly fair.
In one scaler? ass 70 ee 22
In another reckoning 72 ns 13
Pots ialty. ore 42 ie oo. == 1G

Roughly, four-fifths dark to one-fifth fair. This is
approximately the same as in Granada.

In the tobacco factory at Seville, where only
women are employed, the percentage of dark over fair
was much higher; this might have been due to the
employment of gipsies, but the question was not
asked.

In Seville City, one prognathous-jawed woman
with Nigger type of hair and skin was seen.

Several times I made reckonings of the Seville
population-colour, and they always came out in the
same proportion of approximately four to one.

MADRID.

In Madrid, the extreme contrasts of dark and fair
are not so noticeable; there are so many more
intermediate in all gradations, and the gulf between
the two extremes is not so wide. There was nothing
I observed calling for remark.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

In most cities in Southern Spain there is a gipsy
quarter generally immediately outside the town.

28 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

In Granada, the gipsy quarter is adjacent to the
Arab quarter, and consists of a long line of caves
hollowed out of the mountain. The tribe have a chief
and keep themselves socially, entirely separate from
the Arab inhabitants of the Albaicin. They only
marry among themselves. To this custom of inter-
marriage is perhaps due the fact that their numbers
never increase, but remain at about eight hundred.

Though informed by the guide that these gipsies
never intermarried with the Spaniards in the Arab
quarter, close questioning revealed the fact that he
knew a Spaniard who had married a gipsy girl, and
that they had three children ; the man, he said, was
fair, and the gipsy very dark. As this promised to
be an interesting family group, a visit was arranged
up the dirtiest, narrowest streets in the Arab quarter
to their dwelling behind the Church of San Nicholas.
There was found a dark-skinned, black-haired, black-
eyed gipsy woman, with her three children. The
eldest was a very fair girl with flaxen hair and blue
eyes. The second was a boy, with black eyes, black
hair, and an olive skin, as dark as the mother’s. The
third was a flaxen-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned baby
girl of eighteen months.* The gipsy mother said the
father’s eyes were blue. It will be observed that the
coloration of the two girls resembled the father, and
that the boy took after his mother in colour. Of
course, we should not infer from a single case that

*We may accept it as pretty certain that the eldest girl of this group
was an actual fair type, and not merely fair because she was young. The
second brother, younger than his sister, was already dark in all characters.
What the youngest member of eighteen months really is, can only be
determined when she is seen at a later age.—[Eprror.]

ff

2.

Illustration No.

SEGREGATION OF HUMAN TYPES 29

there is a definite correlation of eye and hair colour
and complexion between the males of one genera-
tion and the females of the next. I had no chance
of adding the father to the group, since he was in the
Customs Service, and never came home till 8 p.m.
Four photographs were made of the gipsy mother
with her three children, of which one is reproduced
in Iilustration No. 2.

The guide related a curious form of marriage. It
is the only form prevailing amongst the Granada
gipsies. When a young man falls in love with a girl
he elopes with her, and carries her off into the hills.
In seven or eight days he returns, and obtains her
parent’s consent. There is no other ceremony. When
children are born, however, they are baptised.

In a drive through the gipsy quarter outside
Seville, in a long street of wretched houses, were seen
at least seven or eight Negro-type gipsies, idling
among the lounging population of these very dirty
dwellings. The Seville guide confirmed the informa-
tion of the Granada guide, that the gipsies and
Spaniards never intermarry, but stated that Cubans
and gipsies have interbred, which one could see was
true. The Guadalquiver is a tidal river. Seville
being thus a virtual seaport, the Negro of Cuba has
left his traces here as in Malaga.

PRIMITIVE EUGENICS.”

By E. TORDAY.

A FEW days ago the daily Press recorded that in
1911 London alone gave the respectable sum of
four-and-half million pounds to charities. A million
and a half of this went to the hospitals and three
millions were given for missionary work. As a
considerable part of this money finds its way to parts
of Africa, with which I am well acquainted, I am
desirous, in the interest of knowledge, of discussing
the expediency of such an outlay. Missionary work
is of two kinds; first, it aims to spread our moral
ideas among the savages; and, secondly, it seeks
to confer the blessings of owr civilisation upon the
benighted heathen. I will not dwell on this first
aim, but I cannot pass it over without mentioning
that there are tribes in Central Africa whose moral
code is inferior to none, and any Kuropean living
according to its precepts would richly deserve a
“prix de vertu.” It is principally with the second
aim that I desire to offer a few critical considerations.
I have travelled in Central Africa for about ten
years and have visited places where European influence
has long been established, where natives wear trousers
and top-hats, go to chapel and drink gin, and where
workhouses and prisons flourish ; or, in other words,

* This paper is a resumé of a chapter in a forthcoming book on his
travels, which Mr. 'Torday hopes to publish in the Autumn.—{ Ep1ror. ]

PRIMITIVE EUGENICS 31

places which must be considered as highly civilised
centres. I have visited countries where no European
had been before me, and I have been on such good
terms with the natives that I was enabled to get a
thorough insight into their ways of thought. As I
occupied no Government position, I was the favoured
witness of ceremonies carefully hidden from the
vigilant eye of the official and the missionary. Sitting
around the camp fire I have discussed with the
negroes many of the social problems that one hears
talked about even in the most select drawing-rooms
of London “Suburbia.” The summary of what I
have seen and what I have been told on this subject
may well be called “‘ Primitive Eugenics.”

It is a well-known fact that the child is the real
aim of marriage among the negroes; tribes exist
where a man can divorce his wife at will if she has
not borne him a child, whereas the birth of one at
once makes the union indissoluble. Thus the racially .
valueless sterile females are not a drag upon the
husband’s energies, disappointing his hopes, and
cutting short the stock of which he is the representa-
tive and the gametic bearer. It is considered a
shame as well as a misfortune to be childless. I
mention this, because it is necessary that the reader
should understand that the savage negro is not less
fond of his progeny than the European parent. But
fond as he is of his children, the welfare of his race
is still enstinctively dearer to his heart, and I want
to show in this paper by what means he manifests
this love of his race.

32 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Initiation ceremonies have often been recorded
by travellers, but few have understood their real
importance. Their true purpose is to aid the boy
and the girl in the fulfilment of their duties as husband
and wife; in the case of boys this may seem un-
necessary in a country where even the smallest
children possess knowledge which is carefully con-
cealed from our own. But the girl, when she leaves

p)

the “‘ fattening house” or the bush, wherever the
initiation takes place, knows how to conduct her
life, so as to have every chance of fulfilling the expecta-
tions of her race. She also has been taught what
her conduct must be during the quickening of a life
yet forming, and how to prepare for its advent to
the world. Thus the life of the first-born ehild is
more likely to be preserved than among the ill-
informed and needlessly apprehensive young European
mothers. When the infant is born, it 1s examined
_carefully ; if it is weak or deformed, then in one way
or another, it is no longer allowed to burden its own
life nor handicap its race in the struggle for survival.
This is the reason why one sees no cripples or other
kind of defective persons in Central or West Africa ;
this is the reason. why man there is a man, virile in
habit, strong and lithe in body.

No woman has marital relations with her husband
during the suckling period, which lasts from three
to four years; this means that an interval of four
or five years must elapse between the advent of the
first and second child. Not only can the mother,
therefore, bestow all the necessary care on each child,

PRIMITIVE EUGENICS 33

but she herself is enabled to recuperate for several
years between one birth and another. There can
be no doubt that this gives the progeny a good chance,
for they are fed through a sufficiently prolonged
period with natural food. But of necessity it must
tend to the production of small families. This is
remedied by polygamy.

Westermarck and others have pointed out that in
a country where intermarriage is prohibited and
where prosperity reigns, the number of female children
who survive is considerably greater than the number
of males. This must be the case in Central Africa,
where marriage between people who can trace the
slightest relationship to each other, or who belong to
the same village, or the same clan, or who own the
same totem, is looked upon as incest. And in this
region of Africa incest is considered the most des-
picable of crimes, and poverty is unknown.

It is in the name of the poor black woman that the
abolition of polygamy is claimed by philanthropists
in Europe ; in Africa it is not so much the negro man
who objects to the introduction of monogamy as the
woman. It is easier for a negro to get a second wife
than a first, and his wife will soon urge him to give
her a companion. I remember a case where a black
trooper presented himself before the Registrar in
order to have the banns of his contemplated marriage
with a dusky beauty published. The only paper of
identity he could produce was his marriage certificate
with another woman! He was greatly astonished
when informed that, although his real wife was

c

34 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

sterile, he could, according to European laws, marry
no other woman as long as she lived. It is a fact,
significant of the futility of legislation to control
social customs, that shortly afterwards the legitimate
spouse disappeared in a mysterious way.

The negroes have their rough rules of hygiene,
which are now forbidden by the rules of the white
man. The Batetela north of the Sankuru river
remember: a terrible epidemic that raged in their
country some thirty years ago. As far as I can make
out it was akin to cerebro-spinal-meningitis. All
the afflicted were sent into the forest, and if they
showed themselves in the villages they were killed.
Food was deposited for them at a certain place ;
when they no longer came to fetch it they were con-
sidered dead and duly lamented. The epidemic not
only disappeared, but it never spread over more than
a limited area. The same was the case with sleeping
sickness ; it existed before the white man arrived,
but never got a chance of spreading until the Euro-
pean Governments put down the ancient and barbaric
but none the less effectual custom. Since then half
of the population of Uganda has perished from it.
Among the Baluba, even now, any person who is
known to have given syphilis to another is executed.

Criminals—by whom I mean people who habitually
committed larcenies, or were guilty of some serious
crime, were sold as slaves to a strange tribe. Instead,
therefore, of being a burden to the law-abiding popu-
lation as our criminals are, they were made use of to
compensate their victims, to whom the purchase

PRIMITIVE EUGENICS 35

money was paid. They were also prohibited from
transmitting their instincts to the children they might
have begotten in their own tribe. This latter con-
sideration was to such an extent part of the reason
for this form of punishment that among certain
tribes (as those of Manyema) criminals were regularly
neutralised. Slaves who misconduct themselves are
often slain and eaten in cannibal tribes and most
tribes in Central Africa are anthropophagous.

All this may seem cruel and barbarous, but it cannot
be denied that, once we are away from the civilised
centres in Central Africa, there are no beggars to be
found. Amongthe Bayaka, a person who asks for alms
becomes, zpso facto, the slave of the man to whom he
addresses his request. There is no such thing as real
poverty. Very few crimes are committed, for it
does not pay to play that game, and the native laws
are enforced without regard to the sentimental con-
siderations that weaken or nullify the influence of
our own. .

It is not in accord with my present desire to draw
any conclusions from what precedes; the sole task
of the traveller consists in recording facts. None the
less, I may be permitted to express the fear that the
disadvantages and dangers of our civilisation as
applied to Africa will be only understood when it is
too late and when the natives will have become
civilised out of existence like the Tasmanians and
other unfortunate races, who had committed no
greater crime than having been the product of a line
of evolution wholly different from ourown. The policy,

36 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

too often, alas, inflicted in the name of humanity and
civilisation, of compelling so-called savage tribes to
conform to habits to which they were not born, to
live up to aspirations that Nature has rendered alien
to their understanding, and to burden them with
luxuries which carry the seed of racial sterility, is a
punishment too heavy for any race to bear.

The Heredity of Racing Stamina in the
Thoroughbred Horse.
By J. B. ROBERTSON.

In the literature of inheritance there is a trite obser-
vation that speed and stamina in the racehorse are
not separate characters, but the manifestation of a
combination of characters, involving bone, muscle,
internal organs, and a capacity for making acquire-
ments. This, however, reads rather like a loose
excuse for not coming to close quarters with hereditary
characters in the racehorse. A capacity for making
acquirements is a convenient phrase which can be
applied equally well to a senior wrangler or a bucking
broncho in a Wild West show. All the higher animals
have a capacity for making both mental and physical
acquirements ; but the capacity is subservient to the
hereditary morphology and physiology of the tissues.
The merest tyro can see that the bony skeleton of the
thoroughbred and his relatives, the Arab and Barb,
differs very materially from that of shires, Clydes-
dales, hackneys and so forth. Indeed, the crude
ungainly bones of the shire, which give one the im-
pression of a horse in the making, would be an im-
possible proposition in a racehorse. In certain racial
characters the bones of thoroughbreds are alike.
Nevertheless, individual differences are very great.
But in the passive skeleton these differences rarely
offer any explanation for the extremely wide diver-

38 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

gencies in both speed and stamina seen in various
thoroughbreds. The length, width, and circum-
ference of the bones, and the surfaces which they
present for muscular and tendinous attachments have
differed as widely among classic winners as between
them and common selling-platers, or horses too slow
for racing. It is not a very rare occurrence for well-
grown, good-looking yearlings with good action to
realise at public auction anything from one to two
thousand guineas, and yet prove absolutely useless
for racing purposes. Their failure is due not to want
of symmetry, lung space, and so forth, but, as a rule,
may be set down to one or other of the two following
causes, or sometimes both, viz.: Insufficiency of
what, for want of a better term, we may call nerve
energy, and inability of the voluntary muscles to
respond to stimulation for more than a short period ;
that is to say, these horses are either too slow or do
not stay the minimum racing distance of four fur-
longs for two-year olds, and five furlongs for older
horses.

It seems necessary to emphasise the fact that
muscular movements play a leading part in all the
great bodily functions. The circulation of the blood
and respiration, the two functions most essential to
the maintenance of life, are kept up by the alternate
contraction and relaxation of muscles. The control
of the blood supply to all parts of the body, and the
movements of the alimentary canal, in addition to
that immense class of movements which are more or
less under control of the will, all depend upon muscular

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 39

action, which, in its turn, owes its initiation to stimuli
passing along the nerve fibres from the central cells
in the brain or spimal cord. All muscular tissues
have certain common properties, such as excitability,
contractility, growth, and respiration. All are made
up of units which readily take up oxygen and give
off carbon dioxide. But there is, nevertheless, a
wide divergence between the muscles which are known
as involuntary, or smooth, and found in the walls of
the blood vessels and alimentary canal, and those of
the heart and the skeletal or voluntary muscle group.
The smooth muscles do not concern us here, but, in
order to make the subject of stamina in the race-
horse intelligible, it is necessary to set forth a brief
account of the structure and functions of the unit of
voluntary muscle, the muscle fibre or cell.

In regard to microscopic structure, it cannot be
said that finality of opiion has yet been reached.
Eminent observers differ widely as to what is to be
seen, and it would be out of place here to enter upon
a discussion of the points in dispute. All, however,
are agreed that the muscle cell, or fibre, is surrounded
by a structureless membrane, the sarcolemma, and
that the fibre shows alternate dim and bright trans-
verse bands, and can be split up into discs by certain
reagents such as osmic acid. It is also agreed that
the fibre shows longitudinal striations which appear
to separate it into fibrils ranged side by side. “‘ The
contents of the muscle fibre appear to consist ot two
functionally distinct substances, a contractile sub-
stance and an interstitial, perhaps nutritive non-

40 . THE MENDEL JOURNAL

contractile material of a more fluid nature. The
contractile substance is arranged as longitudinal
fibrils embedded in interfibrular matter.’’*

Oxygen and a carbo-hydrate inthe form of glycogen
are essential to muscular life and action. A stock of
both, but principally of oxygen, is taken up and
stored in the essential constituents of the muscle
fibre. These constituents are broken down during
muscular contraction, and more slowly during rest,
carbon dioxide and lactic acid being the end pro-
ducts. Ranke has shown that the exhausted muscles
of a frog can be restored by washing out the vessels
with physiological salt solution. He claims that it
is the removal of carbon dioxide and lactic acid, the
products of contraction, which immediately restored
the muscle. The injection of arterial blood, or of an
oxidising agent, like potassium permanganate, into
the vessels of an exhausted muscle also causes
restorationy.

When a muscle fibre is stimulated it increases in
cross sectional area, but the volume remains con-
stant, contraction commencing in the middle of the
fibre and passing to the ends.

THE VARIETIES OF MuscLe Fisres IN THE RACE
Horse.

So far we have considered the structure and pro-
perties of what may be termed typical striped muscle
fibre. But it has been clearly established that there
are two varieties of striated muscle, namely pale and

* Stewart. + Kronecker.

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 41

dark red. In some fish, the domestic fowl, and in
the greater part of the musculature of the rabbit, the
muscles are of an extreme pale variety, whilst in the
falcon, and other birds which possess the faculty
of long-sustained flight, the muscle fibres are almost
exclusively dark red. In the horse the two varieties
of muscle fibre are found, but not nearly so widely
separated in structural appearance as are the muscles
of the domestic fowl and the falcon. I shall endea-
vour to show, however, that the physiological pro-
perties of the two types of muscle are in the horse
very widely differentiated, the dark red type being
correlated with the capacity for long-sustained
muscular effort, whilst the presence of an excess
of the pale variety is correlated with inability to
respond to repeated stimulation continued for more
than a very short period. The difference between
the two varieties of muscle fibre may be summarised
thus :—

Pate Rep FIBRE. Dark RED FIBRE.

1. Pale red in colour. 1. Dark red in colour, and in
transverse section granu-

2. z4,th part of an inch or lar in appearance.

more in diameter, and |
cross sectional area large | 2. Less than <3,th of an

in proportion tolength. | inch in diameter, and
| cross section small in
3. Transverse stripes very | proportion to length.

plainly marked, but |
longitudinal stripes in- | 3. Longitudinal stripes very
distinct. plainly marked.

42 THE MENDEL JOURNAL
Pate Rep FIBRE. Dark Rep FIpre.

4. Owing to the bulk of the 4. The capillary network ex-
fibres in cross _ section, ceeds in size the ordinary
the capillary network of | capillaries, and is dilated
blood vessels running be- | into little reservoirs,
tween them is narrow. |

5. Stimulation at short in-

5. Stimulation repeated at tervals does not rapidly
short intervals rapidly | produce exhaustion.
produces exhaustion. |

6. Requires powerful stimu-

6. Moderate stimulation is lus to ensure a maximum

=I

sufficient to produce a |

maximum contraction.

In the living animal, the |

essential constituents of |

live muscular substance

are rapidly broken down |

during continued muscu-
lar contraction.
dioxide, together with
other end products col-
lect in the muscle, pro-
ducing the phenomena
of tissue asphyxiation
and fatigue.

Carbon |

1

contraction.

In the living animal, the
essential constituents of
the live muscle appear to
possess an accentuated
faculty of storing up
oxygen, and perhaps gly-
cogen, in some com-
pound or compounds.
The amount of carbon
dioxide given off by the
muscle during work is at
the same time compara-
tively small, and passes
immediately into the
dilated capillary loops,
in place of lodging in the
muscle fibre itself. Tissue
asphyxiation and fatigue
is, consequently, long
delayed.

From the above it will be gathered that, in the
case of a horse whose muscles are principally, if not
solely, of the pale red variety, the materials necessary
for contraction are used up during continued fast
work much more quickly than they can be renewed,

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 43

and, secondly, that waste products are formed by
the muscle faster than they can be removed. It is,
oi course, true that fatigue does not wholly depend
on the lodgment in the muscle fibre of carbon dioxide
and other broken down products, for experiments
clearly show that these substances also act on the
central and peripheral nerve tissues; but in the
racehorse, muscle asphyxiation is the primary cause.

The muscles in the heavy breeds of horse appear
to be exclusively of a pale red variety. The shire
horse, even when thoroughly conditioned and fit,
rapidly suffers from muscle asphyxiation if made to
gallop at his top pace, poor as it 1s, for a short distance.
In some individuals a furlong will suffice to produce
distress.

In the thoroughbred both varieties of muscle are
to be found in the same individual, and, although in
this class of horse the opportunities for making
microscopic examinations are few, it 1s permissible
to conclude from the specimens of muscles which I
have examined that the dark red fibres greatly pre-
ponderate in the muscles of a “stayer” and the
paler variety in the muscles of a “sprinter.”* At
all events, I trust it will be clear from the evidence
which I shall advance that the physiological proper-
ties of the muscles of certain racehorses are sharply

* Mr. Robertson tells me, in answer to my inquiry, that he thinks
about 75 per cent. of the muscles of a true “sprinter” are of the pale
variety. In an “ Intermediate” racer he thinks there is about half and
half, and in a ‘‘stayer,” such as Willonyx, he would say that 90 per
cent. of the fibres are of the deep red variety. These statements are of
course very approximate, and they partake of the nature of constructing
the whole horse from a microscopic examination of a few muscles
only.—EDITor.

44 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

defined from those of others, and that the gametic
composition of these individuals is in accordance with
a Mendelian conception of alternative unit characters.

In the laboratory it is not difficult to demonstrate,
either on the living subject, or by electrical stimulus
applied directly to excised muscle, or indirectly
through its nerve, the amount of work a particular
muscle is capable of performing before fatigue is
induced. In man muscular fatigue can be directly
measured by means of an ergograph. By this instru-
ment a record of successive contractions repeated
at regular intervals, say of one of the flexor muscles of
the finger in raising a weight, is taken on a revolving
drum. So long as the muscle is working within its
capacity, no alteration is observable in the successive
curves traced out; but, when the muscle becomes at
all fatigued, the diminished height of contraction is
at once indicated on the drum. The actual amount
of work which the muscle can perform at a given
frequency of stimulation before fatigue is induced is,
of course, obtained by multiplymg the weight by
the total distance through which it is raised. This
method of testing muscles and measuring their work
is really only applicable when the subject brings
intelligent co-operation into play. It is mapplicable
to the horse, and, more particularly, to the thorough-
bred horse. Then, too, there is the serious drawback
that the behaviour of only a few muscles can be
studied, whereas what is really required is a record
of the amount of work performed in a given time in
executing a series of co-ordinated and strenuous

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 45

movements such as are brought to play in galloping
at racing pace. Here we are not concerned with the
staying power of an individual muscle, but with
that of almost the whole of the striated skeletal
group, and the heart included.

THE SEVERITY OF THE RACECOURSE TEST AS A
SELECTIVE AGENT.

By the racecourse test, it is true, we are not able
to measure in foot pounds per second the amount
of work done by the muscles of a racehorse before
fatigue (¢.e., muscle asphyxiation) commences ;_ but
the graduated series of distances over which races are
“run in Great Britain and Ireland provides a test
which, though perhaps not entirely free from error,
is, nevertheless, a reliable standard by which an
individual horse’s racing stamina can be assessed.

In order to appreciate fully the part played by
the racecourse as a selective agent for stamina, it is
necessary to draw attention to the rules of the Jockey
Club bearing on the distances to be run and the
apportionment of stake money for these distances.
These rules provide :—

(1) That no horse or mare of three years old and
upward shall run over a less distance than five
furlongs.

(2) There shall not be more than two races per
diem of less distance than seven furlongs,
only one of which may be of less distance than
six furlongs.

46 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

(3) There shall be two races per diem of a minimum
aggregate distance of 23 miles, differing at
least one furlong in distance.

(4) At every meeting one half at least of the total
amount guaranteed for prizes must be
apportioned to races of a mile or over for
three year olds and upwards, and of this
not less than a moiety shall be for races of
14 miles and upwards.

It will be observed there is every inducement from

a monetary point of view to run a horse in a race of
11 miles or upwards. The effect of the distance rule
is forcibly illustrated by comparing the present
distribution of races over the different distances with
the distribution prior to the introduction of the
above rules in 1899. To facilitate comparison, the
figures have been given in the form of percentages
in Table I.

It will be observed that for some years prior to
1899 the opportunities of running a horse over a
greater distance than a mile were few. Selective
agencies did not favour the horse which could stay
14 miles or over. Indeed his opportunities were so
few that there is considerable difficulty in picking him
out from his fellows who were non-stayers. For
this reason the records for the decade prior to 1899
are of little value for our purpose, and excepting
in the case of the produce of a few notable stallions
they have not been taken into account.

Yet another factor which seriously discounts the
value of the early data is found in the consideration

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HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 47

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48 i\ THE MENDEL JOURNAL

that, prior to the year 1899, races exceeding six or
seven furlongs in length were rarely run at a true
pace; consequently they were not infrequently won
by horses running beyond their proper distance. In
the early part of the contest the competitors were not
‘called upon to do serious work. But the advent of
Sloan and other American jockeys revolutionised the
methods of race riding in this country, and from 1899
races have been run at a true pace. The crouching
position of the latter-day jockey is partly responsible
for the difference in times shown in Table II. ; but,
as practically all horses have been ridden alike during
the last ten years, it is unnecessary to refer further
to the jockey’s seat in relation to bio-mechanics.

Tue ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF A ‘“ STAYER.”’

It has frequently been asserted that the physio-
logical properties of muscle are largely, though not
wholly, acquired characters, being dependent on
nurture and use. Whilst this contention in a qualified
sense is true, it does not apply to the subject under
discussion. Racehorses are skilfully trained, and no
stone is left unturned to bring them to their best.
Environmental conditions are, in almost all cases,
equally favourable; but nevertheless, it has been
demonstrated times without number that a horse
has his course, and, notwithstanding the most careful
management and scientific training, he cannot stay
beyond it. Training and racing merely bring out
the full potentiality of inherited characters; but
whether a horse is able to win over a long or short

HEREDITY GF RACEHORSE STAMINA 49

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50 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

course is determined by the bodily qualities brought
in by the gametic factors of his parents. In other
words, it is determined by the germ plasm. It is a
congenital matter.

In Table III. all two year old running is ignored,
as horses of that age are rarely asked to race over a
greater distance than five furlongs, and further at this
period of their existence the tissues, and especially
the dark red muscle fibres, are immature. Ifa horse
does not run after two years it is difficult to arrive at
his somatic composition as regards muscle fibre.
The same difficulty arises in connection with those
individuals which run after that age but do not
succeed in winning a race on the flat over any distance.
Not infrequently the interactions of nerve force and
muscle fibre lead to some strange and unexpected
results. A horse may have all the physical and
physiological properties of a “stayer,” but be too
slow for racing, owing to his motor-nerve cells dis-
charging with insufficient force or rapidity. On the
contrary, he may possess nerve cells capable of dis-
charging in a superlative degree, but carry muscle
fibres which become asphyxiated before he has run,
at racing pace, the minimum distance of five furlongs.
To include these two classes would introduce a large
element of personal opinion, therefore they have
been omitted from the produce groups of the various
stallions. In regard to horses and geldings the slow
staying group is undoubtedly the more numerous,
but in mares the reverse condition obtains. Thus
though the sexes are produced in approximately

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 51

equal numbers, and the number of fillies which win at
two years of age slightly exceeds the number of
colts, at three years of age and upwards horses and
geldings which are successful outnumber the mares by
nearly two to one. ‘The fillies are, in fact, quite as if
not more speedy than the colts, but some factor or
factors correlated with sex inhibit in certain, but
not in all, cases the physiological properties of a
mare’s dark red muscle fibre. It is a matter of com-
mon knowledge that some fillies stay even better at
two years than later in life.

THE TyPES OF RACEHORSES.

In Table III. (page 81) the sprinters, symbolically
indicated by PP, represent a group of horses unable to
run at true racing pace more than seven furlongs; inter-
mediates, indicated by PR, a second group which
stayed from 8 to 11 furlongs; and stayers, indicated
by RR, a third group which won at twelve furlongs
and upwards. This classification is to a certain
extent arbitrary, and possible sources of error lie in
the border lines between sprinters and intermediates,
and intermediates and stayers. It is probable that
the limit of the sprinters is fixed a little too high, and
that winners at seven furlongs on straight and rather
severe courses, such as Newmarket, Ascot, Newbury,
and Gosforth Park, are really intermediates. Then
it may be open to question whether twelve furlongs
provides a sufficiently severe test to distinguish in all
cases between horses of PR and RR composition.
The Epsom twelve furlongs most certainly does not ;

52 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

hence Ayrshire, Ladas, and some other Derby winners
cannot be classified as stayers. In the table the
probable gametic composition of each stallion is
affixed, though it will be observed it does not always
coincide with his manifest somatic character ; that, of
course, is a familiar Mendelian phenomenon.

Let us assume for the moment that the dark red
fibres, symbolised as R, and the pale red fibres, as P,
are represented in the germplasm by alternative unit
characters, and that neither factor in the body cells is
dominant. In these circumstances, granted that
sharp and clearly-defined segregation, both in the
sex and body cells, took place, we may conceive
theoretically that three possible somatic combinations
of the pale and red fibres would occur. They are
shown in the following table :—

SprmnTERS = PP, 7.e., theoretically all their muscles are of the pale
variety.

INTERMEDIATE = PR, 7.e., theoretically their muscles are a mixture
of the red and pale varieties.

SrayEersS = RR, i.e., theoretically their muscles are assumed to be
of the red variety.

Nature of Mating.
Parents. Result of Cross. Offspring.

PP>-PP= PP only.
PP x PR = PP and PR in equal numbers.
PP x RR= PR only.

RR x RR = RR only.
RR x PR = RR and PR in equal numbers.
RR x PP = PR only.

PR x PR= PP, PR, and RR in the ratio of
Bae

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 53

It will be apparent that here, as in other Mendelian
characters, it is possible considerable variations in
the relative proportions of the two kinds of fibre may
exist.

The variation in the amount of black pigment on
the limbs of bay horses may offer an analogy compar-
able with the variation of the specific properties of
the dark fibre. In certain bays black pigment is
absent on the limbs, in others it is scanty, whilst a
third variety shows intense pigmentation. All, how-
ever, behave in the same manner in relation to the
recessive character, chestnut, which, in itself, has a
wide range of tint. Individual horses may be ar-
ranged in such a manner as to form a graduated
series, commencing with very light yellow chestnut
with flaxen mane and tail, and yellow almost albinis-
tic limbs (reference is not made to white stockings,
which are truly albinistic) and ending in dark bay
with intensely melanistic mane, tail, and limbs. At
times it is difficult to decide whether a horse is a
rufous bay or a chestnut, and still more difficult to
distinguish between a dark chocolate chestnut and
a black. It will be readily understood that in the
characters of muscle fibre, of which the heterozygous
form is evidently a mosaic* of both characters, it is
not possible to fix a hard and fast distinguishing line —
between the muscles of the three types of race-
horses, namely, sprinters, intermediates, and stayers.T

*Mr. Robertson tells me that in the horse, unlike the rabbit, the red
fibres are not found in one muscle and the pale in another, but that they
both occur in varying proportions in the same muscle.—[{EDIToR. ]

+ See footnote, page 43.

54 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

SEx LIMITATION IN StayinG Powers: HorsEs
v. Margs.

As already stated, the sexes are foaled approxi-
mately in equal numbers. There is also but little
difference between the number of colts and fillies
which win at two years of age. Thus the winning
two-year-olds sired by the stallions set forth in the
table are made up of 980 colts and 1,050 fillies. But
in the whole of the winning stock of three years and
upwards by the same stallions the sexes are far from
being equally represented.

It may be urged that the falling off in the number
of mares which win after two years of age is the direct
result of a corresponding decrease in the number of
mares which start at three years old and upwards.
To argue thus, however, would merely be to confuse
cause and effect ; for it must be remembered that the
trial ground, as well as the racecourse, is selective.
Owners, quite naturally, do not desire to pay training
expenses, entrance and jockeys’ fees for mares or
filies which, through lack of stamina, are unlikely
to win races. Were the number of races won by each
individual the subject of inquiry, the disparity in the
numbers of horses and mares which start after two
years might have to be taken into account. But this
is beside the point, for in the foregoing stamina
tables a winner of one race after two years has the
same numerical representation as a winner of eight
or a dozen races. Actually it is found that two-year-
old colts and fillies start in equal numbers, but that
after two years of age the horses which start out-

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 55

number the mares by two to one. The following
figures, taken for the last ten years, show the ratios
of horses to mares for the different ages, the mares at
each age being represented by unity :—
7 yrs.
and
2 yrs. 3 yrs. 4 yrs. 5 yrs. 6 yrs. upwards

1 1°6 Eo 2°4 3°4 5
In the following Table IV. is shown the propor-
tion of winning colts to fillies from three years up-
wards of the progeny derived from the stallions
numbered one to sixty in Table III.
TABLE IV.

TABLE SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF WINNING COLTS
TO FILLIES, FROM THREE YEARS UPWARDS, ALL
FROM THE STALLIONS SHOWN IN TABLE III.

(Calasecsae ees tll Ratt eae
From RR stallions* .. 540 270 ral |
Ree fe a ely e065 557 1-91: 1
Freee ofl Sf ass 95 78 IOP ee ol
From all stallions...... 1,700 905 L862 1

* St. Semon’s winners prior to 1899 are not included a the calculation.
The above figures show that factors are at work
which place the mares at a disadvantage as race-
horses after two years of age. One of these factors,
manifestly, is a sex limitation, in certain mares, of the
specific functions of the staying muscle fibre.
A further proof of sex limitation for this character
is obtained by taking out, from the produce Table
III. of the specified sires, the ratios of horses to

56 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

mares which have won at the different distances.
Thus :-—
At 5, 6, and 7 furlongs the
ratio of horses to mares ou : 318, that is 24a
is a ~ a
At 8, 9, 10, and 11 furlongs
the ratio of horses to 702 : 366, that 1s. 1-920
mares is ae ee
At 12 furlongs and up-
wards the ratio of 604 : 221, that is 2-733 1
horses to mares is

These results include races opento mares only. In
this category are the One Thousand Guineas, the
Coronation Stakes, and the Ivmish Oaks (all eight fur-
longs), the Yorkshire Oaks and the Atalanta Cup (ten
furlongs), the Epsom Oaks and the Nassau Stakes
(twelve furlongs), the Park Hill Stakes and the New-
market Oaks (fourteen furlongs). It is highly signi-
ficant that the subsequent running of many mares
which have won one or more of the above races has
shown them to be incapable of staying their accredited
distances. If races open to mares only be excluded
from calculation, though no appreciable alteration is
produced in the proportions of sprinters and inter-
mediates, the disparity at twelve furlongs and upwards
is still more marked than as given, viz., 3 horses: 1
mare instead of 2°73:1. Here it is convenient to
mention that in all weight-for-age races mares receive
an allowance of 3lbs.

The foregoing data refer solely to the offspring of
the sires enumerated in Table III. I will now givea
few figures dealing with a wider field. The annexed
Table V. has been obtained by extracting the maxi-

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 57

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58 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

mum winning distance of every horse and mare over
two years of age which has been successful under the
Rules of Flat Racing in the years 1906-1910 inclusive,
Irish races of less value than 90 sovs. being ignored.

For one hundred and thirty-nine winners of the
most important and highest class long distance races
of fourteen furlongs or over, 1900-1911 inclusive, the
ratio of horses to mares is 112 : 27, that is 4°15: 1.

It would appear that the inhibition of the staying
factor is due to the presence in certain mares of a unit
character. The exact nature of this character can
only be guessed at, but it is permissible to surmise that
it is an enzyme connected with an ovarian secretion.
Evidence goes to show that a mare possessing the
inhibiting character may transmit it to both her sons
and daughters, and that it is dominant in mares, and,
necessarily, recessive in horses. In the absence of
this character mares carrying one unit of R and one -
unit of P will be intermediates, and those carrying
two units of R will be stayers. Conversely, the
presence of the inhibitory factor, I, would reduce an
intermediate mare carrying R and P to a sprinter,
the R factor being inhibited in her soma. But, never-
theless, a mare of this composition would give off
gametes containing R and P alternatively and approx-
imately in equal numbers. The effect of the presence
of inhibition and two units of R is not quite clear.
Theoretically the inhibitory factor should have the
same effect on the muscular tissues of mares of RR as
of PR gametic composition. But the facts do not

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 59

altogether show that is the case, and doubtless some
further factor is concerned.

Do STALLIONS TRANSMIT THE FEMALE INHIBITORY
Factor ?

The interesting question now arises, do mares
transmit the inhibitory factor to their sons, and do
the gametes of the staying and intermediate stallions
pass it on to some of their daughters ?

In Table III. it will be noted that the daughters of
some horses, in regard to stamina, fall far below the
standard of the same stallion’s sons. Martagon is a
marked case. Count Schomberg, Marco, Collar, and
Wolf's Crag are others. The dams of these horses
were all non-stayers. An analysis of the produce
of these mares may help to a solution :—

TABLE VI.
OFFSPRING OF THE DAMS OF THE FIVE
STALLIONS.
Hes rated
- F = A ae Ww C t
Dams of the Five Sane ae sees be ‘Classified.
Stallions.* sede ea
Colts. | Fillies.| Colts. | Fillies.| Colts. | Fillies., Colts. | Fillies.
Tiger Lily (Pri) ..| 3 1 _ —- 2 1 — —
Clonavarn (Pri)..| 1 2 2 1 3 1 on —
Novitiate (Pri) . 1 4 2 — 1 — | 2 —
Ornament (Pri) ..| — 5 2 ~- 3 1 — —
Lucy Ashton (Pp.)| 3 5 4 — == = |e —
Total 8 17 10 1 9 3 4 =

Total fillies = 21. Total colts = 31.

*To which stallions these five dams were respectively mated may be
seen in Table III., by looking down the first column for the stallion’s name.

60 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

It is at once apparent that Trger Lily, Clonavarn,
Novitiate, and Ornament are not of the same composi-
tion as Lucy Ashton, although all were sprinters. Out
of fourteen matings Lucy Ashton did not breed a
stayer of either sex, though mated nine times with
horses of PR and five times with horses of RR composi-
tion; therefore it is clear that she was a mare of
gametic composition PP. The other four mares all
bred stayers, and, manifestly, were of gametic com-
position PR; but since they were sprinters, the R
was inhibited in their soma by the sex limiting
character, and we may therefore symbolise them as
PRI. Lucy Ashton may also have carried I, but
there is no evidence to show that this was the case.
We cannot conclude, therefore, that she transmitted
it to her son Wolf's Crag. But it is permissible to
surmise that the stallions Martagon, Count Schom-
berg, Marco, and Collar all derived this mhibiting
factor from their dams, carried it as a recessive, and,
in due course, passed it on to certain of their daugh-
ters, in which it was again manifested.

Sex limitation at once explains the paradox that
many of our best racehorses and most noted stayers
have been out of mares which were almost useless on
a racecourse alter two years of age, principally, if not
solely, owing to lack of stamina. Some were abso-
lutely useless. Here are a few examples which may
be of interest. They are by no means exhaustive.
If space permitted numerous additions could be

made. See Table VII.

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 61

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HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 638

OFFSPRING OF RR Srres MatepD to RANDOM
SELECTION OF MARES.

When we consider the nature of the expected off-
spring from RR sires mated with random samples of
mares, several interesting points present themselves
for consideration. We should, for instance, expect
the offspring to consist of stayers and intermediates,
but no sprinters. There are, however, one hundred
and four of the last group. The stallions numbered
1-17 in Table III. may be taken as RR composition.
Diamond Jubilee and Bay Ronald are possible excep-
tions, because their produce are rather too few to
enable us to form a reliable estimate. The offspring
of these seventeen stallions is as follows :—

Sprinters. Intermediates. Stayers.

SOLUTE ara eee ees CE Loe) fae 284
Be pierce)! > Prades 2 doh 72a, TID pen hy DIZ
BOA a Somme yOLOL Ms cass og OOO

Dealing now with the appearance of the one
hundred and four unexpected sprinters, we have no
difficulty, so far as the 43 fillies are concerned. Three
of them won at seven furlongs, the arbitrary upper
limit which is fixed for sprinters, and were placed at
a mile or over in good company. Their proper posi-
tion virtually is in the intermediate group. In regard
to the remaining forty, it is highly probable, from the
evidence I have already submitted, that all mares
sired by RR horses, which do not themselves manifest
the R factor, either as intermediates or as stayers,
carry a factor for inhibition; that is to say, these

64 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

mares derived an R factor from their sires which their
sex inhibited, and a P factor from their dams, which
is manifested as the somatic character. They are
therefore really PR in composition, as we expect, but
the R factor is inhibited by the sex inhibiting factor,
and they therefore behave as though they were PP
in somatic composition and were sprinters. These
forty fillies, however, do not comprise the whole of
the sex limited offspring of their sires. The balance
is to be found in those mares which, through failure
to stay the minimum distance of five furlongs, did not
win aiter two years of age. Many were unable to win
at two, and others never appeared in public.

In regard to the appearance of the sixty-one
sprinting colts, certain circumstances call for con-
sideration. ‘Twenty-five were unlucky not to win at
eight furlongs or over,* six at least were roarers,
one broke blood vessels, and another, Longy, by
Trenton out of Saintly, became extremely obstinate
and mulish after two years of age. The race he won
at six furlongs was in the nature of a fluke, and much
against his will. It was not so much stamina that he
lacked as a willing disposition. Thus, taking into
account the five hundred and forty matings which
produced colts, there are twenty-eight apparent
exceptions to the rule that RR =x PR and RR x PP
should give RR and PR solely. Having regard to
the fact that the disposition of the skeletal levers

* Of these twenty-five, fourteen won at seven furlongs, and were
placed at longer distances, and eleven won at six furlongs, and were placed
at eight furlongs, in good company. Some of the twenty-five were merely
beaten by short heads over a greater distance than seven furlongs.

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 65

plays a part—though in the thoroughbred only a
minor one—in relation to the rapidity with which
muscles tire during work, and allowing for other
disturbing factors, the twenty-eight exceptions are
not beyond reasonable expectation. A more exact
knowledge of the individual horses would probably
reduce these twenty-eight exceptions to a negligible
quantity.

The objection may be urged that the winning male
stock of a stallion are a selected sample, and that the
incidence of non-stayers will be heavier in those of his
produce which never run on the flat. This is true in
the case of non-staying sires, but the argument has
little or no weight in regard to RR stallions. Slow
their colts may be, and not infrequently are, but it
is rare in the absence of disturbing conditions, such
as roaring or blood vessel breaking, to find one which
cannot stay five furlongs.

THE MATING OF SIRES AND DAMS BOTH OF
KNown PERFORMANCES.

So far, we have only considered the results of
mating the seventeen sires of known staying capacity,
shown in Table III., with a random sample of mares
whose performances were not considered. But now
it is necessary to study the results of mating sires of
known performances with dams also of known per-
formances.

As already stated, no great reliance can be placed
on public form, as regards stamina, prior to 1899.
The greater part of these dams were in training prior

E

66 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

to 1899. Many ran in the eighties, and a few as far
back as the seventies.

Following the plan adopted in Table III. with the
stallions, these dams are divided in Table VIII. into
groups of sprinters, intermediates, and stayers. A
fourth group comprising those mares which never
started is added. The sprinters, in addition to actual
winners, include all runners of two years which did
not reappear as three-year-olds, and also mares which
ran over courses of seven furlongs and under without
winning a race.

Excluding from the offspring columns of the table
the 43 fillies, the six roarers, the blood-vessel breaker,
and Longy, and adding to the intermediates the
twenty-five colts which won at seven furlongs or
were placed at one mile or over, we obtain the follow-
ing results.

|
| Winning offspring of three
years old and upwards
sired by the 17 staying
sires from the different
MARES. types of mares.

|
Sprin- | Inter- | Stayers.
ters. mediates)

Sprinting Mares, PP+(PR+I)| 17 152 | 156
Intermediate Mares, PR...... 1 65 72
Staying Mares, RR.......... 1 14 54
Mares which never ran ...... 9 104 | 114

Assuming all the sprinting mares to be PP in
composition, the calculated result for RR sires mated
to PP mares is, of course, 325 PR. The appearance of
the 156 staying individuals in the offspring clearly
demonstrates that a very large number of these ~

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 67

brood mares were really PR in gametic composition,
but carried a factor which inhibited R in their own
soma. For none of these mares could run more
than seven furlongs, yet they produced 156 stayers.

The mating of the RR sires with the PR mares
comes close to expectation, that is PR (intermediates)
and RR (stayers) in equal numbers. The solitary
sprinter from this mating is the colt Levsure Hour, by
St. Semon out of Love in Idleness, a mare who with
difficulty could get a mile.

In the group RR sires mated to RR mares, which
should give RR only, the intrusion of a sprinter
needs a little consideration. The colt in question is
Carburton, by Carbine out of Mrs. Butterwick. This
mare won the Oaks, but, like many other winners of
that race, was not really a stayer. Still she must
have carried one R factor, else she would not have
bred Phaleron to Gallinule and Wombwell to Isinglass,
both of which won races of twelve furlongs or over.
Why, then, did Carburton so belie his ancestry? A
reference to Vol. XIX. of The General Stud Book gives
the answer. Carburton was Mrs. Butterwick’s first
living foal. She produced a dead filly to Moron in
1895, was barren in 1896, 1897, and 1898, and Car-
burton was foaled in 1899. Here, unmistakably, is
an instance of some defective quality in reproduction,
or some segregable factor in the germinal plasm
leading to weak viability in the offspring. Her next
foal, Greatorex (1900), also by Carbine, was a great
improvement on Carburton. As a two-year-old he
could stay seven furlongs in the best class, but, being

68 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

sold for shipment to South Africa, did not run in this
country as a three-year-old.

But how are we to account for the fourteen inter-
mediates from RR sires mated to RR mares? For
the purpose of more fully considerig the question,
we may set them out in detail as in Table [X. :—

TABLE IX.
The Fourteen
Intermediates from Remarks on dam’s
presumably staying dams x performances.

staying sires.

SANDBAG (c),* 8 furlongs, by | Won one falsely-run race of

Carbine out of Sander- 2 miles, but could not
ling. really stay more than
10 furlongs. Gametic

| composition PR.
MOUSQUETON (c), 8 fur- | Winner of the Oaks, 12 fur-

longs, by Carbine out of | longs. Not a stayer.
Musa. | Gametic | composition
PR;

FRIOSSART (c), 8 furlongs, | Winner of the Oaks, 12 fur-
by St. Frusquin out of longs. Not a stayer.
Musa. Gametic composition

PR.

LARKSPUR (f), 8 furlongs, | Won at 12 furlongs on an easy
by St. Frusquin out of | | course. Gametic com-
Japonica. position PR.

PILGRIM’S WAY (f), 8 fur- | A stayer =RR.
longs, by St. Frusquin
out of Canterbury Pilgrim.

CHAUCER (c), 11 furlongs, | A stayer=RR.
by St. Simon out of
Canterbury Pilgrim.

STYMLIE (c), 10 furlongs, by | Winner of the Oaks, 12 fur-
St. Frusquin out of Mimi. longs. Gametic com-

position probably RR.

SIMON’S BATH (c), 10) Winner of the Oaks, 12 fur-
furlongs, by St. Simon longs. Gametic com-
out of Mimi. position probably RR.

1G) = Culkin 1 = yy.

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 69

The Fourteen
Intermediates from Remarks on dam’s
presumably staying dams x | performances.
staying sires. |

PLANUDES (c), 8 furlongs, | Winner of the Oaks. Nota
by St. Simon out of | stayer. Gametic com-
Lonely. | position PR.

CORNFIELD (f), 11 furlongs, A doubtful stayer =PR.
by Isinglass out of Land-

rau.

SANCTUARY (c), 8 furlongs, | Won one race of 14 furlongs
by Isinglass out of Stags- | at Alexandra Park. Only
den. other performance sixth

in a 5 furlong race at
Birmingham. Stagsden
did not stay. Gametic
| composition PR.
LUCKY JAP (c), 8 furlongs, | Won a small race of 12 fur-

by Santoi out of Bel longs in Ireland. Nota
Item. stayer =PR.

WISE DUCHESS (f), 11 | Astayer. Won at 14 furlongs
furlongs, by Love Wisely | =RR.

out of Merry Duchess.
PADDINGTON (c), 10 fur- | Won at 12 furlongs.
longs, by Martagon out |
of Padua.
(A roarer and tubed.,)

It will be gathered that seven of the above cases
were not actually from mares of RR composition,
and Paddington, being a roarer, may also be put on
one side. Chaucer’s actual position is a little doubtful.
In addition to winning the Liverpool Cup (eleven
furlongs) twice, he ran a moderate fourth in the
Great Yorkshire Handicap, nearly 15 furlongs.
Simon’s Bath, by St. Simon out of Mimi, was an
incorrigible rogue ; no reliance whatever can be placed
on his performances. Cornfield and Wise Duchess
are fillies, and could stay eleven furlongs and perhaps

70 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

a little more. We have thus eliminated twelve of the
exceptions, and only Pilgrim’s Wayand Stymie (a bad
selling plater), by St. Frusquin out of Mimi, remain.

One of the standard tests of Mendelian segregation
is the behaviour of impure dominants or, in my present
terminology, intermediates, when bred inter se. Asa
fair representative sample of intermediates, the fol-
lowing sires have been taken, viz.: Gallinule and his
half-brother Pioneer, Orvieto and Laveno (own bro-
thers), Ladas, Ayrshire, Orme, Enthusiast, Hackler,
Raeburn, Eager, Amphion, Desparr, and Grey Leg.
Here are the results of the matings of these fourteen
horses with mares of various compositions as deduced
by their performances :—

Winning offspring of three
years old and upwards
sired by 14 intermediate
sires from the different

MARES. types of mares.

Sprin- | Interme-

ters. diates. Stayers.

14 | i AE SES | a

Inter- Intermediate Mares, PR........! 44 88 60
mediate x { |_————_—_ |__| —-_—
Sires, — Mares: PEE) .5.c cere 3 26 Pda
PR [soe nee eee a ee |

(Mares which never ran ...... | fo 97 65

The calculated result for PR sires mated with PP
mares is sprinters and intermediates in equal num-
bers. The forty stayers which appear here are
obviously the consequence of a percentage of the
maresin this mating having an PR composition, but
carrying the inhibitory factor I. The presence of the

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 71

inhibitory factor would ex hypothesi reduce them to
sprinters. As, approximately, only half of the PR
stallions’ gametes carried R, their percentage of
staying produce must fall considerably below that
of RR stallions in the same mating. The actual
result shows that the crossing of the seventeen RR
sires with PP and (PR +I) mares gives 48°0 per cent.
of stayers (see Table VIII.), whereas the heterozy-
gous PR stallions show 15 per cent. of stayers from
the same mating. (See Table X.)

In the next mating, PR sires to PR mares, the
result is remarkably close to the typical ratio of
1:2:1, and affords unmistakable evidence of
Mendelian segregation. The expectation is 48: 96:
48. The result is 44: 88: 60.

The three sprinters from the mating of PR sires
with RR mares, just considered, are aberrant. One
of these was the gelding Ashdod, who, like certain
other sons of Gallinule, broke blood vessels. Another
is Mailed Fist, by Orme out of Gantlet. This mare
Gantlet won the Park Hill Stakes, Doncaster, nearly
fifteen furlongs, but the fillies she beat were, like
herself, non-stayers. Next year, as a four-year-old,
she ran at five and eight furlongs. She is the dam of
Duke of Westminster, also by Orme, and of Grey Plume,
by Grey Leg, neither of which could stay more than
amile. The third sprinter from PR xRR is Excelsior,
by Hager out of Perchance (by Persimmon). Per-
chance won one race only, and is probably an inter-
mediate.

In the last series of matings shown in Table X.,

72 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

namely, the mixed sample which never ran, the
mares are made up principally of sprinters, PP, and
sex limited intermediates, PRI, together with a small
percentage of slow intermediates and slow stayers.
It is not possible to give any approximate expectation
from such a mixed and undetermined parentage.
The actual result, as will be seen, is 75 : 97 : 65, which
stands out clearly from the ratio of 9: 104: 114,
which we have seen is the result of crossing the
seventeen RR stallions with mares very similar to
those mated to the PR sires.

Turning now to the ten sprinting sires at the
bottom of Table III., we have a striking contrast
to the first seventeen staying sires in the same table,
and already considered. The offspring of these ten
horses is made up of :—

Sprinters. Intermediates. Stayers.
118 50 9)

The following table illustrates the actual matings :

Winning offspring of three
years old and upwards
sired by ten sprinting
sires from the different

MARES. types of mares.
Sprin- Interme- Prat
ters. | diates. | Stayers

Sprinting Mares, PP or (PR + I) 65 | 14 1

10 [aeons ee ———————
Sprint- Intermediate Mares, PR........ a —

ing x a — —— a
Sires, Staying Mares, RR .......... 2 4 —

PP. ee relia eee ee
Mares which never ran ...... 42 ty ee) hae |

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 73

Here the numbers are few, in all only one
hundred and seventy-three matings. This, however,
is unavoidable, for it is difficult to find a sprin-
ter with even ten winning produce. Mussel Thrush
probably should be included in the above clas-
sification, for his percentage of intermediate and
stayers is small. He is the first foal of the
St. Leger winner, Throstle, who so far has been
somewhat of a stud failure; but as Missel Thrush
never ran, and as his brother Songcraft, by Orme,
and his half-brother Grey Bird, by Grey Leg, could
stay a mile, he may be given the benefit of the doubt
till his further stud record proves his composition.
The sprinter Sundridge has been omitted from the
list, first because he might have stayed a mile or over,
had he been sound in his wind; then, in the second
place, his winning produce of three-year-olds and
upwards, as yet, only total fourteen, viz.: Seven
sprinters, six intermediates, and one stayer—that
is if the Derby winner Sunstar really is a stayer. In
any event, Sunstar’s dam, Doris, is an interesting
example of the staying factor being sex limited.
Doris, like many other good brood mares, was just a
five furlong sprinter, but it seems clear that some of
her gametes carry R. |

Reverting to Table XI., the offspring table of the
ten sprinting sires, I would emphasize that the result
in the first mating of PP sires with PP mares,
allowing for sex limitation of the R factor in some of
the mares, is pretty much what one would expect; .
for, in place of getting the whole eighty offspring as

74 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

sprinters, we have sixty-five sprinters, fourteen
intermediates, and one pseudo-stayer, to which I
shall refer presently.

In the mating of PP sires (sprinters) with PR
mares (intermediates) we expect in the offspring, if
there are no complications due to inhibiting factors
in the mares, equal numbers of sprinters and inter-
mediates. Theresult,as the Table XI. shows, is to give
nine sprinters and fifteen intermediates. This dis-
crepancy in the proportions may be due to the small-
ness of the numbers or to some of the mares being
really RR in composition but carrying an inhibiting
factor. Coming next to the mating of sprinting sires
PP with staying mares, the number of the offspring
is extremely small, and this gives an exaggerated value
to the two sprinters from the staying mares Sacristy
and Carnatum. Sacristy, although mated repeatedly
with Marco and other horses of intermediate com-
position, has never bred anything which could stay.
In these circumstances she must really have been an
intermediate PR. It is the same with Carnatum,
for she, too, has never bred a winner at a greater
distance than five furlongs.

In dealing with the theoretical considerations
arising from the facts, we must remember, as already
stated, that the border line between intermediates
and stayers is not clearly enough defined. Twelve
furlongs does not afford a sufficiently severe test.
But, even so, a scrutiny shows that two of the five
_ presumptive stayers in the fourth column of Table XI.,
produced as the offspring of sprinting sires mated with

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 75

different types of mares, were moderate platers whose
proper courses were eight to ten furlongs. They
ought, therefore, to fall into the intermediate class.
The other three were Trevor, by Juggler, out of
Chevrette, Hulcot, by Crafton, out of Queen of the
Riding (a five-furlong mare by Galopin), and Lawn
Sand, by Ugly, out of Oberia (who never ran), by
Oberon. Eight or nine furlongs truly run was sufh-
ciently far for both Trevor and Hulcot, and this leaves
Lawn Sand, by Ugly, as an apparent exception to the
rule that sprinting sires crossed with mares of any
composition do not give staying produce. To view
this divergence in its proper perspective it is impera-
tive to bear in mind that Ugly sired eighty-nine foals
from mares of various extractions, but only one of his
produce, Lawn Sand, won a race of twelve furlongs
or over, and only four have won at eight to eleven
furlongs. The offspring of Hazlehatch numbered
127; but only five were successful over a greater
distance than seven furlongs. Prince Hampton sired
95 foals of which only three won at a mile or over.
The case of Americus is still more glaring. His 65
foals give four winners at eight to eleven furlongs, and
none over the latter distance.

Scattered throughout the Racing Calendars there
are a fair number of sprinting horses which have only
sired one or two winners during the course of their
lives. When these horses have been mated with
non-staying mares, the offspring have been invariably
sprinters. Taking this evidence in conjunction with
the results given in Table XI., it seems clear that

76 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

sprinters breed true, and this irrespective of weight
of ancestry, for I need hardly point out that natural
selection by the racecourse test is against the sprinting
sire. If the pedigree of a sprinter be examined, it
will be found that the names of the males which
occur in the second and earlier parental generations
are those of horses which could stay at least a mile,
and usually a greater distance.

The winning stock of these sprinting sires can go
fast. Their nerve axons and muscle fibres conduct
impulses readily. Co-ordination, which involves the
alternate contraction and relaxation of voluntary
muscles, and even parts of the same muscle, is as
perfect as in the stayer. They have good bone, well-
proportioned frames, and the capacity for making
acquirements, desirable and undesirable, is not
wanting. One essential feature, however, they lack,
and can never acquire. They have not the faculty
for storing up an excess of oxygen in their muscle
fibres. A signal proof of this les in the fact that
inhalation of oxygen has very little effect in increasing
a non-stayer’s distance, but it has a decided effect in
that direction if given to an intermediate, and still
more in the case of a stayer. It very frequently
happens, if an attempt be made to train and race a
sprinter over long courses, that he rapidly looses
muscle and becomes slow. This would appear to be
the practical outcome of his carrying a muscle
slightly deficient in proteins and glycogen, and
proportionately increased in muscle fats and
water.

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 77

SoME HypoTHETICAL CONSIDERATIONS.

Reviewing all the circumstances then, it may be
gathered that the assumption of the dark and pale red
muscle fibres being represented in the germplasm of
the thoroughbred by two alternative unit characters
requires a little qualification. It would be more
correct to say that a number of separate entities are
with some regularity correlated to form a_ unit
character, for it seems fairly certain that the various
properties which mark off the dark fibre are in the
nature of additions to the pale fibre. At some time
far back in the phylogeny of the horse, those additions
no doubt arose through germinal variation, and were
fixed by natural selection. But, as the thoroughbred
is a comparatively recent creation, having arisen in
the 17th and early part of the 18th centuries from
crossing the Arab, Turk, Barb, and the native Gallo-
way, some of his ancestors brought in the phylo-
genetically newer staying character, and some—there
are good grounds for the belief that it was the hybrid
Turkish horse—the older character. From the incep-
tion of the thoroughbred to the present moment there
has been persistent segregation of the two types of
muscle. Sprinters and stayers have with constant
regularity made their appearance when intermediates
have been bred together. And this is true whether
we take results in the mass or analyse the offspring
of specific parents as I have done in Table XII. (page
90). The crossing of stayers and true sprinters has
nearly always given intermediates.

That these intermediate forms should at times

78 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

have a bias to one or other of the homozygous char-
acters—that is, tend to become sprinters or stayers—
may possibly be due to a variability in the number of
chromosomes which carry the phylogenetically later
developed staying character. This, of course, is a
purely speculative hypothesis. Walker has endea-
voured to show that older or racial characters are
carried by the cytoplasm of the gamete, and the later
ones by the chromosomes.* Let us tentatively apply
this theory to the two muscle characters in the race-
horse. Underlying, as it were, the factors which
produce the dark fibre we should have an ever-present
factor for the pale fibre carried by the cytoplasm of
the gamete, for it is inconceivable that the presence
of the pale fibre could be alternative to its absence, as
this would entail that a horse might be born without
voluntary muscles. If, however, the entities making
up the unit character for the dark fibre were carried
by the chromosomes, the presence and absence theory
fits in remarkably well. The presence in the chromo-
somes of these entities forming the unit character of
red fibre would be alternative to their absence.
Therefore, during the reduction of the chromosomes
from twenty-six to thirteen, which takes place prior
to the maturation of the gamete, the presence factor
would enter some chromosomes, but not others. The
greater the number of chromosomes carrying the
staying factors of the red fibre, the greater may be the
intensity of the character manifested in the soma of

* Walker, C. E., ‘‘ Hereditary Characters and their Mode of Trans-
mission.” 1910.

HEREDITY OF RACEHORSE STAMINA 79

the filial generation. Latency may thus be the result
of a minimum number of the chromosomes carrying
the factors for the dark fibre. The gametic formula,
RR, would therefore represent a horse in which the R
factor was present in a maximum number of chromo-
somes which can carry the character, and the formula
PP, in a strict sense, a horse in which R was not
present in any chromosome. The dark fibres, how-
ever, would appear to be never entirely absent from
the tissues of the thoroughbred, but certain individuals
carry so few that they are practically no use to them
as aids to stamina.

The epistatic and hypostatic theory is thoroughly
in accordance with the conception of the recapitula-
tion process. During foetal life and foalhood the
two muscle characters—red and pale—are morpho-
logically indistinguishable. At a year old the differ-
ence is still imperceptible, and even at two years of
age the physiology of the dark fibre is imperfect. It
rarely reaches the full potentiality before the bearer
is four years of age, and sometimes not till he is six.

In collecting the data for this paper I have received
valuable assistance from my son, H. C. Robertson.
I have also to thank the Editor of “‘ The Sportsman ”’
for allowing me to reproduce the time-distance table
(Table II.) which originally appeared in one of my
communications to that paper.

\

The statistics for this paper were brought up to June 30th, 1911.
Whilst the material was in the printer’s hands, the extra data for the
latter part of 1911 became available, but too Jate to be incorporated in
the tables. I have gone carefully through the extra figures and find that
they make no material alteration in the results, except that the increased

80 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

numbers approximate the percentages nearer to expectation. Typical
stayers like Carbine, Isinglass, Florizel II., and Persimmon show an
increase in the staying and intermediate, but none in the sprinting group.
In the intermediate sires there are additions to all three groups. The
new material in the case of the ten sprinting stallions consists of two

sprinters only.
AUTHOR.

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“ponunuog— TTX ATAVAL

Some Sociological Considerations

Arising out of Mr. Robertson’s Article on the Heredity of
Stamina in the Thoroughbred Horse.

By GEORGE PERCIVAL MUDGE.

THE investigation of the question of stamina in
racehorses by means of exact experiment along
Mendelian lines must be preceded by an adequate
consideration of the facts which are known to men
in every-day contact with the more concrete problems
of inheritance in horses. The value of these
considerations is very much enhanced when the
practical men themselves become interested in the
theoretical aspect of the problem and in the Mendelian
principles of inheritance. All recent enquiry
shows that hidden away as it were in the records
kept by practical men, or in the common experiences
of life, there are undoubted evidences of segregation,
bothsomaticand gametic. But like many other familiar
things they have been passed over and ignored
because they were familiar and their place in the
scheme of Nature was not adequately recognised
in the absence of an unifying and embracing theory.

For reasons such as these and for others, the article
which is published on “The Heredity of Racing
Stamina in the Thoroughbred Horse,” by Mr. J. B.
Robertson, in this number of the Mendel Journal,
and the article on “ Inheritance in Coat Colour,” by
Mr. Robert Bunsow, which was published in the

94 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

last number, carry with them a large measure of
utility to those who propose actually working along
Mendelian lines and will be of use to others interested
in the general problems, as showing how important
and widespread are the evidences of segregation in
the mechanism of inheritance.

I shall in the few remarks I am about to make,
endeavour to show the suggestiveness of some of
the facts in Mr. Robertson’s paper. They have not
only a bearing on horses but on sociological problems
that touch human life at many points.

In considering Mr. Robertson’s figures on page
55, which show that horses and colts have on the
whole a greater staying power than mares and fillies,
it is desirable to bear in mind that more horses from
three years of age upwards are in training for a race
than mares, in the proportion of 1 mare: 1°6 horses.
But the proportion of mares to horses which actually
start in a race is as 1:2. This specific fact does
not of course invalidate the more general fact, as
manifested by the figures shown on page 55, that the
horses win more races than the mares. For not-
withstanding the smaller numbers entering a race,
if mares had more staying powers than horses, it
should still be manifested in a higher percentage of

+ This fact and the following explanation were kindly supplied to me
by Mr. Robertson upon my enquiry. Mr. Robertson tells me that “ The
reason there are fewer mares than horses in training at three years old
and upwards and still fewer which start in a race, is because during training
a large number of mares are found to be useless for racing after two years
of age ; the principal factor determining their uselessness is want of staying
power.”

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS — 95

the winning records.* Mr. Robertson’s conclusion
that the mares, in some cases, carry some inherent
factor which inhibits their staying powers, therefore
seems to be provisionally justified. I think the
further facts which he has so clearly brought out
and which show a continual decrease in the proportion
of winning mares as the severity of the test (length
of the race) increases, is strongly in favour of his
view.t Thus in a race of five to seven furlongs in
length the ratio of winning mares and horses, though
slightly in favour of the horse, is nearly equal! But
in more severe races of twelve furlongs and upwards,
the winning horses are nearly three times more
numerous than the mares. That is an extremely
interesting physiological fact. I do not know that
in any problem turning about the question of sex,
any more significant fact could be found. For
it seems to demonstrate the important general
deduction that the more severe the test of staying
power becomes, the more clearly the males and
females are differentiated from each other.

Though this deduction is derived from a series
of very accurate experiments with horses—for the
racecourse is virtually a place where a supreme
experiment takes place—it is probably true of human
beings. It would be of great interest to put the

* It is additionally necessary to bear in mind the fact, as pointed out
to me by Mr. Robertson, that if the mares were good enough, there are a
sufficient number in training to win every race run. But while compared
to horses they are but of little use as stayers, as sprinters they seem to
excel. For in purely sprint races (five furlongs length) they gain a greater
number of victories than their proportion to horses entering the race with
them warrants.

+See p. 56,

96 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

matter to experimental test in children and adults
of both sexes. The result might serve to remind us
that beneath our civilisation lie the more enduring
factors upon which our existence ultimately depends.
It would answer for us the extremely important and
interesting question as to whether the more or less
apparent equality with men which is seemingly
attained by women under the refined conditions of
civilisation would manifest itself as a reality under
sterner circumstances and under tests of endurance
more severe than civilisation applies.

There are some facts which enable us to reach
some idea as to the nature of the ultimate answer. I
am indebted to a colleague, Miss Winifred Cullis, who
kindly called my attention to the followimg data from
Professor Thomas’ book on “ Sex and Society.” At
Vassar, a Woman’s college in New York, there is held
an annual field day. The results of the first field day
of the Vassar College Athletic Association, held on
November 9th, 1895, were compared with those
of Yale, a Man’s college, in the same year. They
came out as. follows :—

Yale. Vassar.
100 yards .. = .. 102 sec. 154 sec.
220 yards dash... .. 223 sec. 364 sec.
Running broad jump ..._— 23it. 11ft. 5in.
Be high jump ae Olt On, Aft.

This gives the results very much in favour of
the men. But since 1895 the women seem to have
improved, or more strictly speaking, the women who
took part in the sports of 1904 were superior to those

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 97

of 1895. For in 1904 the results at Vassar were
as follows :—

100 yards ae oye SSE)
Running broad jump .. 14ft. 64in.
4 high gn dnia ais Deine,

But though these results are an improvement on
the earlier attempt they still fall very far short of
the men’s attainments.

On the other hand, Miss Cullis tells me that in
Miss Helen B. Thompson’s book on “ The Mental
Traits of Sex,” a series of measurements show that
women are better able than men to form new co-
ordinate movements and to co-ordinate more rapidly
to unforeseen stimuli. I called Mr. Robertson’s
attention to these results, and he says that, so far
as the latter fact is concerned, it is much the same
with mares when contrasted to horses. ‘If anyone
passing into a mare’s stall should happen to unex-
pectedly touch her, she will have kicked the intruder
before he has had time to get away. But a horse is
slower and there is time to get out of harm’s way.”
Of course, so far as woman is concerned, this quicker
response to unforeseen stimuli has been generally
recognised for centuries, and has found expression in
the popular saying “ that woman’s nervous mechanism
is finer and more delicate than man’s.” It is one of
the attributes indeed which give to her a large
measure of her charm in the ordinary intercourse
of life.

Another fact of extreme interest in Mr. Robertson’s
paper, and which is also applicable to human society,

G

98 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

is the difference in the physiological energy and
endurance between the red and pale varieties of
muscle fibre. Mr. Robertson has explained that the
red fibre in racehorses has a greater staying power
than the pale on account of its innate capacity to
store up within its own substance a greater reserve
of oxygen. But from the social aspect of the matter,
in which I am now chiefly concerned, this fact is
valuable as emphasizing that inherent physiological
differences do exist between different sorts of muscle
fibres. We may take two horses which in form
and other external attributes appear very similar,
but yet their performances will be very dissimilar.
And that dissimilarity is due to inherent causes.
No amount of environmental influence, in the way
of feeding, training, and external stimulation, will
ever convert the pale-fibred “sprinter” into the
red-fibred ‘‘stayer.” Indeed—and from our view
this is a crucial social fact—the more we endeavour
by environmental influences to change the “ sprinter ”
into the “‘ stayer”’ the worse we make him. For in
Mr. Robertson’s words: “‘ It very frequently happens,
if an attempt be made to train and race a sprinter
over long courses, that he rapidly loses muscle and
becomes slow.’’* In the light of this fact, perhaps
we have a more rational explanation of the dullness
and stupidity often shown by children in elementary
national schools, than that other explanation so
often urged by emotional sentimentalists, that these
mental defects are due to want of proper food.

* Page 76.

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS — 99

They are more probably due to physiological deficiency
in the attributes of the nerve cells. For who among
us have not seen children bright and alert even when
hungry, and others dull and inert even though
well fed. That there is a difference in the quality
as apart from the mass of the muscle fibre and of
nervous energy in different human subjects can be
seen at any swimming contest. I have seen some
of the finest looking specimens of manhood, so far
as external form and mass was concerned, break
down half way through a race, while in the same
contest a lean, sparse figure has glided in easily to
the winning post. It is not only among adults but
also among boys of ten to fourteen years of age that
such differences may also be observable.

It was biological facts of this kind that several
years ago caused me to depart from an adherence
to the prevailing social sentiment, and to enquire
whether it was not a more statesmanlike conception
to frame a social policy which should leave every
individual to find his own level by the spontaneous
exercise of those qualities which Nature has given

‘

to him. We cannot convert human “ sprinters ”
into human “ stayers ” by training or racing, however
costly we make the process. We but spoil the
‘‘ sprinter,’ as Mr. Robertson has shown in horses,
by the process. Not even the inhalation of oxygen
has any appreciable effect in increasing a “ sprinter’s ”
staying powers.*

Here, again, we meet another significant fact.

* See p. 76.

100 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

When oxygen is inhaled by a “ stayer,” that is, by a
horse inherently capable of storing it up, the staying
powers are increased.* In other words, if we
desire to express it as a social analogy, an environ-
mental influence may improve the powers of an
organism which naturally possesses an inherent
mechanism for responding to it and is capable of
utilising its stimuli. In the light of such a considera-
tion, perhaps it would be well to consider the
advisability of no longer wasting millions of money
annually upon the elementary education of social
classes incapable from inherent defects of benefitting
by it, but of spending instead a few hundred thousands
upon the organisation and equipment of the higher
education of our more cultured and successful classes,
from among whom the leaders of the nation ought
naturally to be chosen. In other words, train and
oxygenate the “

6

stayers,” and leave the “ sprinters ”
to do such sprinting as they can. The one can
benefit by traming; the other not only does not
benefit, but is harmfully affected by it. “*‘ What is
"is as true.
of social classes as it is of individuals. What is a

stimulus bringing brightness and gladness to one,

one man’s food is another man’s poison,’

is an inhibition bringing anguish and hopelessness to
another. In that fact les, in large measure, the
explanation of human happiness and misery and
the futility of the sentimentalist’s hopes.

Another point of sociological interest in Mr.
Robertson’s paper lies in the consideration which he

*See p. 76.

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 101

has adduced, that previous to the imtroduction of
more severe tests of endurance on the racecourse,
in the year 1899, it was difficult to pick out a good
staying horse from his non-staying fellows. At
that time not many races were run of a greater
distance thana mile. This difficulty of discrimination
did not arise because the good staying horses were
not there, but because the selective tests were so
easy that most racehorses with no real staying powers
could stay them out. It was only when the races
were lengthened to a mile and half or more, and the
pace throughout had to be run at racing rate, that it
became easy to make discriminations between the
horses, and to classify them as “
stayers.”

b)

stayers ”’ and “ non-

Now this fact has an important and significant
bearing on civilisation as it is manifested in the
social life of Western Europe. Just as in the racing
period prior to 1899, good “ stayers’ among racing
horses were virtually lost to the racing world because

they were submerged in a multitude of “ inter-
and “ sprinters,’
step in the direction of softening the environment—

such as free education and the like—does not make

? 9

mediates ’ so in human life, every

better men, it only serves to label the inherently
vigorous and capable with the same label as the inert
and incapable. The difference between the two
classes 1s very soon shown when exceptional circum-
stances momentarily raise the selective test. It is
not, as a rule, the men who took highest marks in
the Army examinations who have proved the most

102 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

competent commanders of men and the most intrepid
of soldiers. And at the other end of the social scale,
one chooses one’s domestic servants not because the
London County Council gave them Domestic Scholar-
ships and had the poor girls lectured to on subjects
they never understood, but because they have muscle,
good temper, capacity to work, honesty, and a power
of happy adaptation. We are aware that there
are but few servants with these desirable qualifications,
but the moment the environment is scftened and
conditions are rendered so easy that scholarships are
not only given away in thousands, but are accom-
panied with a prayer to the recipients to be kind
enough to accept them,* we submerge our really
vigorous and competent girls beneath the army of
“slackers,” who only accept scholarships because
the life it confers upon them is easier than the life of
the world.

Another fact of social significance in Mr. Robert-
son’s article is that every horse has his course, beyond
which he cannot stay. It is not traiming that makes
a “‘stayer.” Whether a horse is able to win over a
long or short course is determined by bodily qualities
brought into his constitution by the gametic factors
of his parents. This is a fact equally true of human
life. No sane person with adequate knowledge of
the facts doubts it, but every politician and senti-
mentalist and social reformer systematically ignore

* T have had many occasions to see a good deal of this scholarship
system as undertaken by the London County Council, and my statement
is virtually correct and there is very little exaggeration in the metaphorical
allusion to prayers made to the recipients.

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS | 1038

it. It is not education that gives the capacity for
acquiring strength or knowledge. Our statesmen of
the year 1870, and before and since, would have been
more of statesmen had they first enquired whether the
masses possessed the inborn capacity of acquiring
and retaining knowledge, before they thrust com-
pulsory and pauperised education upon them. The
inborn instincts of the masses were, indeed, in this
matter truer than the artificial aspirations of their
social superiors, for at the time they bitterly resented
—and in my opinion rightly so—the compulsory
interference with their legitimate liberties and the
rightful privacy of their lives.

HEREDITY IN GOATS.

By C. J. DAVIES.

In all the literature dealing with modern heredity
only the slightest allusion is made to goats. It
might have been thought that some of the obvious
differentiating characters possessed by domesticated
animals of the genus Capra would have been seized
upon to demonstrate the working of familiar principles
or to prove exceptions to accepted rules. Yet this
is so far from being the case that we find heredity in
goats either being taken for granted as analogous
to that in other forms, or else being described as
baffling.

In the early days of Mendelism it was tenta-
tively assumed that the inheritance of horns in
goats followed the same course as in cattle. The
following paragraph on page 133 of Report 1 to the
Evolution Committee of the Royal Society (1901)
expresses the view taken at the time :—

“The fact that the hornless breeds of goats still
give some horned offspring is probably referable to
the same cause, namely, promiscuous selection.
The point is, of course, not certain, but from the
analogy of cattle (page 140) we may anticipate that
the hornless form is dominant. In the polled breeds
of cattle, which are never promiscuously selected,
the polled character has naturally been easily fixed
pure, but in goats selection among the ewes has been
probably to a large extent promiscuous.”

HEREDITY IN GOATS 105.

On page 140 of the Report, the polled character
is given as dominant to the horned character in
cattle, and in, it is added, “‘ probably goats”’ also.

No further allusion is made in the chief technical
publications to heredity in goats until 1909, when
Professor Bateson again briefly alludes to them in his
book on “ Mendel’s Principles of Heredity.” By
this time additional evidence rendered a change of
view necessary, and the author says, on page 32:
“In sheep the inheritance of horns is sex-limited,
and from evidence given me by Mr. E. P. Boys-
Smith I suspect that this is true in the case of
goats also.”” Further on in the same volume (page
170), when describing the phenomena connected
with the inheritance of horns in sheep and cattle, a.
footnote is inserted by the author to the following
effect :—

** As to the descent in goats I have no thoroughly
adequate evidence. The Rev. E. P. Boys-Smith
has kindly given-me particulars of many matings.
which he has made, but the details are complex
and I have not been able to extract a consistent
scheme from them. There is probably some intricacy
due to gametic coupling comparable with that.
described in the next section, or perhaps to sex-
limitation.”

In consequence of the unsatisfactory results.
hitherto attained in this bye-path of knowledge, the
writer has recently been endeavouring, by a consul-
tation of the excellently-arranged and carefully-kept
Herd Books, issued by the British Goat Society, to

106 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

collect more evidence upon the subject of heredity
in goats. These Herd Books date back to 1875, and
comprise the entries of something like one thousand
seven hundred goats. Of this number it has been
possible to discover the horn characters of the parents
of one thousand three hundred and seventy indivi-
duals ; and it has also been found possible to analyse
still further the breeding of seven hundred and one
goats. Although the results are not perhaps entirely
satisfactory, yet they conclusively clear up more than
one debatable point ; and they will, it is hoped, help
to throw a little light on the elusive problem of the
inheritance of horns in goats.

First of all, the twenty-four matings of a polled
animal bred from polled parents, with a horned
animal bred from horned parents give equal
numbers of polled and horned offspring (6 horned
males, 6 horned females, 3 polled males, 9 polled
females).

If inheritance had followed the same lines as that
in cattle, this mating would have given all polled off-
spring. If, on the other hand, it had been analogous
to the phenomena observed in sheep, all the male kids
would have been horned and all the females polled ;
which is equally not the case. So we are apparently
confronted at the outset with the fact that there is
no dominance (sexual or otherwise) of either character,
and that the horned or polled condition is equally
likely to be inherited by cross-bred goats of either sex.

In cattle the horned individuals of the F, genera-
tion are pure (namely, breed true). In sheep only

HEREDITY IN GOATS 107

the F, polled males and F, horned females breed
true to their respective characters. In goats a
pair of horned animals descended from four parents
all of which were also horned breed true to the
horn character without exception in the few cases
of this precise mating which the writer has been able
to collect ; but practically all matings of two polled
individuals throw a proportion (1:3) of horned
progeny whatever the precise germinal constitution
of the parents may be.

The following tables give full details of the data
collected from which readers can draw their own
conclusions :—

THE BREEDING OF 1,370 Goats.

Both 1 Polled x 1 Both
Parents Horned Parents Offspring.
Horned. Parent. | Polled.

55 7 39 167 Horned he-goats.

63 151 | 107 | 321 Horned she-goats.
14 116 | 222 | 352 Polled he-goats.
iS |e wead et 280 530 Polled she-goats.

|
1

Approximate percentages :—

488 Horned Goats are bred :—
24 per cent. from 2 horned parents.
46 per cent. from 1 polled 1 horned

parent.

30 per cent. from 2 poiled parents.

882 Polled Goats are bred :—
3°50 per cent. from 2 horned parents.

108 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

39°25 per cent. from 1 polled 1 horned
parent.
57°25 per cent. from 2 polled parents.

ANALYSIS OF THE BREEDING OF 701 GOATS OF ALL
VARIETIES, PURE AND CROSSBRED, IN RESPECT OF
THE HorN CHARACTER.

pase oa he BE u ee : 8 3 E i

an randparents. os ge es E ne Pa
Grandparents. Parents. ease aa -
(PPxHH) PxP ) 5/02 M5 5 | 14
(Par oaPP), Px Pha 6» («25 50 31 97
(PPxPH) PxP | ad] | 28 | 54 39 {137
PHsP AH) PxP (2s) 4 7 18 IML 42
fH Hx HB) PxP Flal ee Pe is == ee
(PHxHH) PxP es bec | 5 | 14
(P PxHH) HxH Oe tr ee ee
(Ax HH) “Hix HS — | 8 — 8 —
(HH xP A) Hx 2% 4 8 2 12 (i
(HP xHP) HxHf #8| 3) 3 | 1 6 | 2
(PPP Py Hoe 2" | 1 | ead 1 ee
(HP xP P) Hx«H i. eas 4 te
(PoP) OP eX es. 0.6 6 3 12) siete
(PHxHH) PxH | Se| 2 |/14 | 9 16 | 25
(PHxPP) PxH | 38| 9 | 25 | 24 34 | 62
(PP xP Py Pxba ee | 5 113 | 98 18 | 32
(HHxHH) PxH BE | ile oe 4 a8
(HP x EP). BP eee Td i 18 | 14

Now, the foregoing particulars are drawn from all
the entries in the Herd Book, irrespective of variety.
The basis upon which the modern pedigree goat of
these islands has been built up is presumably the
native English, Scotch, or Irish animal, which is
naturally horned in both sexes. The British goat

HEREDITY IN GOATS

ANGLO-NUBIAN GOATS.

Illustration No. 1.—Upper figure is that of Miss Mortimer’s polled
Anglo-Nubian she-goat, Wigmore Topsy. It shows English rather than
Nubian characteristics.

The lower figure is that of Mrs. Taylor Marsh’s polled Anglo-Nubian
he-goat, Scriventon Budget. It shows Nubian characteristics.

110 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

has, however, for many years been continually crossed
with imported animals of a totally different type
which are known to the fancy as “ Nubians,” and
from which a so-call Anglo-Nubianed breed has been
evolved. These “ Nubian” or Eastern goats differ
so markedly in many respects from the British and
Continental types of common goats that they may
have originated from a distinct wild species. If this
was actually the case, it is not impossible that a
complication might have been introduced into the
heredity of the horn character in their descendants.
Many of the imported Oriental he-goats possess
horns, but the shape and carriage of these appendages
differ totally from that familiar to English goat
owners. They are usually small with a downward
and outward curve or corkscrew-like twist difficult to
describe. It should be added that although the term
Anglo-Nubian has always been applied to goats
which have been crossed with the Nubian, the cross
may be so remote as to be negligible for all practicable
purposes. In other words, an Anglo-Nubian goat
may be almost indistinguishable from a pure English,
as shown in the illustration No. 1, upper figure, or a
pure “ Nubian,” as seen in the lower figure, or it may
possess characters peculiar to both races.

As a check on possible complications due to
complex crosses, a separate analysis has been made
of horn inheritance in all those goats belonging to
the Toggenburg section of the Herd Book. When
horned at all the Toggenburg goat has scimitar-
shaped horns like those carried by our British breeds,

HEREDITY IN GOATS LYE

and there can be little doubt that it is, in origin, a
descendant of the same primeval stock.

Pure Toggenburgs are rare in this country, hence
the number of pedigrees available for separate
analysis isfew. The results, however, are not without
interest when compared with the figures obtained
for all breeds in the Herd Book.

Tue BREEDING OF 164 PuRE ToGGENBURG GOATS.

PARENTS.
Both | One polled| Both a ouee
horned. | 1 horned. polled.
= 2 3 5 Horned males.
= 2 24 26 Horned females.
= 12 60 72 Polled males
1 ll 49 61 Polled females.

Approximate percentages :—
31 Horned Goats are bred :—
None from 2 horned parents.
About 13 per cent. from 1 polled and 1
horned parent.
About 87 per cent. from 2 polled parents.
133 Polled Goats are bred :—
About *07 per cent. from 2 horned parents.
About 17 per cent. from 1 polled and 1
horned parent.
About 82 per cent. from 2 polled parents.
Another pair of characters in goats which might
have been expected to yield interesting results when
analysed by Mendelian methods is long coat and short

TOGGENBURG GOATS.

Illustration No. 2.—Upper figure shows Dr. Clutterbuck’s short-haired
horned Toggenburg she-goat, Withdean Babette.

The lower figure shows Mr. W. A. Wilcox’s long-haired polled Toggen-
burg he-goat, Champion Le Castor.

HEREDITY IN GOATS 113

ANALYSIS OF THE BREEDING OF 82 PURE
TOGGENBURG GOATS.

Le} co m
Characters of Parents eS £2 a2 Ee
and Grandparents. me = 2 ae a2
Grandparents. Parents.
Poh) ) Px P| —
(he xP) Px P 1
(PPxPH) PxP| — 8

)
(PHxPH) PxP | —
(HHxHH) PxP| —
(PHxPH) PxP | —

Ll] lw!

2PM) Oo x A) — — o—
(ax A) Hx) — _ -- —-
(HHxPH) HxH| — a — —
(HP: P)-:- Hx}. — — — _
(P<? P) Hx — -- — 1
(PiPeseP Py Hox H| ) = _ — —

(BoP ih) Px |" -— — —
(Pe so! By) Px A —- oe
(PH xP’ P)- Px |..— i! 2
feeb ck be) x it —_— 7
(HHxHH) PxH} — — —
(EP xHP) Px} — — —

rl coro] |

|

coat. In rabbits and guinea pigs long hair is reces-
sive to short hair, but in the F, generation segrega-
tion is thought to be imperfect, and a type with an
intermediate length of hair is produced in addition
to the two pure parent forms.

In goats the hair character is only stated in the
first seven hundred entries in the Herd Book, and a
distinction is made between long and medium
haired individuals. Among the seven hundred there
seem only to be twenty-five medium or long-haired

H

114 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

animals. These are bred as shown in the following
table :—

Number of Medium or
Parents. Long Haired Offspring.

Both shortalramede 220 ee
Both long or medium haired... .
One long’ x one short... 2... 2...
One long x other unknown ....
One short < other unknown....
Both of unknown character ....

Ww Co Or W S&S Or

From this unsatisfactorily brief analysis one learns
that two short-haired goats may throw long-haired
animals ; but two long hairs have not in the cases in-
vestigated thrown short hairs. It should be added
that recent conversations with breeders have led the
writer to gather that in some of the Swiss breeds the
pure-bred males are sometimes long-haired in the
Summer and Winter coats, while the females are
always short-haired or at most have merely a dorsal
fringe of long hair in the Winter coat. The accom-
panying photographs of pairs of pure Toggenburgs
and Saanens show animals with this sexual differen-
tiation.

When Oriental blood was introduced into British
stock, among other things there was also introduced
the totally pendulous or “drop” ear. In view of the
originally erroneous conclusions arrived at from the
analysis of insufficient data, it is unsafe to be too sure
that the very scanty details available on the heredity

HEREDITY IN GOATS 115

SAANEN Goats.

Illustration No. 3.—The upper figure shows Mr. H. E. Hughes’ short-
haired poled Saanen she-goat, Broxbourne Venus.

The lower figure is that of Mr. H. E. Hughes’ long-haired Saanen he-
goat, Broxbourne Adversal.

116 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

?

of “prick” and “drop” ears point to any definite
conclusion. In the “ Book of the Goat ”’ it is stated
that the progeny of Oriental lop-eared goats crossed
with native prick-eared goats, were always popular
because of the short, sleek coat, small horns, rich
black-and-tan colour, “and drooping ears which
characterised the progeny of this combination.”
This suggests dominance of the pendant ears, as do
certain photographs, records, and results of observa-
tion. The point is one which is worthy of closer
investigation by those actually acquainted with the
characteristics of all the well-known goats of the last
thirty years.

The heredity of the tassel-like appendages which
are found on the throats of many individuals of all
breeds of goats is another point which merits a
detailed investigation.

A FAMILY OF DEGENERATES.

By Dr. W. J. RUTHERFURD.

Tue following extraordinary family history affords
food for thought. The common ancestor, a work-
ing-man of whose antecedents nothing is now known,
married twice, and his descendants by each marriage
have proved themselves so markedly abnormal that
it would seem highly probable he must have been
the common source of the tainted stock.

By the first marriage he had six children. The
oldest, a son, fortunately did not marry. ‘The
second child, a daughter, married, and had six
children, and in a family epidemic of diphtheria*
no less than four of them died. The next, also a
daughter, died of apoplexy when sixty-two years old.
The fourth was a son, who married, and had six
children, the two oldest of whom have families of
their own. This man got hold of a dynamite
cartridge one day, and thought it would be “‘a nice
sort of toy” to give to one of his children when he
got home; so he gave it to his eleven-year-old son,
who thereupon “ played with it”? with fatal results.
The next son in this first family died of apoplexy,
leaving one daughter, who is now about fourteen
years old. The last of the six children was a daughter,
who died in childbirth, probably, as the sequel

* An illness the poison of which exerts a specially damaging effect
upon the nervous structures, especially if these are already not of the
most robust.

118 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

would seem to indicate, before the latent abnormal
tendencies of her stock had had time to show them-
selves. This woman had four daughters ; the oldest °
died of apoplexy at the comparatively early age of
thirty-four, and has left one daughter; the youngest
developed, when getting on in years, attacks of
what may have been either the petit mal or hystero-
epilepsy. She is married, and has been pregnant
eight times; the first four pregnancies resulted in
live-born children, who are now aged from six to
nineteen years, then came two still-births, then a girl
who had a series of fits “when she was cutting her
teeth”’; and her last pregnancy again resulted in
a stillborn child.

The progeny resulting from the second marriage
of the male ancestor of this stock now come to be
considered. Happily, there was but one child—a
woman now aged sixty-four years. At the age of
nineteen she developed a double rupture; later in
life she began to be subject to fits; and for the last
twenty years she has been afflicted with paralysis
agitans. She married a drunken and immoral
husband, who, however, rose to the position of being
an employer of labour in one of our manufacturing
towns. When nearly seventy years old he died of
apoplexy, receiving posthumous eulogies from the
local press.

This evilly-matched pair had no fewer than
eleven children, whom we must consider in detail.
Their oldest daughter, now aged forty-four years, as
a girl and young woman showed most pronounced

A FAMILY OF DEGENERATES ns

homicidal impulses, always directed against babies
or quite young children ; she was kleptomaniac, had
extraordinary outbursts of destructiveness, and at
the age of twenty-eight became epileptic. None of
these many negative advantages, singly or combined,
was sufficient to prevent her obtaining a husband ;
and on his death she married again; but fate has
been kind, and she has had no children.

The second daughter deserves special considera-
tion, and I shall deal with her later.

The third had the good fortune to die in fits in
infancy. Of number four there is httle to record,
except that, coming of such a stock, he did not
refrain from either marriage or parenthood. The
fifth child was an epileptic, and died of apoplexy at
the quite abnormally early age of twenty-four.
Number six died of fits in infancy. The seventh
had fits in infancy, has been neurasthenic for years,
is married, and has three children. The next child
died of fits at the age of three. The ninth child was
prematurely born, and only lived for three days.
The tenth is subject to some sort of fainting
seizures; she is married; her first child was still-
born, and the only other child died in convulsions
when but three days old. The last child in this
family, 2.¢., the eleventh, was prematurely born,
became early convulsed, and died probably in
consequence of the fits when nine hours old. He
was polydactylous, having an accessory little finger
on each hand.

The second child of this family (vide ut supra)

120 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

was an epileptic, and either in consequence of this
or of her general unstable heredity, was a drunkard,
was unveracious to a degree, and was a thief.
At one time in her life she seems to have been
distinctly insane; but she was not incarcerated, as
she soon “ got all right again ’—as people term it in
their ignorance of the fact that insanity is far more
than a mere matter of a transitory train of more or
less striking symptoms. At the age of thirty-six
years she developed ataxic paraplegia; and when
forty-two years of age had an attack of pneumonia,
and after lingering on for over a month she died.
On her deathbed, ina practically furnitureless house
to which she had obtained entry by guile, and of
which she paid no rent, and deserted by her para-
mour, she took in as a lodger a young married
prostitute, who became a companion to her fifteen-
year-old daughter, the two becoming inseparables
except when temporarily estranged by violent out-
bursts of quarrelling. This woman had married a
drunken and immoral husband, and during her
married life had nine pregnancies. Her first child
was prematurely born, took fits in infancy, and soon
died. The next two pregnancies resulted in abor-
tions. ‘Then came another prematurely-born infant,
which also developed fits and died. She then had
another abortion, and then came still another pre-
mature child, about which there is the same story
of convulsions leading on to a fatal issue. Then
came a daughter, born at full time, being subject
to attacks of laryngismus for years, and at the age

A FAMILY OF DEGENERATES 121

of fifteen presenting a suppurative nasal sinusitis of
long standing: this is distinctly worthy of remark,
as it is established beyond dispute that one of the
common predisposing causes of the low forms of
inflammation that lead on to a chronic sinusitis Is
the existence of some anatomical peculiarity in
these situations preventing proper drainage of the
normal secretions. The next two children were
prematurely born, and. both died with fits while
still infants. Becoming tired of her husband’s
behaviour she divorced him, and for years there-
after occupied herself in paying on the instalment
plan the lawyer who had put this matter through
for her. After getting rid of her husband she took
up with a half-bred Irish navvy, who, like herself,
was a thief; and she bore to him two illegitimate chil-
dren. The first of these had a gross malformation
of the cerebrospinal axis of the type that is known
technically as spina bifida, and untechnically as “a
hole in the back”: it only lived four weeks, and
mainly spent its brief life in having fits. The last
child appeared a fairly normal infant, but at the
age of seventeen months it took a cold, and died
almost before her relatives were aware that the

child was ill.*

It must be acknowledged that there is always
room for doubt whether apoplexy does not imply
a vascular disorder rather than a nervous one.
Though dependent upon degeneracy of the blood-

* The story is suggestive of pneumonia, the same disease as her
mother had died of.

122 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

vessels, it is questionable whether in a stock such
as we have here to deal with, where, among many
and varied nervous disorders, including gross
physical defect, women—-who, as a general rule, have
a certain exemption from apoplexy—suffered from
fatal attacks at the age of thirty-four and even twenty-
four years, there may not have been, in addition to
the weakness of the vessel-wall, a contributory
weakness in the supporting structures, such as the
nerve fibres and the neurogliar tissue. Yet it is
but fair to admit that in one of the best-known of
modern medical text-books, written, however, by
one who makes no claim to be regarded as an
authority on the subject of heredity, it is asserted
that “heredity influences cerebral haemorrhage .
entirely through the arteries.”*

To a family like this the expression of Professor
Raymond, of Paris, is particularly applicable where
he refers to certain ‘nervous diseases . . showing
the bad quality of certain parts of the nervous
system as a hereditary malformation, total or par-
tial, of the cerebro-spinal axis.”t It would seem that
such nervous diseases and conditions are due to a
primary constitutional vulnerability of the cerebro-
spinal axis, and that this defective condition of the
central nervous system is invariably transmitted to
few or many of the descendants. In considering this
pedigree it must be remembered that it contains
individuals of whom nothing is known. ‘They are

* Osler, Principles and Practice of Medicine, ed. 6, 1906, p. 966.
+ British Medical Journal, July 4th, 1908, p. 7.

A FAMILY OF DEGENERATES 123

indicated as normal in the chart simply because they
were not known to be abnormal. What they really
were, or what they would become later in life, is a
point of the greatest interest which I am unable
to answer. As Clouston* has put it, “the
weak and troublesome point of all studies of
heredity is that they cannot be regarded as com-
plete till all the subjects of them are dead;” the
obvious reason for this being that at any time
during life it is possible for hitherto latent tenden-
cies to display themselves, or (within certain limits)
for more children to be born who may or may not
have further manifestations of the conditions under
observation. A very striking example of this has
come under my own notice in the case of a man
who had been epileptic from his youth, and who
had a nephew—out of the line of direct descent,
be it noted—who only became epileptic at the age of
fifty-seven : this condition (and I can vouch for it, as
J examined him myself, and had him under observa-
tion for months) being a true epilepsy, and not
traumatic or due to syphilis. Now, in this particular
case, if this second person had died before reaching
the age of fifty-seven years, none of his epileptic
manifestations would ever have been displayed, and
the uncle might then have remained the only member
of the family group who was known to have dis-
played any of the phenomena of that disease.

The sociological importance of a knowledge of

* Clinical Lectures on Mental Disease, ed. 6, 1904, p. 620.

124 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the existence of such hopelessly defective strains
in the population can hardly be over-estimated. It
is truly unfortunate that they should exist, and not
only so, but that they should increase the way they
do: but it will always be making the best of a bad
job-—to use a phrase that is more blunt than
elegant—if we can avail ourselves of the knowledge
of such infamies in preparing for the fight which
must inevitably come sooner or later against such
sources of weakness and degeneracy. It will not
do to forget that there are many stocks whose
nature, in the words of the old writer of the Wisdom
of Solomon in the Jewish Apocrypha, by birth is
evil and their wickedness inborn, whose manner of
thought can in no wise ever be changed, for they
are “a seed accursed from the beginning.’’*

The idea that production of a clean bill of health,
either in the shape of a doctor’s certificate or of an in-
surance policy, should be made an essential condition
as a preliminary to marriage would, if attempted,
defeat its own ends. ‘That this is so cannot be too
widely understood before the time comes when some
government—as governments have such a habit of
doing-—begins to interfere blindly, as may perhaps
happen any day in these over-legislated times. No
attempt to put difficulties in the way of marriage
will permanently affect the birth-rate except among
the more decent and self-respecting sections of the
community. The others will remain as they were,
and might very easily be encouraged by such legisla-

* Wisdom of Solomon, R.V., ch. 12, vv. 10-11.

A FAMILY OF DEGENERATES 125

tion to accentuate their social misdeeds. Everyone
who has a first-hand knowledge of the conditions of
dysgeny that exist in the ranks of the thriftless and
degenerate is aware of the wholesale disregard
shown by such for the marriage bond and the rife-
ness of illegitimacy even under existing conditions.
To debar legal marriage to these, to impose extra
formalities, especially if they tended to be either
of an irksome or of an expensive nature, would only
serve to place a premium on promiscuity and on
illegitimacy, not to promote eugenics, or to hinder
the perpetuation of what the nation can well be
without.

Other alternatives there are, of which perhaps
the most widely advocated at the present time is
wholesale segregation. ‘To round up the hopelessly
debased, the insane, and all the other representa-
tives of undesirable stocks, and then to allow
them to lead happy, useless lives, sheltered and
comforted till a long-deferred period is at last put
to their protracted senility by the slow decay of
Nature, would, if attempted on any but that scale
at present available to amiable and amateur private
philanthropy (as is already attempted in some parts
of the country) lead to the imposition of such an
intolerable burden of taxation upon the remaining
portion of the community as would speedily
render the attempt unworkable. Any attempt
to enforce the adoption of segregation on a scale
such as would alone be of practical utility could
otherwise only end in an intolerable national burden.

126 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Still another idea finds adherents ; namely, that
the unfit should be sterilised, so that in the course
of, at the most, a very few generations the inherited
strains of unfitness would tend automatically to
become extinct. Apart from the oppressive tyranny
with which this would arm officialdom, grave objec-
tion can be taken to such an idea. In practice it.
might work fairly well in the case of the male
degenerate, but it would be another story altogether
with the female. Little imagination is required to
foresee that, as segregation and effective mutilation
are alternatives, and as any combination of alterna-
tives can only result in excess of the most wasteful
and extravagant form, such a course would at once
result in letting loose on the community hordes of
utterly reckless characters whose instincts would
lead them to spend lives of depraved abandon in
the realisation of having been emancipated from
those physiological consequences which, to a certain
extent, act at the present time as deterrents to the
depraved of both sexes.

Such is some of the criticism that can be
directed against suggestions already put forward
for the remedy of a danger which, though always
present and never inactive, has, in these latter days
of increased populations, of added facilities for
migration whereby stocks may become disseminated
in all directions, and of the increasing struggle for
existence, assumed an importance that can hardly
be over-estimated, and the menace of which becomes:
ever greater as time goeson. It remains to be seen

eee
4

j

FAMILY OF DEGENERATES

PEDIGREE OF A

‘ox’ x*o

x)
fOr 2
O
7
a< == 0)
LO
a =O
ra) &
,@< a
IO ammaies
Lo
oo | -

A FAMILY OF DEGENERATES 127

whether some other remedy can be found for the

evil, whether we will be driven to fall back on a

combination of these glaringly faulty remedies

adjusted to a sexual basis, or whether the field in

which the enemy is sowing tares will, after all, just

have to be left to itself.

EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS USED IN PEDIGREE OF A

DEGENERATE FAMILY.
The dotted line indicates illegitimate descent.

A =apoplexy.

B =designates the man who gave his child a live
cartridge to play with.

C =died in childbirth.

D =died of diphtheria.

d =of drunken habits.

E =suffered from epilepsy.

F =had fits in infancy or childhood.

¥'=subject to fits after twenty years of age.

G =details not known. As a matter of fact the
child was not yet born when this table was
made up.

H =hernia (or rupture).

I =insane.

i =immoral. S =spina bifida.
K =syncopal attacks. T =thief.

L =laryngismus stridulus,, U =polydactyly.

&e. V =prematurely born.

M =petit mal ? W =abortion.

N =neurasthenia. Z, =stillborn.

P =paralysis agitans.

R =no details known.

Some Facts of Inheritance and their
Bearing on the Advocated Issue of
“Marriage Certificates.”

By THE EDITOR.

THE article by Dr. Rutherfurd on a “ Family of
Degenerates” is of great interest academically and
sociologically. The title of the article is that given to
it by its author. It is clear, if we carefully read what
he writes of this family, that Dr. Rutherfurd was
at the time when he made his enquiries, impressed
with the degenerate nature of the people whom he
was professionally attending. And with a com-
mendable enthusiasm for recording facts in order
to advance our knowledge of inheritance, he framed
the pedigree and drew up the notes, which are now
published in this Journal. It is a thankless and
tedious task which only men of indomitable courage
and great energy ever undertake.

When Dr. Rutherfurd sent his article to us
for publication, an examination of the pedigree
accompanying it revealed the fact that he had
left all the symbols open; that is, he had not
‘blacked in ” the symbols that are meant to indicate
the degenerate individuals recorded there. He later
wrote, while the proofs were passing through his
hands, and suggested to us that it would be a

SOME FACTS OF INHERITANCE — 129

desirable thing to indicate the degenerates in solid-
black symbols. As we have had some previous
experience of trying to indicate in a precise way who
are, and who are not degenerate individuals in a
stock, we felt some interest in seeing how Dr. Ruther-
furd would acquit himself of the responsibility he had
thus imposed upon his own judgement. His answer
did not surprise us. He wrote after due considera-
tion, to say that, ‘‘ when one comes to analyse over-
closely it becomes more and more difficult to say
definitely what is normal and what is not. Itisa
matter of definition. What do we mean by a de-
generate ?”” Dr. Rutherfurd therefore declined to
accept the responsibility of marking any of the
individuals on the pedigree chart as degenerate, and
concluded his letter by saying: “I think, there-
fore, that I shall leave it to your discretion to decide
which symbols should and which should not be
blacked in.” We accordingly undertook the task,
and we are alone responsible if any error of judge-
ment has been committed. But having accepted this
responsibility we feel it due to many considerations
to justify ourselves by a statement of the reasons
which impelled us to mark some members as
degenerate, and to formulate the doubts which caused
us to leave others unmarked.

But before doing so there is one aspect of this
matter having a sociological significance which we
desire to discuss. There are certain very well-inten-
tioned people, prompted by the highest and most
generous motives, who believe that the foundation of

J

130 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

a sound nation is to be sought in the creation of an
army of medical officials, who are to decree who shall
marry, and are to weigh us all in the scales of Hygeia,
and to label us “ fit’ or “ unfit,” “degenerate” or .
‘normal,’ as they think right according to official
judgement. All this is to be done by Act of Parlia-
ment. Such schemes are very pretty on paper, and
very plausible when discussed over a round table
after dinner. But it is in the working of them, when
we come into contact with all sorts and degrees of
realities, that their latent and inherent dangers,
impossibilities, imperfections, incongruities, and
absurdities become painfully and obtrusively patent.
Here, in Dr. Rutherfurd’s pedigree, we have a con-
crete case. Dr. Rutherfurd, who personally knows
some of the people recorded in it, finds it difficult to
say who are normal or degenerate. He prefers,
therefore, not to indicate them in any precise way.
But when a self-satisfied body of medical officials in
the discharge of their statutory functions, have to
say whether a given person shall or shall not marry,
whether this man, woman, or child is or is not sound,
they have got to be specific. No vague general
principles, floating nebulous in an optimistic and
otiose atmosphere, will suffice. Persons are very con-
crete things, and their passions and desires are persist-
ently imperative. It is unsafe and unstatesmanlike
to dismiss either by definition or statute, laboriously
formulated amid many conflicting doubts, impossible
of certain interpretation by the wisest judges, and
incapable of general enforcement upon the people.

SOME FACTS OF INHERITANCE — 181

The Sansculottes of Paris and their leaders attempted
it in connection with other problems, and deservedly
lost their heads on the guillotine in consequence. To
play with the subtle and yet powerful promptings of
men is to invite a conflagration in which decrees shall
be rightly burned and their authors justly destroyed.
All the suggestions put forward in advocacy of
“marriage certificates’? seem to those who are
acquainted both with the course of History and the
facts of Heredity to be untenable in even the smallest
measure. The pedigree of Dr. Rutherfurd affords a
concrete example of the difficulties which beset the
practical application of all such schemes.

Let us take, for instance, the individual No. 8,
in the B. Generation, and ask ourselves the question :
Is he degenerate or normal? Is his degeneracy
physical, intellectual, or moral, or all three? Ii
he is only physically degenerate, but mentally and
morally normal, shall we incarcerate him and forbid
him marriage ? If he is morally as well as physically
degenerate, but mentally quite capable, what shall
we do with him? Let us enquire, then, into the facts
concerning him. He was drunken and immoral, and
at seventy years of age died of apoplexy. He mani-
fested the sort of reckless deeds of which he was
capable by marrymg a woman who suffered from
double hernia, was epileptic, and ultimately developed
paralysis agitans. Such a woman undoubtedly had
undesirable family connections, and he must, or
should, have known of them. Was he civically
degenerate because of his consistent immorality and

132 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

drunkenness and of his stupidity in the choice of his
partner? Was he physically fit because he was
capable of living until seventy years of age, in spite
of his vicious habits of life ?. Should we let him marry
because of his physical robustness, and decree his
celibacy because of his moral delinquencies ? These
are tough questions for a board of medical marriage
assessors, calculated truly to shake their self-com-
placency ! And when we further learn that this man
was “an employer of labour in an industrial town,
and received posthumous eulogies from the local
Press,” we shall find it hard to say whether he or his
degenerate offspring shall or shall not be forbidden to
marry. And thus in imagination, postulating that
we are living in a degenerate and helotised England,
which tamely tolerates a “ Marriage Board,” and
that we are the Chairman of that Board, and have a
casting vote, we decide to regard this man as not
degenerate. We simply mark him with a query.
The next case that comes before us for considera-
tion is No. 19 of the C. Generation. She desires to
marry the man shown to the left of her on the pedi-
gree. We find that he, too, like the man whom we
have just discussed, is drunken and immoral. Is he
to be “ blacked in ”’ or left blank on the official chart ?
He certainly is not a nice person. But we have no
information of his family. No. 8 of the B. Genera-
tion, who was drunk and immoral, we decided to leave
alone. Can we consistently condemn this man of
the C. Generation on account of the same vices ? And
if we do, and plead that we left No. 8 B. alone because

SOME FACTS OF INHERITANCE _ 133

he was an employer of labour, and therefore useful to
the community, will there not in these days of highly
placed, highly paid, and extremely unscrupulous
demagogues, go forth the cry of class decisions and of
class laws ? Will not the reputation of science suffer
because of the incongruities and absurdities of those
who frame decisions in her name ?

Let us take another individual, No. 4 B. Genera-
tion. There is nothing recorded against him except
that he took home a dynamite cartridge and thought
it would be a nice toy for his eleven-year-old son.
The boy was killed, of course. Suppose this man had
done some silly deed like this before marriage, and he
asked permission of a “‘ Marriage Board ”’ to marry ?
Are we to regard him as degenerate or not? We
have marked him as degenerate on the pedigree,
because any person who lives in this community and
does not learn that dynamite is dangerous, is as
much an irresponsible person as one who repeatedly
puts his fingers in the fire or commits incendiarism.
But if mental traits are hereditarily transmitted, how
are we to regard his six children and three grand-
children, when their turn arrives to apply for marriage
certificates ? It is almost impossible to say, until the
deed is done, who among the descendants will become
responsible and who irresponsible. And if officials,
driven by statutory obligation to say “‘Nay” or
“Yea,” grant a certificate of marriage to a
descendant who later gives a dynamite cartridge
to one of his children, and refuses it to a
descendant who turns out quite responsible for his

134 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

deeds, surely the reputation of that Board as an
ageregation of funny men will have been made in
history !

Next consider the individuals Nos. 3 and 5 in the
B. Generation. They both died of apoplexy, the
former at sixty-two years of age, and the latter at an
age not given. Are either of these members to be
regarded as physically degenerate ? Quite possible.
But who is to prophecy when such men as these are
only twenty-three years of age and desire to marry,
that they are going to die at sixty years of age of
nervous or arterial lesions, or a combination of both ?
And if we seek safety in a knowledge of the ancestry,
and say “let that guide us,’ and then the
individuals No. 14 or No. 22, C. Generation,
come to us asking for a certificate of marriage,
and upon an examination of the pedigree we
find in the left-hand branch of the family that
one of the ancestors died of apoplexy at sixty-
two, and in the right-hand branch that another died
of the same disease at seventy years of age, we might
be content to argue that if the apoplectic ancestors
lived to such ages before dying of a congenital disease,
there is not much to be alarmed at in the application
for marriage of Nos. 14 and 22 C. And consequently
we grant their request, only to find that our surmises
are falsified by No. 14 dying of apoplexy at the early
age of thirty-four years of age, and No. 22 dying of
the same disease at twenty-four! Verily, we had
better not meddle with these things! We can
promulgate the facts of inheritance and then let the

SOME FACTS OF INHERITANCE _ 185

inherently wise, spontaneously and voluntarily benefit
by such knowledge, and at the same time we can leave
the congenital fools to bear the consequences and
pay the penalties of their own follies. There is, it
seems to us, after long and anxious deliberation over
this question, no other rational and safe path.

When we deal with two persons like Nos. 18 and
19 in the C. Generation, we have little doubt as to
their degeneracy and anti-social attributes. Both
were epileptic, insane, and thieves. When in virtue
of their criminal deeds they appear at a Criminal
Court, we should certainly advocate the right of the
State to enquire into their family history, and finding
it to be what it is, to condemn them to life-long segre-
gation, under humane conditions, from the commu-
nity. But to do that is one thing. To create an
army of officials who are to go forth and hunt for
degenerates and to label every individual in the
community with an official ticket, 1s quite another.
The one thing lends itself to the minimum possibilities
of abuse, the other to the maximum growth of an
intolerable tyranny.

With regard to the remaining members (7.e. Nos.
20, 22—28, C., and 13—22, D.), whom we have
blacked-in as degenerate, there is little room, prob-
ably, for difference of opinion, bearing in mind not
only the individual attributes, but also the family
history. For the individuals have already mani-
fested the inherent defects of their race. We will urge
nothing at this point against the wickedness of
deliberately endeavouring to preserve the defective

136 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

individuals of the D. Generation, by conscious efforts
to reduce infantile mortality. That we have already
urged in connection with another case on pages 191
and 205, and the considerations we pleaded there are
equally applicable here.

HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT: WHICH
MAKES THE MAN ?

By LOUIS COBBETT, M.D.
(Lecturer in Pathology, Cambridge University.)

No one doubts that man comes into the world with
definite inborn potentialities. He will be tall or
short, dark or fair, quick tempered or placid what-
ever happens; nay more, in many subtle and minute
points he will resemble his parents. But then, on
the other hand, he is an imitative creature, is
much influenced by his companions, is moulded by
circumstances. Both heredity and environment
then admittedly go to the making of man. But in
what proportions? That is the question. How
much of the finished article is due to the quality of
the raw material? How much to the processes to.
which it has been subjected in the workshop?
That is the point on which men differ.

Mr. Mudge has replied to my “criticism ”’ of his
“Plea for the Operation of a More Virile Senti-
ment in Human Affairs” at some length. From
this I am led to suspect that I did not make my
meaning so clear as I should have lked. And I
feel constrained to beg for space to express my
views more fully.

My short “criticism” was intended only to
discuss the degree of permanence of changes pro-
duced in a human strain by alteration of its envi-

138 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

ronment, and did not attempt to deal with the
general proposition raised by Mr. Mudge in his
first paper, with much of which, indeed, | am in
sympathy. I, too, deplore the fact that the
criminal and degenerated strains in our race are
allowed to perpetuate themselves and to multiply.
But, then, I do not think that all the children
of our slums are degenerate, but believe that many—
probably the great majority—-will grow into useful
men and women if given a fair chance. Herein, I
suppose, we differ. Human nature appears to Mr.
Mudge less plastic than it does tome. And, con-
sequently, I attach more importance to environment
than he is willing to allow. And, yet, he too
admits the influence of environment, for evil if not
for good, when in his “‘ Rejoinder”’ he claims that
the children of the island, to which was sent the
scouring of the Glasgow slums, became contami-
nated by the examples set by the latter. Again,
I differ from him in thinking that we do not err in
trying to cure the sick and to stamp out disease,
for I am not convinced that there is any correla-
tion in general between susceptibility to a given
disease and other human weakness, excepting,
perhaps, in such diseases as epilepsy and some kinds
of insanity, and such as are due to intemperance.
My first paper, as I have already said, was
intended to deal only with a single point raised by
Mr. Mudge, namely, the degree of permanence of any
improvement wrought in a given strain of human
beings by purposely altering the environment of a

HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT 139

single generation. Mr. Mudge held that, do what
we will to improve the health of mind or body, we
can but influence the individual, when he dies the
results of our efforts will perish also, for they cannot
be transmitted to his progeny. With this proposi-
tion I could not agree, and I sought to show that the
new environment might be handed on, like money
or other property, and so continue to influence each
succeeding generation in its turn. And as evidence
of this I took two examples: A negative one, showing
how an inheritable environment might continue to
suppress an instinct, even if it did not ultimately
destroy it; and a positive one, showing how the
inherited environment might perpetuate an acquired
accomplishment.

Mr. Mudge is not quite fair in challenging me
to show that every inhabitant of this country
possesses cannibal instincts. I really do not pre-
tend to know whether he does or not. What I
wrote was, ‘What does it matter if he does?” I
assumed, perhaps rather rashly, that at some remote
period our ancestors were cannibals; and I took it
for granted that so thorough-going a Weismannist
as Mr. Mudge would not admit that the cannibal
instinct could be destroyed by civilisation. Since
I did not see how else could it be eradicated, it
must, I argued, if it ever existed, still exist. But
it lies now deep down in our nature, altogether
latent, and as good as extinct; and that because we
inherit an environment, which we call civilisation,
in which such desires are never awakened.

140 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

I myself think that it is more probable that this
and many other primitive instincts have died out
from disuse, for I am not yet altogether converted
to Weismann’s doctrine. But surely Mr. Mudge
cannot accept such an explanation. Perhaps he
would deny that our ancestors were cannibals; but
even so, besides cannibalism there are many traits of
character in primitive man which would have served
the purpose of my argument equally well. To me
it seems that man tends to progress in many, if not
in all, ways, in the right direction. We differ
essentially from our ancestors chiefly because we
inherit an evolving environment which we are con-
stantly moulding, and which moulds us in its turn.

IT next attempted in my “Criticism” to show
that an acquired accomplishment may be trans-
mitted by means of an inherited environment. We
do not inherit language through our germ cells;
we learn it. The constant practice of speech by
countless generations of man may, perhaps, have
conferred upon us no advantage inheritable in the
biological sense. Yet, because our forefathers
have slowly and laboriously developed the art
of talking, and our parents practice it, we pick it
up in our childhood, almost unconsciously, through
the example of those with whom we associate. And
thus we inherit our language almost as effectively
as if it was one of the unit characters embodied
in our chromosomes.

Mr. Mudge, in his “‘ Rejoinder,” does not attack
the general principle of the doctrine of the trans-

HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT 141

missibility of characters acquired as the consequence
of a change of environment, by means of the change
they produce in their turn on the _ inheritable
environment of the race; but rather he proceeds to
deny—what he seemed to have admitted in his first
paper—that it is not possible by a change of
environment to improve even the generation directly
affected. This he does by describing at some length
a disastrous ‘“‘experiment”’ carried on for forty years
by the Glasgow Parish Council—an experiment
which he supposes is in accordance with my prin-
ciples.

In this experiment, children were taken from the
slums of Glasgow and transported to a certain island
on the west of Scotland, and there, amid the sea
breezes and scenic displays of that beautiful and
romantic coast, were boarded out among the honest
crofters, in the hope that they would become good
citizens. But these hopes were doomed to disap-
pointment. The children, for the most part, grew
up to be very much the same kind of people they
would have been had they remained at home. They,
in fact, became the terror of the neighbourhood.
They would congregate in bands at night time, lnk
arms, and rush through the streets in serried ranks,
shouting, whistling, and gesticulating, driving all
before them. Where there were maid servants they
would collect in groups and “indulge in language
which is not of the Highlands, but of the Glasgow
slums.” Ina certain island, where at one time only
ordinary human weakness prevailed, was “heard

142 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the obscene language and suggestive songs of the
slums.” And soon; the italics are mine. ‘“‘ What
is bred in the bone will come out in the flesh,”’ says
Mr. Mudge. Thus, he would seem to ask us to
believe that obscene language and suggestive songs
are biologically inheritable, instead of being trans-
mitted by bad example from bad companions.

The facts, as stated by Mr. Mudge, seem to me to
show that the experiment failed, not because the
Parish Council attempted the impossible by trying to
improve certain individuals of a slum population by
changing their environment, but because it did not
effectively change the environment. For it is clear
that the children took with them, not only the
instincts of the slums, but its habits and customs.
Mr. Mudge, indeed, tells us that “ the children were
sent into the island when quite young—some little
more than infants ;” but some at least of them must
have been old enough to have already learnt the
language and songs of their native place, unless
indeed they were allowed to revisit their first home
from time to time, which should not have been
allowed. Again, the Parish Council seemed to have
failed through not making a proper selection.
Surely some of the children to whom special re-
ference is made might have been excluded with due
care. But the most important point seems to me to
be that they “‘swamped the place with an importa-
tion so great that seventy or eighty per cent. of the
school population was made up of the imported
element. In a word, the old and good environment

HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT 143

is swamped by the new and imported vicious one!
And this by the people who believe in the influence
of environment! Was ever so absurd a reductio
ad a'surdum of any doctrine before?” Thus, Mr.
Mudge, and I thoroughly agree with him. The
experiment was a thoroughly bad experiment. But
how, then, can Mr. Mudge believe that it will con-
vince any one of the uselessness of trying to reform
human beings by transplanting them to a new
environment, when he himself admits that in the
experiment the vicious environment was imported
along with the children ?

May I remark, in passing, that Mr. Mudge seems
to have rather a confused notion of the kind of
environment which social reformers believe to be
capable of improving human character. If, indeed,
there be a school of Blue Sky Philanthropists, let
me clissociate myself from them at once. It is not
by “‘romantic scenery” nor by “‘sea breezes,” good
things though these be, that human nature is to be
drawn fundamentally out of its course, but rather
by the example of well-ordered lives. In a word,
it is the human environment, and not the scenic one,
which counts.

Mr. Mudge does not move me from my faith in
environment by his tale of the three “‘ half-witted ”
brothers who wrecked such disaster upon their
unfortunate associates, for I recognise these as
degenerates whom it is useless to try to reclaim.
Such, as soon as they have given clear evidence of
their nature, I should like to see segregated and

144 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

prevented from reproducing their kind. But it by
no means follows that because we can do nothing to
reform the true degenerates that it is hopeless to try
and improve the average slum child. We might
as justly argue that it is useless to send children to
school because certain acephalic idiots are incapable
of learning anything.

I do not beheve that all slum children are
degenerate; no, not even a large proportion of
them—I share the Bishop of Stepney’s liking for
the independent street Arab who sells newspapers
in our streets—and I believe that the majority are
of the right stuff, but prevented from becoming
good men and women by their miserable cireum-
stances. What they most want is an environment
filled with decent people, whether the scenery be
romantic or otherwise.

I feel strongly about this; and I object to cold
water being thrown indiscriminately on the efforts
ef social reformers. By all means let us have
eriticism, for of course mistakes are made, but the
criticism to be helpful must not be merely destruc-
tive. The people of the slums are with us, and
we have got to make the best of them
we can. It is no use saying it is hopeless, for the
only alternative, destruction, is not practicable.
The limitation of procreation among the undesirable
classes, excepting those who can be legally certified
as criminal or degenerate, 1s not likely to become a
matter of practical politics for many years. By all
means, let public opinion be educated to accept the

HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT 145

sterilisation of the unfit; but, in the meantime,
reformers must go on the old lines, guided by au
ever-increasing experience to avoid old errors, and
becoming bolder as success makes them feel their
grasp of the problem gradually tightening.

A Plea for the Operation of a More
Virile Sentiment in Human Affairs.

_A Second Rejoinder.

By GEORGE PERCIVAL MUDGE.

Dr. Louis Cospsetrr, in his second reply, entitled
‘“ Heredity or Environment,” to my “ Plea for the
Operation of a More Virile Sentiment in Human
Affairs,” asserts “that both heredity and environ-
ment admittedly go to the making of man.” He
then asks the crucial questions: ‘ But in what
proportions ? How much of the finished article is
due to the quality of the raw material?” In reply
to these questions of Dr. Cobbett, I shall argue
the thesis that in a sense, what a man as an
individual is, does not depend upon his envi-
ronment at all, but wholly upon his innate
constitution. Dr. Cobbett and others who adopt
his attitude, have apparently overlooked the
essential fact, that the capacity to respond to the
environment is as much an inborn character of an
individual, as the colour of his hair or the possession
of limbs instead of fins. Some men possess the
capacity of responding, others do not; some have
it in great measure, others in less measure. All the
sentimental agitation that is fanning a great wave of
unmerited emotion over the surface of an ill-instructed

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 147

and hyper-sensitive democracy, is wholly on behalf
of an insignificant minority of defective and un-
desirable citizens who are devoid of this capacity to
respond to a social environment which is sufficiently
healthy and beautiful. We are living on the earth
and not beyond its pale, and we must render unto
the world the things that are of it. We can never
have an environment that will be worthy of
Paradise. It is sufficient for all purposes, that
commingled with some features which we all
regret but are powerless to avoid, there is in normal
human life, much that is beautiful, inspiring,
and noble. Civilisation has always been a mixture
of good and evil, and it can never be anything
else, until the day when Man can satisfy his
hunger bv noble thoughts and maintain his race
without passion. Into this mixed environment,
which is the same for all, men of varying innate
potentialities are born. In virtue of their congenital
attributes some respond in greater degree to the
nobler influences of that environment, and others
mainly or completely respond to its baser calls. It
men possess certain inherent attributes they will
spontaneously seek the appropriate environment to
which those attributes are attuned. If they are,
however, devoid of the requisite inborn qualities it
is idle to take the environment to them. If
Mahomet loves the mountain he will go to it. If he
does not, it is folly to attempt to take it to him.
In these two antithetic facts, is the one guiding
principle of a rational social policy.

148 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Nothing is farther from my desire than to appear
dogmatic, but I cannot help thinking that in this
central fact—that responsiveness to the environment
is itself an inherent quality—is to be found the
essence of the problem. Civilisation has not made
men, it is men who have made civilisation. In the
past as now, there were varying types of men. In
Neolithic times there were the artists and the hunters,
and doubtless there were men who were both. In
the Lake dwellings there were men gifted with the
attributes of thrift and who harvested in Autumn
a store of apples and corn for the coming Winter,
and there were thriftless men who were merry in
the over-plentitude of the bountiful season and
deservedly died in the barrenness of the unproductive
months. They were all exposed to the same environ-
ment, but they were not all the same in their
behaviour.

In my original article* I considered a very
simple illustration in order that the essential
relationship between inherent qualities and en-
vironment might be discussed, uncomplicated by
unessential considerations. I described the be-
haviour of two plants, the Summer Savory and the
Flax, when both were removed from an old to a
new environment. These plants grow naturally
under similar conditions in the Tyrolese valleys
and elsewhere. But when they are removed to a high
altitude on the mountains, the Summer Savory

*A Plea for the Operation of a More Virile Sentiment. Mendel Journal.
Vol. I., No. 1, Oct., 1909.

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 149

responds to its altered conditions and lives, the
Flax cannot respond and perishes. The new environ-
ment is common to both plants, but the difference in
the behaviour of the two organisms is the manifes-
tation of inborn constitutional divergencies, which
the environment cannot alter nor even modify in
the smallest degree. Since the environment per se
cannot make the Flax respond, it follows that
it is equally incapable of making the Summer
Savory respond, and the response which this plant
does manifest under certain changed conditions is
therefore not environmental in origin, but is inborn
in the organism.

Let us pass from the example of plants in the
Tyrolese valleys to Man under social conditions.
The same conclusion confronts us. In Knightsbridge,
fifteen years ago, there was a Church wedged in
between two public-houses. Both the latter were
small and dirty; their atmosphere was heavy
with the smell of beer and smoke; the floors were
begrimed with dirt which cannot be described ; torn
papers, spillings of beer, discoloured sawdust, and
disused cigarettes were commingled in an untidy
medley. To anyone with any degree of inborn
refinement, the surroundings must have been
repellent. On Sundays, as well as on other days, the
company within was of the type incident to that
class of house. The speech was coarse, loud, gesticu-
lating, obscene, and ribald; there was no order or
priority of utterance and the words of each person
were drowned in the prevailing din created by the

150 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

speech of all. For these “ privileges,” everyone
who desired them had to pay. In the Church, on
the other hand, was refinement of speech, habits
of culture, quietness of atmosphere, an ordered
service, mollient music, an inspiring Choir, and an
endeavour to take the minds of men above the
level of the bestial topics which constituted the
mental staple of the visitors to the houses on
either side. These things were free to whomsoever
chose to have them. Will Dr. Cobbett tell us who
commanded that some men should go to the Church,
which was free, and that other men should congregate
in the public-houses, which demanded a price of all
who entered? Was it Parliament, or the Priest,
or the Publican? If it was not by the edict of Man,
will he tell us in virtue of what social influences it
was that some chose public-houses and others the
Church? The one costly and the other free! Can
the experiences of mankind as expressed in its pro-
verbs better answer the question than the senti-
mentalists and the ‘‘ reformers ”’ who have enshrined
their hopes on the altar of futility ? When, from
the traditional experiences of life, the old proverb
was formulated: ‘‘ That birds of a feather flock
together,” did it then, and does it now, express the
central fact in this problem of social life? Does it
explain why some men love the public-house with its
attendant features and others prefer the culture of the
Church? Dr. Cobbett cannot contend that people went
to the public-house because it was easier and cheaper,
for the reverse is the truth. The Church stands with

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 151

extended arms and almost prays to every passer-by
to enter its sanctuary. The public-house has no
missionaries travelling throughout the land, pleading
to men to enter and drink of its beer, to partake of
its coarse talk, and to inhale its noisome atmosphere.
The Church has sent forth its apostles into every
hamlet in the land, pleading with men to desert
the one path and to follow the other. But in spite
of it all the public-house has still its votaries. We
may destroy the drinking-house but its votaries
will not therefore go to Church, because their
inborn desires will soon convert their own homes into
a small type of public-house.

These considerations lead us to a corollary.
Neither the Church nor the public-house create their
votaries. Both are merely.centres whither men with
different inherent aspirations and tastes do congregate.
It is not the Church which makes people good, but
it is the assembling of the “good people” which
constitutes the Church. The inborn aspirations came
first, the Church afterwards. Similarly with the
public-house. It does not produce the qualities which
make drunkards and loungers ; it simply does what
the Church does, and offers facilities for gratifying
certain inborn desires. It satisfies very different
desires, of course. The safety of the Church, therefore,
like that of the nation, depends not on its missionary
efforts but on the nature of the citizens whose birth
it encourages. The Roman Catholic Church, which is
making great attempts in this country to obtain
adherents among the children of the masses, 1s indeed

152 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

but laying the foundations of its discredit and its
destruction. It imagines—if we may judge its beliefs
by its deeds—that it can make worthy men out of
the children of unworthy races. It will achieve
for itself what modern social sentiment is fast
accomplishing for the nation as a whole: the
ultimate disruption of Society composed of civically
defective materials.

But let us further illustrate the untenability of
Dr. Cobbett’s contention. He implies that in some
way the environment per se has the power to mould
men and their deeds.* I have attempted to show
that any apparent influence exerted by the environ-
ment is in reality due to an inborn capacity in the
individual to respond to it. Some have a capacity
to respond to one sort of environmental stimulus
and some to another. Some cannot respond at all.
Let us advance that line of argument deeper into
social life. Churches and public-houses are old
institutions. Music-halls, cinematograph shows, and
County Council Scholarships are the growth of more
modern times. At all times of the year London and
other cities afford certain inducements and attractions
to people of all ages. Among these we may mention
two contrasted forms. They are as different as the
Church and the public-house, but in a rather different
manner. The contrast, however, is the same in this
respect, that whereas everyone who enters a music-
hall has to pay for admission, anyone who desires
to enter an evening class for “ self-improvement ” in

* By men is implied individuals, not races.

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 153

a wide range of subjects, from the science of Biology
down to the simple art of handling a carpet broom |
and a dust-pan, or accepting a tip as a waiter,T
can do so for nothing.t Indeed, the aspiring
“scholar”? will even be paid to join a class by a
pleading and anxious County Council, very dubious
as to the existence of any real desire upon the
part of the community for the intellectual wares
it desires to scatter broadcast, and very indifferent
to the waste of public money virtually entrusted to
its care. To take a concrete example, we have then,
let us say, in London, existing side by side, music-halls
and evening classes. Let us pass by any of the former at
six in the evening, and long files of persons, stretching
down the main street and round into the bye-streets
will be seen. It is a common sight occurring every
night. When we pass to the evening classes there
. will be found no long files in the streets. The classes
are small; in some cases so small that there are more
teachers than scholars. This dearth of pupils is in
spite of what has now almost become a custom of
paying any student who cares to ask for it, five pounds
or more a session, ostensibly to pay travelling
expenses. Even of the relatively small number of
students who attend the classes, a certain deduction
must be made of those who have no serious intention
of studying, and who go for various reasons. Some
of the women students attending evening classes

+ The London County Council, not satisfied with having an Education
Rate nearly 2s. in the pound, or with the national expenditure of
£25,000,000 a year on education, from the rates and taxes, has recently
decided to waste more public money on classes for the training of waiters.

t In some cases the fees are merely nominal.

154 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

conducted by men teachers and containing men
students, have much more interest in matrimonial
possibilities than in academic considerations. The
ratepayers are compelled to pay for matrimonial
potentialities, and not for educational kinetics.
Some students merely want to while away an evening
or two in the week. They may think, for instance,
that a class in Elocution will be a delightful way
of passing time and making acquaintances with a
subsequent view of consolidating the friendship on
the altar. How serious the intentions of some students
are, 1s well exemplified by a case for the accuracy
of which I can vouch, when a few years ago, two
prospective and obviously not earnest women students
joined a class in Elocution only to find that it was
full. With significantly spontaneous readiness they
at once transferred their “studies” to a subject
of wholly different nature, Biology. The teacher
of this latter class, naturally curious as to such
a transference, enquired why they had joined his
class. They replied “that they first jomed the
class in Elocution because they wanted something
to do, but finding all the classes in that subject full,
they thought Biology would be just as good as any
other class!” They were asked if they had any
idea as to what kind of subject Biology was, and
they replied: “Not in the least.” Needless: to
say their “studies”? were not marked by diligence
or enthusiasm, and if they manifested any attention
at all in class, it was not to the work in hand, but to
an object more easily attained at other places of

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 155

entertainment. But I am not now concerned with
the defects of this rate-endowed and tax-endowed
system of education, in which certain people may
play loose with the money of other citizens. It is
sufficient to show that comparatively insignificant
as the attendance at these classes is, that even then
‘all is not grist which comes to the mill.”

It will suffice to notice that many students attend
evening and other classes, provided for them out of
public money, for other reasons than a burning desire
for knowledge or culture. But there remains what
is for us the cardinal fact, that the ‘‘ educational ”’
classes are sparsely attended and the music-halls are
full. Why? The “educational environment” is
open to all. Indeed, under the egis of County
Councils and such like bodies, it pleads with open
coffers in the form of so-called “ Scholarships,” to
whomsoever will to come. Many are called, but
few respond. And of that few more are moved by
aspiration than by inspiration, and will later vent
the consequences of their incapacity and the disap-
pointments of their chequered aspirations upon a
community which foolishly encouraged them in the
attempt to traverse the plains of Cirrha and the
hills of Citheron.

They will eventually turn upon the community
which fed and educated them and become the dema-
gogues of street corners or even of more eminent
positions. That is the inevitable result of attempting
to force a higher type of environment upon a lower
type of mind. I do not of course deny that a few of

156 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the students who attend evening classes do so with a
genuine desire to acquire knowledge. Neither is it
denied that a few possess an inherent capacity which
enables them to reap the educational benefits that
are forthcoming. But these students would in any
case have obtained an education fitted to their
merits and have been able to pay for it in the ordinary
way. They belong to cultured Middle-Class families
and for them rate-aided classes are entirely unwarrant-
ed. All that is achieved by this modern sentiment
which sets out to provide educational facilities for the
masses, in much the same way that it has before in
history provided circuses for them, is the destruction
of many Secondary Schools by a scarce veiled com-
petition with ratepayers’ money, which prefer not to
pauperise their pupils by accepting doles from the
rates or the State.

University College School, London, has learned
the bitter lesson that environment cannot alter the
inherent defects of the children of the masses. It
cannot even do it when potential men are at the plastic
stage of boys. It made a generous experiment but
the processes of Nature have nothing to do with noble
aspirations nor with false hopes, and the “ Hammer
of Thor” was fast falling upon its mistaken intentions
and futile aims. In considerate language that had
to be read between the lines, the Council of this
School had to admit the failure of the attempt to
convert by environmental influences, the morally
defective instincts and limited intellectual capacities
of the children from the elementary’ schools. And

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 157

with this case and others which I could mention before
us, Dr. Cobbett’s plea that the “ street arab” only
“needs a good environment and the influence of
decent people”? to make him a desirable citizen,
falls hopelessly to the ground. In the light of facts
it is untenable ; the voice of tradition has long since
condemned it.

But University College School does not stand
alone in its experience. I have made enquiries of
teachers at Grammar and other Secondary Schools,
and from all my informants come the same report,
variously expressed. I am informed that these boys
have no idea of the use of freedom and never learn
its meaning. The average fee-paying boy of the
Secondary School may be allowed his freedom and
will not turn it into licence. That is not the case
with the boys sent up at an early age from the Elemen-
tary Schools. They need to be continually super-
vised. They are a constant menace to the morale
and morality of the School. They are incapable of
appreciating the beauties of literature, and some of
the finest passages in the English Classics are
parodied in ribald and revolting language. Hven
Tennyson’s ‘“‘ Charge of the Light Brigade” has not
escaped their prurient minds, and I was once shown
by a Secondary School teacher a most repulsive
parody upon it. The boy who wrote it was caught
reading it out to the whole class of fee-paying students
at that school. This is not an accident due to
carelessness, for it occurred in a Secondary School
where even undue care is taken to assimilate the

158 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

County Council scholars of the Elementary Schools
with the fee-paying students; where they are, in a
sense, treated with special favour, and every effort
that the circumstances of a misguided sentiment will
allow is made to fulfil a futile hope. But it is in
vain. Indeed, the longer the elementary scholars
are at a Secondary School, the wider and more
apparent become the intellectual, moral, and physical
divergencies that mark them off from the Middle-Class
fee-paying students. They are in human life the
‘ sprinters” among horses, which,

4

homologues of the
the more they are trained and oxygenated, the worse
become their running powers.* It is not only
Secondary School teachers who say that the Scholar-
ships awarded in London and elsewhere to Elementary
School children, are wasted alike financially and in
intellectual and moral results, but teachers at the
Elementary Schools tell me the same thing. They
know these children when they leave their school
to go to the Secondary School, and in many
cases they are able to follow their subsequent career
when they come down from the Secondary School
to enter life. What do they become? After they
have received a secondary education which costs the
ratepayers of their district about one hundred pounds
a year, not counting the whole cost of officials, and
having remained two or three years at the Secondary
School, they become milk-boys, errand-boys, and so
on! They will never adopt anything else than a milk-

* See Mr. Robertson’s article in this Journal, on the “ Inheritance of
Staying Powers in Thoroughbred Horses,” p. 76; and the Editorial Article
appended to it: “Some Sociological Considerations, &c.,” p. 98-100.

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 159

man’s calling or some similar occupation. And as a
head-master of one of London’s Elementary Church
Schools recently expressed it to me: “‘ The County
Council Scholarships are an absolute waste of public
money and the boys are not benefited by them at all.
Far better,” he said, ‘‘ not to have made them discon-
tented with a lot from which it is impossible for them
to escape.’ After the community has made this expen-
sive effort to raise them to a higher standard,
they sink again to the level in which they were born
and to the station to which their congenital attributes
inexorably anchor them.*

Unconscious of their own defects, noting only
that men with other modes of thinking and other
desires of living belong to another kinship in feather,
and remembering that once they were artificially
forced into that kinship, but omitting to see that
they have failed to remain within it, for lack of the
requisite attributes, we need not be surprised that
they go back again to their own class with an
embittered spirit, only to wage war on the community
which kindly but mistakenly endeavoured to force
them out of their natural position. ‘ Quz delicate a
puerttia nutrit servum suum, spostea sentiet eum
contumacem’”’ is an aphorism worth remembering
in public as in private life.” +

* The letter of Mr. Bourne Benson, Chairman of the Council of University
College School, to The Times, of March, 1911, conveys the same information.
He says the scholars “‘ are compelled in the end to earn their living in some
humble employment of lower status and of less remuneration than the work
they would have been likely to obtain, if they had devoted the same ability
and the same time, at less than half the expense, to learning a trade.”

+ ‘‘ He that delicately bringeth up a servant from a child shall find him
insolent at the last.” Francis Bacon. The Advancement of Learning.
Second Book,

160 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Dr. Cobbett says that the “street arabs” of the
slums only need the influence of ‘“‘ decent people ” to
make them respectable and useiul citizens. I suppose
Dr. Cobbett will assent to the proposition that what is
true of ‘‘street arabs’ must be truer still, or at least as
true, of more successful people. For if he does not
accept that proposition, then he is asking us to believe
that the works of social evolution have been cast out
of her mould upside down, and that the good, noble,
and responsive people have sunk into the slums, while
the evil, vicious, and irresponsive people have risen to
the higher civic strata of Society. Let us see, then,

>)

whether the influence of “ decent people ” is real or
imaginary. The train of ideas underlying the term
‘decent people” may of course be applied to many
things. We may consider it in relation to good taste.
If we pass through the very respectable portions of
any of the suburbs around London during the Summer
months and on Sundays, we shall occasionally hear
coming through the open windows of some even of the
larger houses, evidently well furnished and with well-
kept gardens, the discordant and metallic vibrations
of the gramophone. These spread far and wide, and
gratuitously impinge upon the hearing of everyone in
the neighbourhood, whether they care for such enter-
tainment or not. Now, no stretch of the imagination
upon the part of people with good taste can possibly
regard these vibrations as beautiful or inspiring. They
are not melodious; they are merely pulsating
volumes of clashing noises. In some cases the songs
which have been chosen for emission by the gramo-

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 161

phone are not of the classical order ; they convey no
lofty thoughts, they do not appeal to the higher side
of man, and if they have any meaning at all, it is
that of a suggestive lewdness. The bad taste which
it all implies is accentuated by the fact that these dis-
plays occur on a Sunday morning. It is no extenua-
tion to urge that if certain people do not care to go to
church they are free to disturb the peace of the
Sabbath which other citizens hold sacred. They
have no more right to do it than has the Salvation
Army, with its nondescript and brazen band of civic
and moral weaklings, to render Sunday afternoon
hideous to eye and ear alike. The very fact that the
feelings-of others have been in this blatant manner
disregarded is simply another form of bad taste
superimposed upon the first. Will Dr. Cobbett tell
us why these people manifest such bad taste? He
cannot plead in these cases the misery of their lot, the
poverty of their lives, or the absence of decent people
among their acquaintances. None of these things
explain it. It is not Parlament, nor the Priest, nor
ignorance, nor the absence of all accessories which
relate to culture, nor a vicious social environment.
It is the inherent obtuseness in regard to matters
of taste of the persons concerned. Their lack
of good taste is inborn. A momentary look at
their faces and deportment is by itself sufficient
evidence, for from the hungry lion and the wolf up to
Man, Nature frequently implants her meaning
on the physiognomy and the motions of her
higher forms of life.

L

162 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

To make any artificial effort—whether compulsory
through the State or voluntary through ‘“ Waif and
Stray Societies ’’—to raise “street arabs” from their
natural position to higher social or civic rungs would,
if even it could be successful in a sense, simply result
in swarming the ranks of the Middle Classes with a
larger number of unculturable Philistines of the
‘‘oramophone order.” We do not by such means
save the street arab; we do not convert him; we
simply lower the general civic standard and the degree
of culture of a higher social class by diluting it with
grosser waters. We have only to recall a certain
notorious and uncultured politician and the general
run of his platform companions, and to carefully con-
sider their speech and other performances, in order to
perceive how little contact with “ decent people ” can
influence inborn uncouthness, and to instinctively recog-
nise how grave is the danger to the continued social
stability and refinement of the social class into which
these persons have been intruded, by the incited
passions of Democracy. Just as dead and worthless
leaves, through no merit of their own, are elevated by
the Autumn winds, so under a democratic regime, in
which from the very nature of things the voice of the
uncultured masses is most heard, the politicians who
are most successful in arousing the acclamations of the
mob are not the men of culture, but the men of inborn
uliginous and zanic instincts. Not even years of
contact with cultured men, either in the House of
Commons or in social life, serves to convert the
uncouth buffoon into anything else than what he was

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 163

born, or to modify in the least the traits of his race.
So long as these very patent facts obtrude themselves
upon our notice, it is vain to contend that the un-
desirable traits of “street arabs” or of other persons are
due to the absence of an environment composed of
decent people. That otiose hypothesis fails as
completely as that of the “Blue Sky Philan-
thropists,” the moment we look impartially and dis-
passionately at the hard and ugly facts of life.

The mention of the “ Blue Sky Philanthropists ”’
recalls to me the objection which Dr. Cobbett asso-
ciated with this, his own term. He says it is not by
romantic scenery, nor by sea breezes that human
nature is to be fundamentally altered. Dr. Cobbett
asserts that social reformers do not believe this
sort of environment can improve human character.
Well, that again depends upon the person. An intro-
spective examination by any one will show how
much or how little it influences us. I must confess I
have been at times deeply stirred by a glorious sunset,
and subdued to an emotion of intense awe by some
mighty and silent landscape. More than once when I
have been alone on an angry sea in a tempest of wind,
I have learned lessons which have so deeply impressed
me that they have permanently moulded one line of
my thought. The chief of these lessons King Canute
is traditionally reputed to have learned. The tide,
which neither rises nor recedes until its appointed
hour, is but symbolic of the processes of Nature, which
are pitiless, inexorable, and unrelenting. Nature
cares nothing, neither for our regrets, nor hopes, nor

164 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

aspirations, nor futile schemes, nor castles in the air,
nor toseate delusions, nor generous intentions; our
lives may be young and with all their promise yet
before us ; we may have work we want to finish, and a
cause we desire to advance before we die. But what
of these things? Does Nature heed them and our
vanities ? We come face to face with her angry mood
in a cockle-shell of a boat, thinking, like social re-
formers and the courtiers of King Canute, that the
laws of Nature will cease operating to save us from the
consequences of our own folly. Nature does nothing
of the sort ; on the bark of our own venturesomeness,
while yet we recall the lives that are precious to us
and the work we have not finished, the wind increases
in intensity, the billows break more angrily as our
craft drifts nearer to the rocks upon its lee. The rocks
neither melt nor soften for us; they are adamantine
and enduring. One thing alone can save us; and
that is to intimately know the forces with which we
are dealing, the capacities of our craft, and the degree
of reliance we can place upon ourselves. For there
are no social reformers, nor County Councils, nor
Medical Inspectors, nor vote-catching Chancellors who
think they can save incompetent or cowardly navi-
gators. It is then we learn that political buffoons
playing before an electorate of merry-andrews, are
fools if they believe that Nature will turn aside her
relentless processes because of their zanic antics; and,
if they do not believe it, it is then we recognise the
deep pathos of the imminent tragedy which their

OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 165

roguery will inevitably impose upon their dupes and
their countrymen.

I wish every honest social reformer would for once
in his hfe go out alone in an _ open sailing
boat, when the wind is blowing a gale and is against
a Spring-tide at half level, and the coast is on his lee.
He would, if he came back safely, have more respect
for those processes of Nature which in his optimistic
propaganda on terra firma he so completely ignores.
But if he has no other equipment than noble inten-
tions and laudable aspirations, he had better remain
on the shore until he has substituted for them a stern
determination to face the waves, winds, tides, and
rocks as realities from which there is no escape.

But Dr. Cobbett is mistaken in believing that there
are no “Sky Blue Philanthropists.”’ They are every-
where. Ruskin was.among them. In the chapter
on the “ Deteriorative Power of Conventional Art ”’
in “ The Two Paths,” he contrasted the influence of
the “ Gilded Temples ” of Indian cities upon Indian
Art, and of the Craig Ellachie at the western foot
of the Grampians upon the Scotch character.
“The Art of India,” he wrote: “never represents
a natural fact. Over the whole spectacle
of creation the Indian people have thrown a veil in
which there is no rent. For them no star peeps
through the blanket of the dark—for them neither
their heaven shines nor their mountains rise—for
them the flowers do not hlossom-—tfor them the
creatures of field and forest do not live. They le
bound in the dungeon of their own corruption, en-

166 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

compassed only by doleful phantoms, or by spectral
vacancy.” On the other hand, he describes the
influence of Scottish scenery upon its people in
these words: “ You will find, upon reflection, that
all the highest points of the Scottish character are
connected with impressions derived straight from
the natural scenery of their country.” Can “Sky
Blue Philanthropy” express itself in clearer
language than that? In a sense, Ruskin was right.
It is the inherent desires of the Indian people which
have created their special type of art, of which their
temples are but symbols. It is the inborn emotional
character of the Highlander that he loves to contem-
plate the majestic and rugged hills of his native
country, and to find his thoughts expressed by
the art of his country in the ballads of
Burns and the novels of Scott. That is the
only real “connection” between scenery and
human impressions. But that is quitema
different thing to supposing that the vision of Craig
Ellachie can convert the congenital race of “ street
arabs” of the slums of Glasgow into respectable and
useful citizens. That piece of extreme social folly
was reserved for the Glasgow Parish Council and for
potential officials who sought some plausible pretext
to create new salaried appointments.

an 7) +. a
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A

PEDIGREE OF LENTICULAR CATARACT

Some Cases of
Inheritance of Human Degeneracies.

By Dr. W. J. RUTHERFURD.

To no one more than to the medical practitioner do
opportunities of tracing the hereditary origin of patho-
logical defects or physicai abnormalities in human
subjects present themselves. Almost every week some
case comes to his professional notice, which if patiently
traced would reveal an example of the inexorableness and
inevitableness of the hereditary process. Behind the
old adage “that what is bred in the bone comes out
in the flesh ” lies the eternal truth of inheritance. That
this truth has been so long ignored in practical affairs
is no doubt due to the existence of a belief in the kindly
influence of environment which is based on a mis-
conception of the facts. No favourable environment
acting on “ flesh’ can change bad “‘ bone” into good
bone.

But while a medical practitioner may have many
chances of observing the hereditary mechanism at
work, it is seldom that he can find the time to pursue
such observations with that exactitude which scientific
treatment demands, and with that detail without which
general conclusions can be but tentative at the best.

A few years ago several interesting cases presented
themselves to my notice, and the current circumstances
enabled me to make enquiries into the family histories
of the patients concerned. I was able to personally
diagnose the diseases and to observe the conditions,
in many cases, among individuals in two or three of the
several generations whose history I was able by enquiry
of the patients and their relatives to record.

An Instance of the Inheritance of
Lenticular Cataract from Both Parents.

The occurrence in a family group of a transmissible
defect of which it can be definitely asserted that the con-
dition is shared by both parents is admittedly rare. When
it occurs in the human race it is sufficiently important
from a biological standpoint to render it advisable

168 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

to place such a case on record, so that the details may be
accessible to workers in the comparatively new field of
experimental heredity.

In the family here recorded (using the word family in
its colloquial and more restricted sense) lenticular cataract
occurred in childhood or adolescence in five out of twelve
persons (C, 15-26). Another member of the family died
many years ago while still an infant, and as naturally no
information is available as to him, he cannot be included
in the present calculation. Of the five affected members
of this family in generation C, Pexamined the eyes of two.
In addition I examined the eyes of the two affected
parents in generation B. Of the six living unaffected
individuals I was able to examine five at one time or
another. A seventh member died at the age of twenty-
four years. The presence or absence of the defect in the
persons I was able to examine may therefore be
taken as definitely settled. All members so examined
will be found indicated in the explanatory description
attached to the chart. Three of the affected individuals
(Nos. 18, 19, and 21, generation C) in this family were
married and had children, the offspring, ten in number,
being aged from about seven years to twenty. Oneof these,
No. 15, D generation, as will be seen later, seems to have
inherited the affection under consideration. Five of the
unaffected members of the family group are married.
One has no family ; the children of the others, twelve in
number and aged from a twelvemonth to twenty-two
years, seem all to have escaped the condition up to the
time when these details were gathered.

An investigation into the family histories of the parents
of these five affected persons (C generation) revealed
very little. In the mother the cataract had apparently
arisen de novo.* The father seemed definitely to owe
the origin of his condition to the ancestral germ-plasm,
as, although his own immediate parent was unaffected,
the somatic stigma had displayed itself in one of the
members of that generation. The nine cases in the four
generations are briefly described below.

* See Editorial note, p. 184.

HUMAN DEGENERACIES 169

This is one of the very few cases where both parents
[z.e., Nos. 14 and 21, B generation] suffer from the same
transmissible disease.*

THe Facts oF THE PEDIGREE.
GENERATION A.

No. 1. The uncle of B generation. An old man,
now dead. His symptoms ensued when he was more
than 80 years old and progressed to total blindness.
It was graphically described to me how when he wanted
to know the time, he would grope his way from his chair
to the corner where the clock stood and feel over its
face to find the position of the hands.

Nos. 2, 3, and their marital partners. No history of
lenticular cataract or blindness.

GENERATION B.

Nos. 1 to 12. No history to record. Are said to
have been normal.

No. 13. Married. Had six children. Mother, father,
and children not affected. Her vision remained quite
good up to 78 years of age.

No. 14. The nephew of No. 1, A, and father of Nos. 15
to 26 in generation C. When I first saw him within a few
months of his death from apoplexy at the age of 76 he
disclaimed any eye affection except a long-standing
and steadily progressive presbyopia for which he was
wearing glasses. Examination, however, revealed the
presence of unripe cataract in both eyes.

Nos. 15 and 16. Both mafried normal and unrelated
partners and had normal children.

Nos. 17 to 20. As far as known there is no evidence
of lenticular cataract or of blindness.

No. 21. The wife of No. 14, B. She is not related
by blood to her husband. Age 70 years. Cataract in
the left eye for the past ten years. There was no history
of traumatism to the eye. Her cataract has apparently,
as already suggested, arisen de novo, as no indications

* Compare Mr. E. Nettleship, ‘‘ Three New Pedigrees of Senile Cataract,”
Ophthalmological . Society's Transactions, vol. xxviii., 1908, p. 224, where
he describes the first instance known to him of the same heritable eye
disease present in both parents.—[Editor.] ;

170 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of it appear to have shown themselves in either of her
parents, Nos. 3 and 4, A.

GENERATION C.

Nos. 1 to 14, 20, and 24 were almost certainly
normal. I was able to examine Nos. 16, 17, 22, 23,
and 26. They were quite normal.

No. 15. Affected daughter of affected parents
Nos. 14 and 21, B. She died of pneumonia at the age of
50. Had double cataract as a child. One eye had been
operated on successfully when she was twenty-four
years of age. The other eye was operated on twenty-
one years afterwards, with the result that sepsis
set in, and enucleation became necessary. At the
age of forty-eight she suffered from mammary carcinoma,
which was extirpated a year later. It was probably
recurrent in the dorsal vertebre before death. There
was no post-mortem examination.

No. 18. Sister of No. 15, C. Cataract in both
eyes since childhood. Operated upon at the age of
forty years.

No. 19. Brother of Nos. 15 and 18. Father of No.
15, D. Had double cataract since a child at school.
Operated on at thirty-five years of age.

No. 21. The seventh child. He lives abroad and is
inaccessible. Had double cataract since childhood. Was
operated upon when twenty-four years of age, at about
the same time as most of the other affected members
of the family.

No. 25. The twelfth child had double cataract.
The condition does not seem to have appeared till
she was eighteen years old. After the cataract
had been present for five years the right eye was operated
on. In the spring of 1909 she died, at the age of twenty-
eight years, of Addison’s disease.

Note.—In the family Nos. 15 to 26, C, there was a
child who died in infancy, and he is not included in the
Chart, as no information is available concerning him.

GENERATION D.

All the members of this generation are yet quite
young. The defect may appear in them at a later age.

HUMAN DEGENERACIES 171

But so far only one individual, No. 15, manifests any
impairment of vision. Her father, No. 19, C, suffers
from the defect, but not her mother. She is only eighteen
years of age, and for some years back has progressively
been becoming blind; her relations recognise the con-
dition as being the same as their own. No opportunity
for examination of this particular member presented
itself.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

This clanship illustrates what Nettleship and others
have called “anticipation ”’ in the appearance of the
cataract. - The period at which it first becomes evident
is progressively earlier in the more recent generations.
Thus in the A generation it seems to have appeared
when the patient was over eighty years of age. In the
B generation it manifested itself at about seventy-six
years of age. In the C generation it showed itself at
ages varying from childhood up to the age of eighteen.
In the latest generation the symptoms have also put in
their appearance during adolescence.

No deductions will here be drawn from the frequency
of the condition either in the entire stock or in the
family where both parents were affected (seven unaffected
to five affected, and one doubtful), but it is noteworthy
that in the instance recorded by Nettleship,* of a
cataractigenous family where the condition was evident
in both parents, there was a similar occurrence of several
individuals free from the organic defect among the
offspring.

* Loco citato.

172 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Chart indicating the Family Incidence of Lenticular
Cataract.

The square symbols indicate males, and round
symbols females.

Where there are numbers but no symbols it means
that the sex of the individuals indicated was not
ascertained.

The solid black symbols indicate the affected persons.

N within the symbols indicates normality of the
individual so far as cataract is concerned. Without a
symbol it means that, as far as I could ascertain, none of
the persons indicated had suffered from blindness in any
form. In many of these cases I merely ascertained their
number but did not obtain other details, such as their sex.

When no letter is within the open symbol it means
that no definite information as to presence or absence
of cataract was forthcoming.

- The numbers to the top left corner of each symbol
indicate the relative ages of the individuals and also
serve as the reference number. Among the affected,
Nos. 14 and 21 in the B generation, and Nos. 15 and 25
in the C generation, were personally examined by me
and their condition accurately diagnosed. Among the
unaffected I similarly examined the following: In the
C generation, Nos. 16, 17, 22, 23, and 26. In the D
generation, Nos. 1 and 18. Others were seen at various
times and either refused to allow their eyes being
examined or else no suitable opportunity for so doing
presented itself.

P.E. beneath the symbol means that I personally
examined the eyes of that individual.

a d = Addison’s disease (died of).

©a-=Cancer of breast, recurring later in dorsal

vertebre.

ar
*
phe
4
.

PEDIGREE OF TWINS. FAMILY A
A i x O

a

3 sl tall all 3]
a) [Bye ja)Oxe] Oar lel) ©) exo

B Bhs Oxo

N

Dax

The Occurrence of Twins in Successive
Gienerations.

By Dr. W. J. RUTHERFURD.

PEDIGREE A.

THE following Pedigree shows a decided tendency
to the production of twins in three succeeding generations.
It is but one of several of a similar nature which I have
been able to obtain.*

In this Pedigree are twelve twin children, of whom
eight died in infancy or early childhood. This is a heavy
mortality and is doubtless significant of an inborn feeble-
ness of constitution. A glance at the Pedigree and at the
statement of facts will at once show that the greater part
of the stock here represented is to some extent degenerate.
Stillbirths, death with fits in infancy and other evidences
of nervous instability such as laryngismus stridulus,
taken together with vesical calculi and nephritis so
frequently recurring, is indicative of a sub-normal race.

The person from whom the details of this clanship
were obtained realises that among her relations the first-
born children are not twins, but that these tend to be
produced towards the end of the family. There may or
may not be significance attaching to this, but that is a
question I propose discussing later on.

THE Facts oF THE PEDIGREE.

GENERATION A.

Nos. 1 and 2. Nothing of importance is known of
these two people.
GENERATION B.

No. 1. A daughter of Generation A. Died of
nephritis. Had only one child.

* Dr. Rutherfurd tells me that in severalinstances, in both Pedigrees
A and B, he has had to rely upon the oral tradition of the family for his
information.—[Ep1rTor. ]

174 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8. Nothing is known of them,
except that they did not die of nephritis. Their sex,
and the families of some of them are shown in the
pedigree.

No. 7 had no family ; Nos. 6 and 8 had families, but
no information was forthcoming as to them.

No. 3. Died of nephritis. Female.

No. 5. Married twice. Had twins twice (i.e., Nos.
18—19, 20—21, Generation C) by her second husband.
Seemingly did not die of nephritis.

No. 9. Eldest daughter of Generation A. Suffered
from vesical calculi and died of nephritis.

GENERATION C.

No. 1. The only child of No. 1, Generation B. Not
known to have died of nephritis.

Nos. 2—17 and 23—26. Not known to have died
of nephritis or to have had vesical calculi.

Nos. 18—19 and 20—21 were both sets of twins.
All four died young.

Nos. 27—28, and 29—30 were twins. Of these Nos.
27, 28, and 29 died young. The other was still living in
1911 and was then twenty-six years of age.

GENERATION D.

No. 1. Grand-daughter of No. 1, B Generation, who
died of nephritis. The present subject suffered from
vesical calculi, incontinence of urine, and varicose veins.
She is about thirty-eight years of age.

Nos. 2 and 3—9. No details known. Not known to
have suffered from nephritis or vesical calculi.

Nos. 10 and 11. Twin children. No. 11 died young.
No. 10 was still living in 1911 and was then nine years
old.

GENERATION E.

Nos. 1—4. No details known. Not known to have
died of or suffered from nephritis or vesical calculi.

Nos. 5, 7, 8, and 14 died in infancy from fits. No. 8,
in addition, had a malformed cranium. Nos. 6 and 10
were stillborn.

No. 9. Had fits in infancy, and has suffered from
Raynaud’s disease.

OCCURRENCE OF TWINS 175

Nos. 11 and 12 were twins. There were two after-
births. Both had fits in infancy. Both living in 1911,
and then nine years of age.

No. 13. Suffered from laryngismus stridulus.

EXPLANATION OF PEDIGREE A.
OCCURRENCE OF TWINS IN SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS.

The symbols and numbers have the same significance
as in the Pedigree for Lenticular Cataract (p. 172). The
solid black symbols indicate twins, where the sex is
known. Where tradition was defective, as in Nos. 18,
19, 20, and 21, C Generation, the thickened fraternal
(vertical) lines have the same meaning.

Symbols with cross hatching indicate persons who
have had nephritis or vesical calculi or both.

d.y. = died young.

if. |= suffered from fits in infancy.

if.d. = died from fits in infancy.

I.U. = incontinence of urine.

L.S. = suffered from laryngismus stridulus.
Ne. = died of nephritis.

R.D. = suffered from Raynaud's disease.
st. = stillborn.

E; = twins.

V.C. = suffered from vesical calculi.

V.V. = suffered from varicose veins.

PEDIGREE B.
OCCURRENCE OF TWINS IN SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS.

In this clanship of thirteen families, twins have
occurred in no less than six, eight sets of twins having
been born to these six families. In five of the families
twins occurred only once, but in the other family of the
twin-bearing group twins were born thrice.

Unlike the case shown in Pedigree A, there is in
this one no uniform tendency to the production of
twins only towards the end of the family. In one case
only of the six is this shown, 7.e., in Nos. 64 and 65,
Generation D. In the other families they occur indiff-
erently. Nos. 18 and 19, 27 and 28, Generation D occur
near the beginning of the family in each case, appearing

176 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

in both families at the third birth. Nos. 13—14, Gener-
ation C, occur in the middle of a large family, and Nos.
27—28, and 31—32, and 37—38 of the same generation,
were pretty uniformly arranged throughout the household
of twenty-one children.

In this Pedigree, too, there is a further difference
as compared with Pedigree A. In the present case,
the twin-bearing capacity seems evidently capable of
transmission through the male as well as through the
female, and not exclusively through the latter as in
Pedigree A. From the construction of the Chart it
seems clear that the quality of producing twins came
from Generation B, though no member of that generation
was one of twins. And this generation must equally
have inherited it from one or other parent in Genera-
tion A, concerning which little is known. But in
Generation B, No. 4, a male ‘transmitted the twin-
bearing capacity which is manifested in Generation C,
in Nos. 27—28, 31—32, and 37—38. In the case of all
the other members of B Generation, however, the quality
was transmitted by the female. And in Generation C it
was similarly transmitted by females.

THe Facts OF THE PEDIGREE.
GENERATION A.

Nos. land 2. The common ancestors of the thirteen
families shown in this pedigree.

GENERATION B.

Nos. 1—4. Nothing of importance was ascertained.
This is an interesting family group, as every member of
it has transmitted what has been described above as the
quality of producing twins.

GENERATION C.

Nos. 1—8. Of these children, the two at the last
birth but one were female twins.

No. 9. A male child. Was burnt to death in chila-
hood. This is merely recorded here as presumptive
evidence of parental neglect.

Nos. 10, 12, and 16. A male and two females respec-
tively. Nothing of importance at present known.

OCCURRENCE OF TWINS 177

No. 11. <A female. Became insane, and is in an
asylum. She had an illegitimate child, z.e., No. 2 of
D Generation, before marriage. This child is an epileptic.

Nos. 13 and 14 were female twins. No. 13 is eccentric.

No. 15. A female; also eccentric.

Nos. 17—43. Of most of these there is nothing at
present worthy of record. The chief features of impor-
tance are two :—

First : Nos. 27—28, 31—32, and 37—38 were twins.
Nos. 27—28 were female twins; Nos. 37—38
were male twins, and Nos. 31—32 were dissimilar
in sex.

Second: Of the huge family (Nos. 23—43) of twenty-
one members, only two are alive, 7.e., one daughter
in the first pair of twins, and one other child, most
of them having died early.

GENERATION D.

No. 1. Nothing of importance as yet to record.

No. 2. An epileptic and illegitimate child.

Nos. 3—15. Of the twelve children of this family,
ten are now dead and several were stillborn.

Nos. 16—24. Nothing to record, except that Nos.
18 and 19 were female twins.

Nos. 25—33. Nothing of importance to record,
except that Nos. 27 and 28 were twins of dissimilar sex.
Both were stillborn. Nos. 29 and 32 were also stillborn.

Nos. 34—48. Nothing to record from the point of
view of the subject under present consideration.

Nos. 49—59. Of these eleven children four are dead.

Nos. 60—65. Nothing to record except that Nos.
64 and 65 were female twins.

EXPLANATION OF PEDIGREE B.

The symbols and numbers have the same significance
as in the Pedigree for Lenticular Cataract (p. 172), and
in Pedigree A for Twins (p. 175). The cross-hatched
symbols, however, have here a different significance.
They indicate insanity or epilepsy.

fic.|, + == eecentric.

Ep. = epileptic.

M

178 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

1; = dead. The figure preceding the D indicates
the number dead.
Il. = illegitimate.
J = twins.
Sev. st. = several stillborn,
st. = stillborn.

PEDIGREE C.

In Pedigree C we have the results of a study of the
inter-relationships of four twin-bearing stocks, among
which twin births may be seen to have occurred at least
ten times.

A reference to the chart will show how a man (B. 5),
whose sister (B. 7) was grandmother of homosexual male
twins (D. 66 and 67), marries a woman (B. 15) two of
whose nieces (C. 20, 22) had each given birth to twins
(D. 75, 76; and 77, 78). Of this union there was an only
child, a daughter (C. 8), who in her turn married into a
didymogenous stock, her husband (C. 7) having a brother
(C. 2) in whose family there were twins (D. 17 and 18),
and two sisters (C. 4 and 6) who were each parents of twin
children (D. 25, 26; and 31, 32). This second pair had
ten children (D. 41—50), and their youngest child—by some
curious instinct or fatality—again married into a twin-
bearing stock, her husband’s uncle (C. 10) being a father of
twins (D. 63, 64). One can hardly be surprised at learning
that on the normal termination of her second pregnancy,
in July of 1910, she was delivered of twin children (E. 6, 7).

It is not necessary in this case to go over the individual
members of these families with the same detail as has been
given to pedigrees A and B of this series, for a glance at
the accompanying chart is really all that is required to
place one in possession of the main facts of the case. The
symbols, letters, and numbers have the same significance
as in the other pedigrees.

It will be seen, however, that in many instances the
sex-symbols are not filled in for this case. But where in
the compiling of a pedigree of this sort too minute and
particular enquiry is made as to non-essentials, it is at a
risk of wearying or irritating the various persons who have
to be interviewed and questioned with a view to arriving
at the facts, a result which in my own experience has more

PEDIGREE OF TWINS. FAMILY B

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oO ox exo eo
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PEDIGREE OF TWINS. FAMILY C
3. 4
lg xO DxO
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PEDIGREE OF TWINS. FAMILY D

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YI O

13

OCCURRENCE OF TWINS 179

than once ended in a refusal to supply any details at all.
Even when information as to sex has been obtained, it has
not always been considered worth recording here ; for in
the interests of accuracy not only should this be given in
the diagram, but the chart should at the same time display
the exact position in which the individual comes in the
sequence of births, so far, of course, as the statements of
therelatives, or whoever else the details are being gathered
from, may be relied on in the matter.

PEDIGREE D.

In this pedigree may be found the details of the
descendants of two allied stocks (A. 1 and 2, 3 and 4),
each of which shows a strong tendency to plural births.

In the family of A. 1 and 2, there were quadruplets in
Generation B. among seven persons* ; in Generation C.
(omitting the offspring of No. 7 B.) there were three pairs
of twins among ten individuals, and in Generation D.
twins occurred once among some seven children. Among
the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of A. 3 and 4
(omitting the descendants of B. 8) twins occurred once
and twice respectively out of eight and fourteen
children.

The branch produced by intermarriage of these two
families, and which begins with Generation B, 7 and
8, gave birth, out of a total of seventeen descendants, to
three pairs of twins, all of whom appear in Generation D.

To put it in another way, in the common stem and
among its collaterals on both sides of the house, there
have been no fewer than eleven plural births in these
three generations.

EXPLANATION OF PEDIGREE D.

The symbols, letters, and numbers have the same
significance as in the other Pedigrees of Twins, but Q. here
means quadruplets.

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE Four PEDIGREE CHARTS.

Each of the four families, the details of which are
displayed on the accompanying charts (A—D), is selected
as giving a different aspect of the subject with regard to

* The quadruples did not live.

180 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

the inheritance of the twinning tendency. In the first
pedigree (A.) it will be seen how, in the family stock dealt
with, the twin births tended without exception to be
produced at or towards the end of the family. This is
certainly the case in some clanships, twins being borne by
multipare whose fecundity is tending towards exhaustion ;*
but in others this is not so, and taking all cases together,
the incidence is pretty much as might be expected were
the liability to twinning spread equally over all the births,
the divergencies met with in any given series being, on the
whole, such as might reasonably be expected to occur in
random samples of small size.

Apart from statistics it may be stated in a general way
that twins tend to be born when the mother is advanced
in years, and that where it occurs otherwise there will
probably be found to have been a strong hereditary
tendency to twinning either among the women’s own
relations or among those of the father of the children.

In the thirteen households dealt with in pedigree B.
there are six families in which twins are present, and such
are seen to have occurred altogether eight times in these
six families. In one of these families the tendency to the
plural births has been supplied through the male parent :
probably here in each instance the twins arose from a
single ovum, the male germ-cell having in it some property
capable of inducing want of cohesion between the two cells
which result from the first division of the fertilised ovum,
these two separated cells then going on in independent
development to the formation from each of a new in-
dividualt. From the identity of the germ-plasm from
which they thus arose these twins were of the same sex in
two of the three cases in this family, though it is certainly a

* Another way of looking at the question is to consider the relative
liability to twinning at the first birth in the case of women at different ages,
and it would appear that the more elderly a woman is the greater is the
liability for her to begin by bearing twins. “* Prinzing gives the percentage
of twin labours in elderly primipare as 4°14 per cent. The percentage is
2-96 in primipare under 20, 3°54 in women from 20 to 25, and 3-9 in women
from 25 to 30.”—Brit. Med. Journ., April 20, 1912, p. 912.

+ In connection with certain of the details on this chart it may be re-
marked that, as I have elsewhere pointed out (Glasgow Medical Journal,
June, 1910), there are reasons for believing that the tendency to twin
births is much more marked in families in whose composition there runs a
strongly inherited neuropathic strain than it is among the general population.

OCCURRENCE OF TWINS 181

difficulty that in the third case the sexes were dissimilar.
“In twin-bearing women the ovaries, according to
Hellin, contain an unusually large number of ovisacs, a
persistence, in fact, of the foetal character of the glands.’’*
Olshausen,t cn the other hand, considers that the here-
ditary tendency to twin pregnancies depends more prob-
ably on an unusual number of the follicles in one ovary
coming to maturity at the same time than on an abnormal
redundancy of ova occurring in the same follicle, which
is still another of the suggestions that have been made.
Obviously none of these reasons can hold where the
twinning tendency in a family comes via the father of the
children, as it has done in this case.

In the third chart (pedigree C.) are to be seen four
distinct, and so far as is known, otherwise unrelated
twinning stocks, which have intermarried- so that in the
fourth generation of descent there is a household of three
children into whose composition there may be supposed
to enter the potentialities of all these four stocks. This
affinity of like for like in the selection of a mate has been
dignified by the name of assortative mating, and has
hitherto been recognised as occurring mainly in the case of
degenerative conditions ; persons coming from alcoholic,
tuberculous, epileptic, insane and otherwise neuropathic
stocks seeming often to have a strange perversity for
marrying into a family where a similar taint exists.
What the fundamental instinctive bias underlying this
phenomenon may be it is difficult to say, but such a
selection in mating is certainly not of a conscious nature.
It is of interest to realise that the same tendency may exist
in the case of such states as we are at present consider-
ing, which do not fall into the category of the degeneracies.

A further illustration of the tendency to assortative
mating where the tendency to didymogeny exists is
given in the last chart of this series (pedigree D). This,
however, is in its way one of the most remarkable charts
in my collection; the tendency to plural births here being
so strong that one woman had borne twins thrice in her
six pregnancies, while another, married to a man from

* Cited by Ballantyne, in Allbutt and Playfair’s System of Gynecology,
1896, p. 66.
+Zentralblatt fiir Gyndk., No. 4, 1905.

182 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

a twin-bearing stock and becoming pregnant five times,
gave birth to twins twice. It would almost look as
if, in a stock like this (and especially in one produced by a
union of two such families as are here shown), the twinning
tendency might be capable—even in the human subject—
of segregation as a definite unit-character. This, however,
is but conjecture.

Some Mendelian Considerations arising
from the Pedigree on Lenticular Cataract

BY THE EDITOR,

Two features seem clear in the Pedigree of Lenticular
Cataract described by Dr. Rutherfurd. First, it is not a
case of simple Mendelian inheritance. Second, the
segregation of affected and non-affected members is
quite clean. Dr. Rutherfurd made an examination of
the eyes of some of the unaffected persons and though
they were of the age, or in some cases older, than other
members of the same generation in which the defect
had appeared, they themselves manifested no sign of
cataract. In as far therefore as we have this clean
segregation of affected and non-affected individuals the
pedigree exemplifies a Mendelian mode of inheritance.
We may next consider the complexities it presents
from the Mendelian standpoint. In the first place, the
affected persons produce an offspring containing both
affected and non-affected. This is the case whether
both parents are affected, as Nos. 14 and 21 in generation
B, or whether one parent only presents the defect as
with No. 19 and his wife in the C generation. Now,
this being the case, on a simple Mendelian basis we should
regard the normal condition as being recessive and the
defective as a dominant character. But then the normal
parents cannot, in a simple Mendelian case, produce
affected offspring. The fact that this has occurred
in a son of No. 2, A generation, and in a daughter of
Nos. 3 and 4 of the same generation, all of them being
normal parents, clearly shows this case to be complicated
by the presence of two or more congenital factors.
Something of a very similar nature is shown in several
of Mr. Nettleship’s pedigrees of cases of retinitis pig-
mentosa. There normal parents produce some affected
offspring, and affected parents also produce a mixed
offspring of affected and unaffected members. Many

184 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

of Mr. Nettleship’s cases are interesting and
suggestive, for they show that the abnormal condition
may skip a generation.* That is probably the meaning,
in the pedigree described by Dr. Rutherfurd, of the
appearance of the affected individual No. 21, in generation
B, who was the daughter of two unaffected parents.
Had we known her grandparents’ history, it is probable
there would have been evidence of cataract forthcoming.
A glance at the history of No. 14 in the B generation
renders this consideration almost a certainty. No. 14
himself is affected, but both his parents were normal.
Nothing is known of his grandparents. But his uncle
No. 1, A, was an affected person. There is thus clear
history of the existence of the disease in the family,
and it may be regarded as certain that if more were known
of the history of Nos. 3 and 4, A, the existence of cataract
would be manifested somewhere among the members of
their family. We can therefore hardly regard No. 21 B,
as manifesting a mutation, since it is probable that her
defect has not arisen de novo, as Dr. Rutherfurd postu-
lates.

There is another point of interest in Mr. Nettleship’s
pedigrees. In a relatively large number of cases the
disease has appeared in the offspring of consanguineous
marriages. The disease, however, can always be traced
back to an ancestral stock. The relatively frequent
appearance of the disease in cousin’ marriages
suggests that the disease may be due to the presence
of not one but of several factors. The association of
these factors in the same individuals is, of course,
more likely to occur in the cousin marriages of an affected
stock than in marriages among individuals selected at
random from the general population. If the congenital
diseases, retinitis pigmentosa and lenticular cataract,
are due to the presence in the same individual of two or
more factors, the presence only of any one of these
factors being insufficient to cause the disease, then we
have an explanation of unaffected pairs of parents, as
well as of pairs in which one or both parents are affected,
producing a mixed offspring of abnormal and normal

* See Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital Reports, vol. xvii., part i.,
1907, pages 19 and 20, Figs. 16, 16a, 19, and 20.

LENTICULAR CATARACT 185

individuals. On that basis the phenomena can _ be
brought into line with Mendelian principles. The
existence of characters which depend upon the simul-
taneous operation of two or more factors is not an idle _
hypothesis. It is a practically demonstrated fact in the
coat colour of animals and the petal colour of flowers.
In peas, for instance, we know of actual cases where
coloured parents will produce white-flowered members
among their offspring in addition to coloured individuals.
There we have the analogy of the appearance of a mixed
offspring in the progeny of parents, one or both of whom
are affected with lenticular cataract or retinitis pig-
mentosa. On the other hand, we can seek the analogy
for the appearance of affected members from parents
unaffected with either of these diseases, in the crossing
of the white races of Emily Henderson sweet peas, which
give coloured individuals among their offspring. But it
has been shown that though these two races are identical
in having white flowers, they are really two different
races. One is characterised by having round pollen-
grains and the other by oval pollen-grains. If the
members of the oval-pollened race are self-fertilised or
fertilised inter se, only white-flowered offspring result.
And similarly for the round-pollened race. But if the
round-pollened white race be crossed with the oval-
pollened white race, some coloured members are produced
among their offspring.

Now if we knew nothing of the existence of characters
dependant upon the simultaneous presence in the body
of the same individual of two determining factors, the
production of coloured-flowered plants in the offspring
of two white parents could not be interpreted on Mendelian
lines. There is no reason to doubt that many human
qualities and characters depend upon the co-ordinate
action and simultaneous presence of several factors.
Eliminate one only of the many factors required for the
normal manifestation of such a human character and
abnormality of greater or less degree will be exhibited.
It matters little how that elimination may be brought
about ; it may be gametic or zygotic in origin. Now it is
a significant fact that many of these family histories of
retinitis pigmentosa and lenticular cataract belong to

186 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

stocks which manifest more or less obvious degeneracy.
Mr. Nettleship regards retinitis pigmentosa as itself a
degeneracy.* The degeneracy in the stock may take
various forms. It may not always be retinitis pigmentosa
or lenticular cataract. We may have three or four
generations without these specific diseases showing
themselves, and then apparently quite suddenly they
appear. But an examination of many of the pedigrees
of retinitis pigmentosa reveals the existence of other
degeneracies, such as deafness of various degrees, and
when complete associated with dumbness ; of congenital
idiocy, many varieties of mental deficiency, insanity,
epilepsy, and progressive paralysis; of polydactylism,
remains of the hyaloid artery, congenital cataract,
conical cornea, and coloboma. iridis.t

What is the meaning of this association between
certain eye defects and these degenerate traits? It is too
common to permit us to dismiss it as an accidental or
coincidental phenomenon. We believe the ultimate
explanation will be found in somatic segregation. Gametes
may carry into the zygote the same group of factors and
yet the zygotic manifestation may be very different in
different cases.

Let us take for instance the case of deafness. What
is deafness ? It may be produced by a variety of causes.
We may leave out of consideration the cases of middle-ear
disease and confine ourselves to physiological defects or
structural imperfections of the internal ear and of the
auditory centre in the brain. Now it is conceivable that
deafness may be produced in one of two ways. In the
first, some essential group of nerve cells in the brain or
in the auditory epithelium may be absent. In the
second place, these nerve cells may all be present and yet
their physiological activities may be inhibited by the
presence of some inhibiting factor. Let us deal with the
second consideration. Suppose in some cases, that in
the course of somatic cell divisions, this inhibitory factor
became part of the nuclear contents of the cells of the
auditory centre in the brain, or of the cells of the auditory
epithelium. The individual would then be deaf.
Suppose, however, that in the course of these somatic cell

* Op. cit. p. 342. ft Op. cit. p. 343.

.LENTICULAR CATARACT 187

divisions, the inhibitory factor fell not into the nerve
cells of the auditory centre, but into those of the cerebral
cortex, inducing inhibition either of development or of
physiological activity of those nerve cells which give us
our intelligence, then the individual would be not deaf,
but an idiot, a lunatic, or a mental defective, or would
manifest some other form of mental degeneracy. But
suppose further that it fell not into either of these groups
of nerve cells, but into the connective tissue cells of the
retinal epithelium, then we should have _ retinitis
pigmentosa.*

Of this disease, of cataract, of deafness due to nervous
lesions, and of insanity a general proposition may be
made. The existence of some definite chemical compound
can be conceived as setting up the specific changes in
the various tissues concerned. We know that locomotor
ataxy is due to degenerations of the nerve tissues
of the spinal cord and is followed by an_ over-
growth of connective tissue, set up by the specific
poison produced from the body fluids by the
presence of the syphilis spirochete. There is nothing
improbable in supposing that the overgrowth of the
connective tissue of the retina, by which its percep-
tive nerve cells become disorganised, is similarly produced
by the formation of some subtle chemical compound.
The elemental factors of this compound may be
introduced separately by the parental gametes. If the
gametes of one parent carry only one factor of the com-
pound and the gametes of the other parent are normal,
that is, carries none of the factors, then the individual
born of such parents will be apparently quite normal
as regards this disease, yet all the while carrying one of
the pathological factors which in union with the com-
plementary factors will result in a manifestation of the
disease. But if this apparently normal person marries
another apparently normal person whose gametes,
however, carry the complemental factor or factors,

* Of course in this case, the factor need not be an inhibiting factor, it
might be an exciting factor stimulating overgrowth of the retinal tissue.
Or we may suppose that the natural growth of connective tissue is itself
inhibited under normal circumstances, at an appropriate time. In this
case the factor causing retinitis pigmentosa may be an inhibiting factor
which inhibits the normal inhibiting factor of growth.

188 THE MENDEL. JOURNAL

then from two apparently healthy people, there may
thus be produced some affected offspring.

The same considerations apply to cataract and
to the degeneracies sometimes associated with these
abnormalities. They are not simple attributes. They
are doubtless characters of a complex nature. Until
we are able to determine precisely the nature and number
of the factors which when present simultaneously in
the lens of the eye, produce cataract, we cannot predict
the precise mode of descent of the abnormality, nor
indicate the percentage of offspring in whom it should
be present or absent. But that we have clean segregation
of the normal from the abnormal, as shown by Dr.
Rutherfurd’s observations, is as far as it goes, very good,
if incomplete, evidence of Mendelian inheritance.

The question of ‘anticipation,’ as Mr. Nettleship
and others have called it, and which Dr. Rutherfurd
describes in the paragraph entitled ‘‘ General Con-
siderations,” is of great interest and deserves fuller
consideration in the light of recent Mendelian research.
We do not, however, now propose to further consider it.

Some Sociological Considerations
Bearing on Infantile Mortality:

A Study of Pedigrees by the Editor.

THERE are five points of interest in Dr. Rutherfurd’s
Pedigree of ‘‘ Twins” (A). A glance down the lines of
generations shows at once that so far as this clanship is
concerned, the inherent tendency to beget twins is trans-
mitted by the females.* It was evidently present in
several of the females of Generation B. For instance,
Nos. 5 and 9 both had twins among their own children.
No. | had only one child, and so, although the tendency
to twinning may have been carried by her, there was
no chance of its manifesting itself. But that she did
probably inherit the character is shown by the presence
of twins in her great-grandchildren, z.c., Nos. 11 and
12 in the E Generation.

Coming back to No. 5 inthe B Generation, we notice,
as already alluded to, that twins appeared among her
own children. There were two pairs, Nos. 18 and 19,
20 and 21, in the C Generation. But one of her daughters
(No. 22 C), not herself a member of twins, had nine
children, and among them a pair of twins.

The second point of interest turns around the question :
Is there any evidence of the segregation of the twin-
producing capacity from the absence of it? The part
of the Pedigree which apparently manifests the existence
of this segregation is with the woman No. 3, B Generation.
She had eight children and none of them twins. But we
are bound to ask ourselves: Would she have had twins
had her family been larger? As Dr. Rutherfurd has
pointed out, there is an apparent tendency shown

* In several others of Dr. Rutherfurd’s Pedigrees, the twin-producing
quality is sometimes transmitted by the male. (See Pedigree B.
No. 4. B Generation. )

190 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

in some, but not all,* of the charts in his collec-
tion for twins to be produced in the later part of
married life, and the probability therefore exists that had
this woman had any further children some of them might
have been twins. A glance at the other twin-bearing
fraternities in this Chart enables us to consider this
probability. Among the children of Nos. 5 and 9, B
Generation, and of No. 1, D Generation, the twins were
produced at the fifth, fifth and seventh births respec-
tively. This clearly suggests that the woman No. 3, B.
Generation, who had eight children, and none of them
twins, did not carry the twin-producing capacity, and
therefore represents in respect of this quality a Men-
delian segregation from a twin-producing stock. The
evidence is not, of course, conclusive. But it is certainly
significant.

The third feature of interest in this Pedigree is that
although, as I am informed by my medical colleagues at
the London Hospital, nephritis “is more common among
men than among women, on account of the greater ex-
posure to which they are subjected,” yet if we trace the
descent of it through the members of the Pedigree it will
be noticed that only females suffered from this disease or
from one of its manifestations, vesical calculi. Now we
may doubt whether mere exposure is sufficient by itself to
produce nephritis. Doubtless if the inherent tendency
to contract it is there, exposure will hasten or determine
its manifestation. But in this clanship the evidence
shows a definite hereditary tendency to acquire the
disease, which seems present in some and absent in others.
There is no reason, for instance, to believe that the woman
No. 1, C Generation, was less exposed in her life to con-
ditions supposed to be favourable to the production of
nephritis than her mother and one of her daughters, who
both contracted it. She herself apparently never suffered
from the disease, but nevertheless transmitted one of its
manifestations to one of her daughters.

The fourth feature of interest is the large proportion
of females which this clanship produces. Out of a total
of thirty-nine people whose sex has been ascertained,

* See for instance Pedigree B, where the earlier children are sometimes
twins,

INFANTILE MORTALITY 19t

twenty-six are females and thirteen males. But there are
twenty-four individuals in the chart with unknown sex,
and it is probable that they would have redressed the
balance had their sex been known. We cannot, therefore,
conclude that this clanship had a tendency to produce a
large proportion of females. Roughly speaking, in normal
cases the sexes are about equal in numbers.*

The fifth feature of interest has an important socio-
logical bearing. There are a great number of people,
mainly medical men in Government or parochial official
positions, or who contemplate occupying such positions,
who are making a great outcry concerning the rate of
infantile mortality among the lower social classes. They
urge the creation of more officials and the spending of
public money in order to minimise or avert this mortality.
But in their pleas they never allude to the primary and
crucial consideration, as to whether the race which they
desire to save is, from the civic and ethical standpoints,
worth the outlay of a sixpence. From the economic
standpoint it can be shown that many of the people whom
they would save by the outlay of thousands of pounds
are not worth five pounds apiece. But we are not con-
cerned with the economic but the biological worth of these
races. Now let us glance at this Pedigree, and bear in
mind that it is by no means as bad in the biological de-
fectiveness which it manifests as many of the Pedigrees
of this class of citizens with which we are acquainted. We
have seen far worse in our workhouse investigations.
Notwithstanding that it is a better pedigree than some,
nevertheless, it everywhere manifests signs of low
vitality. Of the twelve twins, as Dr. Rutherfurd has
pointed out, only four are alive. The others died young.
Of the ten children in the present generation, four died
in fits in infancy, two were stillborn, one has Raynaud's
disease, and one suffers from laryngismus stridulus.
Now Raynaud’s disease and laryngismus are both diseases
indicative of nerve degenerations or abnormalities.

From the standpoint of national welfare and virility
is it common-sense, or is it even humanitarianism, to go
out of our way to save the offspring of such a stock, and

* See, however, Editorial Note, page 193.

192 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

thereby to multiply human weakness and defectiveness
and increase the sum total of human misery, which is
their correlative outcome ? I plead that it is nobler and
sounder statesmanship to leave things alone.

We see again in Dr. Rutherfurd’s Pedigree B
the same fact of sociological significance obtruded
on our notice that a high rate of infantile
mortality is the expression of a weak, defective,
and lowly viable stock.* Let us glance at the family
Nos. 25—33, in Generation D. There were nine children,
and of these four, or nearly fifty per cent., had such
a weak hold on life that they were stillborn. No doubt
some sentimental people would say, “‘ Poor children ;
their mother had a hard time! It was her struggle with
adversity that weakened her constitution and destroyed
the viability of her seed.’ That, too, might be pleaded
for the illegitimate, epileptic child, No. 2, D Generation.

Such contentions were doubtless very plausible thirty
or twenty years ago, but they have no validity now. Our
knowledge of inheritance is too clear to justify such pleas.
For, quite apart from the fact that stillborn children are
born of mothers, as in the family shown in Pedigree
Chart, No. II., Nos. 2—7, Generation F,, p. 21, Mendel
Journal, No. 1, October, 1909, who live a normal, healthy,
country life, and are of well-to-do Middle-Class standing,
there is the obvious record of the unstable nature of the
stock we are considering. For the mother, No. 13, Genera-
tion C, was eccentric, her sister, No. 11, was insane, and
another sister, No. 15, was eccentric.

Almost everywhere through the Pedigree we see the
same manifestation of low viability. There is the family
Nos. 23—43, of twenty-one members, in Generation C.
Of these only two are alive! And yet, had this been a
vigorous stock, the majority of them should now be in
the prime of life.

* In answer to my inquiry, Dr. Rutherfurd informs me that the social
class of all the persons in his pedigrees was low. They were navvies, coal-
miners, cotton-weavers, scavengers, old age pensioners, &c. This
has an obvious significance when read with the facts of the pedigree.—
[Eprror. ]

+ Only two are indicated on the chart, but that is the artist’s error in
copying the original. The twins 27 and 28 were also both stillborn. See
the ‘‘ Facts of the Pedigree,” page 177.

INFANTILE MORTALITY 193

Again, we note in the family Nos. 3—15, Generation
D, there were thirteen children, but ten are dead and
several were stillborn. The mother is insane. Before
her marriage she had an illegitimate child, which is
epileptic.

In family Nos. 49—59, Generation D, there were
eleven children, but four are dead. A glance through
this Pedigree and through the preceding Pedigree A will
reveal at once the large number of gaps where Dr.
Rutherfurd was unable to obtain any information as to
the sex of the members concerned. In the present
Pedigree there is a total of one hundred and eight indi-
viduals, and of these sixty-five are of unknown sex.
Everyone who is familiar with Pedigree collecting and
construction knows that this absence of specific informa-
tion as to sex is an indication that the children died early,
and their sex is forgotten by the family which knew them.*

Now, considering all these facts together, it is clear
there is shown in this Chart a clanship of defective and
weak families.f There is no inherent vigour in the
majority of the individuals of which these families consist.
They never can, under any circumstances, make desirable,
useful, or beautiful citizens. Where, then, we are im-
pelled once more to ask, is the common-sense or the
humanitarianism of making conscious and extremely
expensive efforts to lower the death-rate of the infants of
a stock like this? Do we want to rear a nation of
miserable families, so utterly non-viable that half its
members cannot even be born alive? And yet that is
the path of national degradation and decline along which
an army of sentimentalists and of medical officials seeking
to justify their salaried positions are attempting to lead
this nation.

There is yet one other point of apparently sinister
significance which should not be overlooked. It is a well-
known fact that although on an average there are an
equal number of males and females born, yet more male
infants die than females. That leaves us, even under -

* Dr. Rutherfurd tells me that is the true interpretation of most of
the blanks in his charts. But in some cases the patience of his informants
became exhausted, and he had to content himself with getting the
essential facts and letting the sex of wnaffected persons go.—[EDITor. |

7 See also “Coroner and a Biological Fact,’’ p. 205.

N

194 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

normal conditions, with a population having an excess of
females. In our present population of about forty
millions the females exceed the males by about one and a
half millions. That is not a very great excess from the
standpoint of proportion.

But when we deal not with a normal population, but
with such an abnormal class like that shown in Dr.
Rutherfurd’s Pedigrees A and B, as already noted, there
seems, indeed, to be a very great excess of females. In
Pedigree A there is a total of twenty-six females, thirteen
males, and twenty-four of unknown sex. In Pedigree B
there are twenty-eight females, sixteen males, and sixty-
five of unknown sex. In the two families, then, is a total
of one hundred and seventy-one individuals, of which
eighty-nine are of unknown sex, fifty-four are females,
and twenty-eight are males. Now if these proportions
-are indicative of some peculiarity correlated with a
defective stock, it would seem that through our senti-
mentality we are going to rear a nation so constituted
that there will be two women to each man! If this is
to be the outcome of an artificially-reduced infantile
mortality, we shall eventually have a nation of cripples
and two-thirds of them females !

But is the premiss based on these two pedigrees
applicable to other degenerate stocks ? Do other races,
showing some other type of degeneracy, also produce this
great excess of females ? I do not believe it will be found
a rule applicable generally, for in two other of Dr. Ruther-
furd’s charts of twins, namely, C and D, there are respec-
tively twenty-one females and thirty-seven males, and
twenty-seven females and thirty-one males. Here we
have an excess of males surviving. But we can examine
the question from the facts given by other types of degene-
rate stocks. During the best part of the year 1910and the
latter part of 1909, I was in charge of a small Committee
of Workers, organised by the Eugenics Education Society,
and we were occupied in hunting through workhouse
records and in interviewing paupers and their relatives.
By dint of hard work and patience we got together a
large pedigree going through six generations.* The por-
tion of the stock which JI was able personally to examine

* Eugenics Education Review, Nov., 1910, Vol. II., No. 3, page 186.

INFANTILE MORTALITY 195

was defective in many civic qualities, and to some extent
in physical qualities. Leaving out a few people whom we
cannot regard as produced within the stock and a few
whose sex we could not ascertain, there were in this
pedigree of paupers, sixty-nine males and _ fifty-eight
females. But it is to be noted that this stock did not
show any heavy rate of infantile mortality. In that
respect it approximated pretty nearly to the normal of the
nation as a whole. Another pauper pedigree* which I
have examined, in which five children died in infancy and
three were stillborn, gave among the survivors ten males
and eight females. Here we have a manifestation of low
viability, and yet the males and not the females are in
excess. In another pedigree of paupers, published by
Mr. E. 8S. Lidbetter,+ which contains a total of one
hundred and eleven persons,{ forty-five are males and
thirty-two are females. That the stock is of low viability
is shown by the fact that more than twenty per cent. died in
infancy,|| and of those who remained seventeen died of
some tubercular disease or from fits, or were lunatics or
imbeciles. This by no means represents the worst of the
stock, for I have left out many who died in the infirmary
from diseases not specified on the chart.

But from the standpoint of our present inquiry the
general fact seems obvious that a degenerate stock does
not always—as in Dr. Rutherfurd’s two pedigrees—beget
or preserve an excess of females. Indeed, the workhouse
pedigrees and two of his unpublished charts seem to give
an excess of males.

The subject deserves further inquiry, but it is not
within the scope of our present purpose to pursue it
further.

* Kugenics Education Review, Noy., 1910, Vol. II., No. 3, page 218.

+ Op. cit., page 228.

t This includes twenty-one who died in infancy, and therefore mostly
of unremembered sex, and of persons introduced by marriage, neither of
whom [I have reckoned in my calculation. Introductions by marriage do
not count as haying been produced within the stock.

||Seventeen persons introduced by marriage have to be deducted
from the total of 111. }

MISCELLANEA.

Proposed Tests for Inheritance of Mental Qualities
According to Mendel’s Law.

By A: oF.

WHILE certain cases of human inheritance of physical qualities
according to Mendel’s law have been worked out (e.g., the colour
of eyes and the “ Drinkwater’’ hands), the question arises :—When
we desire to investigate the inheritance of mental qualities, what
precise mental characteristic would best be selected for such inves-
tigation ? Itis clearthatit must be a quality (a) which is distinctly
either absent or present; (5) which can in no case be essentially
modified by the environment (including thereunder all forms of
training and education.)*

It is not easy to find qualities which pass both these tests.
Facility in languages and music depend too largely on early
opportunities and surroundings, while facility in mathematics
admits of degree to such an extent that it might be equally hard
to concede or refuse to attribute it to an individual. Other mental
qualities are too complex or too transient in their manifestations.
I suggest, however, that there is a test which might easily be
applied, viz., the capacity, which in some families seems to be
congenital, of dreaming certain kinds or types of dreams. Some
people frequently dream that they fly, skimming along the
ground—this is not universal, but well known in some families ;
so is the dream of insufficient clothing (wide Du Maurier’s drawings
in Punch) ; or, better still, perhaps the dream (scarcely a dream,
rather a sleepy distress) of things growing large and small which
has been admirably described by Robert Louis Stevenson. No
one who knows the sensation could fail to recognise this descrip-
tion ; but there are people to whom it seems to be quite unknown.
In fact, in a family with which I am acquainted where the dream
is well known among the children, no relation on the mother’s
side seems to know it, though they are rather vivid dreamers ;

* It is important to remember that education cannot modify a character
which is not present. Or, if present, it cannot modify it much, unless it
possesses an innate degree of responsiveness to educational influences.
And what our correspondent is now urging is, we take it, the necessity of
discriminating between two persons both of the same inherent capacity, but
of whom one has had that capacity made the most of by favourable
educational influences and the other has not.—[{Eprror. ]

MISCELLANEA a

the father, however, knows it. In support of this suggestion, I
may add that it seems generally held that second sight goes in
families ; perhaps that, too, might be a good quality on which
to test the rules of mental inheritance.

A Note on Yellow Dun Horses and the Relation of this
, Colour to Chestnut.
By C. J. DAVIES.

I HAVE been much interested in the article on the colour of horses
in the Mendel Journal. There are one or two points in connection
with this subject which I have often thought needed closer
investigation.

It is generally assumed and has, indeed, been stated by at
least one writer (viz., Professor Wilson in ‘‘The Inheritance of
Coat Colour in Horses,” Scientific Proceedings of Royal Dublin
Society, 1910), that chestnut is recessive to all other colours,
including dun.*

Some years ago in the neighbourhood in which I then lived
were two yellow-dun pony mares, in different ownerships. By
yellow-dun I mean a yellow body colour with black mane, tail,
and dorsal stripe, black on knees, hocks, front of legs and fetlocks,
a slight shoulder stripe, and slightly barred legs.

The antecedents of the ponies were unknown. One pony was
fourteen hands high. The other was about thirteen hands high,
and was of a different type, suggesting a Mongolian pony in some
respects. Both were probably foreigners.

The smaller pony bred several bay and brown foals by bay
and brown sires. The larger pony bred three chestnut foals
(without black points) in three successive years (I think 1891,
1892, 1893, or thereabouts) to the chestnut hackney Troubadour,
then located in the Taunton district.

* Mr. C. C. Hurst arrived at the conclusion that chestnut was recessive
to bay and brown as early as 1905, but he did investigate the behaviour of
the dun coat. Mr. Hurst’s inquiry was the first which showed that coat
colour in horses does behave in accordance with Mendelian principles.
Since then (1912) Professor Wilson has examined the behaviour of the
dun coat.—{Epr1ror].

+ This observation suggests that yellow is recessive to chestnut, but
the absence of the black points in the chestnut offspring which are present
in the yellow dun mare, indicate the existence of some complication, and
we think it lends some support to Mr. Davies’ suggestion as to the
relationship between dun and brown which he describes in the next
paragragh.—|EpIror. ]

198 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

Some years ago (possibly about 1901) there was a famous
dun hackney harness horse called Dusty Miller. His owner tells
me that in colour he was what he should term a “ mealy or
biscuit dun, but he had not the zebra black stripe down his
back.”

It appears that Dusty Miller was sired by Danegzlt, a chest-
nut bred from chestnut parents, and his dam was a brown
thoroughbred mare sired by a chestnut. J have no particulars
of the colour of the g-dam.

It has occurred to me that dun and dark brown may be
intimately connected, and that brown may be of the nature of
a pattern covering dun. To try and put this more plainly:
When the brown factor is absent the horse isa dun; when it is
present the horse is a brown, the dun only showing on muzzle,
flank, inside of thighs, &c., to which parts the darker pattern
fails to extend.

I think there may be a difference in the colour of the foal coat
of browns. By dark brown I mean a very dark colour with a
yellow mark on the flank and possibly yellow on the muzzle. I
have known several foals, the progeny of two dark coloured parents
which were dark brown in the foal coat. Exmoor and other hill
pony foals are usually dark brown when the parents are this
colour. On the other hand a bay foal sometimes moults into a
brown, and I believe this is sometimes, if not always, the case when
one parent is a brown and the other bay. Such browns, however,
are in my experience of a nondescript dark bay or light brown
colour and not a rich seal brown, so perhaps they should in reality
be classified as bays. Until some definite distinction is made
between bay and brown it is impossible to analyse results. Pos-
sibly the colour of the foal coat may help to form a distinction.

These remarks are not, I fear, very enlightening ; my excuse
for making them is that it is often assumed that black points are
dominant in a cross ; and the relationship of duns and chestnuts
seems to need closer investigation, as in one case at anyrate this
does not seem to have been the case.

MISCELLANEA 199

Sex Limitation in the Inheritance of Eye-Colour in Flies*

Drosophila is a fly of common occurrence during the Summer.
It deposits its eggs in fruit and various culinary plants. The
eyes of the wild fly are dull red. It has been shown experiment-
ally by Professor T. H. Morgan, of the Zoological Laboratory,
Columbia University, that the colour is due to a mixture
of three pigments, namely, red, pink, and orange. Flies
are known which, instead of having the dull-red colour
of the species, have either a vermilion, a pink, or orange colour.
The experimental evidence leads us to believe that these
colours are produced by the loss, from the germ-cells, of one
of the three factors which make up the dull red of the
species. Vermilion, for instance, is the colour which results
when the pink factor is lost ; in other words, it is the colour due
to the presence of the two factors producing red and orange.
Similarly, the pink eye is due to loss of red, and is the
colour manifested when only pink and orange are present. The
orange eye is due to the loss of both red and pink.

It follows from this, that if a female fly with vermilion eyes
be crossed with a male having pink eyes, we should expect that
all the first generation would have the dull-red eyes of the species.
If these, then, be interbred, we should further expect that the
second generation would produce some flies with orange eyes,
together with some whose eyes will be vermilion, some red, and
some pink,

It is, however, an apparently strange fact, which has been
experimentally shown by Professor Morgan, that the first
generation consists not of flies all having red_ eyes,
but of two sex groups. Of these, all the males have
vermilion eyes and all the females red eyes. We are dealing
with a definite and obvious sex-limited character—that is to
say, that the character of sex is in some way definitely bound
up with the presence of another character. This character
is pinkness, for as we have seen, the vermilion colour is red minus
pink. In other words, the males of the first hybrid generation
whose eyes are all vermilion-coloured lack pinkness, while the
females all having the red eyes therefore possess it. This is
an extremely interesting fact because it shows two things quite
incontestably. First, that qualities do not depend upon environ-
ment, because these flies are reared under the same external
conditions. Second, that sex may carry with it an association
with other qualities.

In the case just described the vermilion-eyed female was

* Further information of this complex subject will be found in the
*« Journal of Experimental Zoology.” Vol. XL, 1911.

200 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

mated to the pink-eyed male. But if the reciprocal cross be made,
namely, “ pink female ”’ by “ vermilion male,’’ ad/ the first genera-
tion, both males and females, are red-eyed.

If vermilion-eyed females be mated to pink-eyed males, the F,
generation has all its females red-eyed and all its males vermilion,
The second hybrid (F,) generation bred inter se from F, consists
of red-eyed males and females, vermilion-eyed males and
females, pink-eyed males and females, and orange-eyed males
and females. But when in the second or reciprocal cross, the
vermilion-eyed males are mated to their pink-eyed sisters, the
F, generation are all red-eyed. The F, generation derived
from F, crossed inter se, consists of red-eyed and pink-eyed
males and females, and of vermilion-eyed and orange-eyed
males. That is, the females do not manifest either the vermilion
and orange eye colour; these are the two eye colours which
are devoid of the pink factor. The females in this experiment
are therefore never devoid of the pink factor. Thus in the
F, generation of this reciprocal cross we see again the
intimate relationship of femaleness and pinkness. Some of the
males are without pinkness, the females not.

The same female sex relationship with pinkness is shown in
another way. In certain kinds of crosses, the offspring give only
half as many pink males as females, and twice as many orange
males as females.

Professor Morgan endeavours to explain the association of
femaleness with pinkness, by assuming that the factor which
determines the manifestation of the pink eye colour, is carried
only in the same chromosome that also carries the factor
which determines the female sex.

The Form of Nose and its Segregative Inheritance.

THE form of a nose doubtless depends upon many factors. But
chief among them we may suppose are the length, breadth, and
angle of inclination of the nasal bones ; the form, length, breadth,
and thickness of the nasal septum, and the degree of development
of the turbinal bones. The segregation and persistence in
families of a definite type of nose-form is a subject well worth
further study. The inheritance of this character from the
Mendelian standpoint has not yet been adequately studied.
We are able in the accompanying photograph to show what
appears to be an undoubted transmission of a very prominent
form of nose from a grandmother to a grandson. The grand-
mother (on the right of the photograph, who is now over eighty
years of age) was the wife of a gipsy and she herself came of gipsy
stock. She and her husband eventually settled in a small village

MISCELLANEA

ENGLISH v. GIPSY.

SEGREGATION OF NOSE.

202 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

in the West of England, but continued the gipsy habit of
travelling in a caravan with tinker’s goods and basket work.
They had six children, namely, two sons and _ four
daughters. Of the two sons, one was fair in complexion and
had the ‘“‘ wild ways and habits of the gipsy.” The other
was dark in complexion and married an English country-
woman of the district in which his parents had settled. She
was of fair complexion. They are shown, as husband and wife,
in the left-hand corner of the photograph. They have had four
children, namely, three girls (shown in the centre of the photo-
graph) and one son (shown standing by the right of his gipsy
grandmother, in the left corner of the group).

The gipsy grandmother has a very prominent type of nose.
It is characterised by three chief features: First, the broad base
on which the external narial apertures are lodged ; second, the
marked convexity of the contour of the bridge ; third, the well-
defined or sharp angularity of the general form. Her son’s nose
differs from hers in all three of these points. His wife’s nose is
of the more rounded type and differs very widely from that of
the gipsy grandmother (her mother-in-law). The three girl
children of these two parents clearly do not possess a nose like
that of their grandmother. The two younger daughters appear
to resemble their mother, while the oldest appears to be an inter-
mediate between her mother and father. So far then there is no
feature of any special interest.

But it is otherwise when we come to deal with the nose of
the son (grandson of the old gipsy woman). For it resembles
her’s in all three of the marked features which give to her nose
its distinctive and prominent form. The convexity of the bridge
is, perhaps, not quite so pronounced, but then he is still young,
and this is a feature likely to become accentuated with age.

Two features of Mendelian interest are shown in this group
consisting of a grandmother, two parents, and four grandchildren.
First, there is a hereditary transmission of nose type from grand-
mother to grandson, Second, there is a clean segregation of the
nose type manifested by the brother, from the contrasted nose
type or types exemplified by his three sisters.

In the absence of precise information concerning the form of
nose of the gipsy grandmother’s husband, and of their five other
children, and of the brothers and sisters of the grandmother, it is
difficult to formulate a scheme showing a definite Mendelian
inheritance in this case. But the two features alluded to in the
preceding paragraph are strongly suggestive of inheritance
according to Mendelian principles.

We are indebted to Mrs. Rose Haig Thomas for the facts of
this case, and for the photograph of the group. The responsi-
bility for the analysis and interpretation of the facts rests with us.

MISCELLANEA 203

Natural or Instinctive Eugenics.

WHEN one considers the errors committed by beings who boast
the possession of rational powers, especially the misdeeds of
politicians and social reformers, involuntarily one sometimes
wishes that men were less like themselves and more like ants.
When we contemplate the great army of foolish people for whose
preservation an even greater army of officialsis being created at
immense national expense, the mind of one reared in Victorian days
—when the biblical instructions of the Old Testament played a
larger part in national life than they do to-day—quite naturally
recalls the exhortation in Proverbs vi.: ‘‘ Go to the ant, thou
sluggard ; consider her ways and be wise: Which having no
guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the Summer, and
gathereth her foodintheharvest. . . . . Yeta littlesleep,a
little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep : So shall thy
poverty come as one that travelleth.”

The whole trend of our unbiological legislation and of the
social sentiment of a few fearsome or designing persons whose
clamant utterances are altogether out of proportion to their
importance, either in number or in merit, is to rear and per-
petuate a race of sluggards, who can achieve in life nothing more
than a ‘“‘little folding of the hands,’ whose existence is one
“long slumber,” and who can neither “‘ gather food in the harvest
nor provide meat in the Summer.”

So at last, awakened to the calamity awaiting the nation,
some citizens are endeavouring to educate the community to a
sense of its responsibility and to direct its policy along sounder
biological lines. Under prevailing circumstances this is, of
course, a wise and desirable course, always providing that the
attempt to educate does not extend beyond its legitimate limits.
For if it is intended by legislation, to enforce eugenic education
upon persons whose intellects and general capacities are incapable
of appreciating it, disaster, and not triumph, hes ahead for the
gospel of Eugenics. Any attempt to issue “marriage certificates,”
for instance, would be fatuous, and would meet with the
ridicule which it deserves.

One must deplore the fact that civilisation has carried us so
low in social and moral perception that it is now necessary to
teach Eugenics at all. How much more virile and_ free
our people would be, if the eugenic conception were an instinct,
born with us at our birth, and guiding us through life. Better
the inherent instinct than the necessarily incomplete fruit,
laboriously begotten, of a prolonged and expensive education.
There seems little eugenic instinct in civilised peoples at the pre-
sent time. One marvels when one looks at some mens’ wives,

204 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

and at some wives’ husbands. This sad condition of affairs no
doubt has always, more or less, been with us. For always we
suppose there have been hasty youths of real worth, dissi-
mulating maidens of no civic value, and fools who believed that a
Lie could endure for the remainder of their lives.

But some races seem to have instinctively possessed an eugenic
ideal. We do not allude to so-called savage tribes, such as those
described by Mr. Torday in this Journal, but to people of our own
kith and kin. Dr. Rutherfurd has been kind enough to send us
some quotations from an old book, which we think eminently
worth publishing as they afford a contrast between what we may
call the instinctive manifestation and the educative emergence of
eugenic conceptions.

Dr. Rutherfurd says: “‘ About 1725-6 a certain Captain Burt
was stationed in the Scottish Highlands in connection with the
making of General Wade’s roads. A series of quaint descriptive
letters of his were (anonymously) published in London in 1754
under the title of ‘ Letters from A Gentleman in the North of
Scotland to His Friend in London, . . . . In the fifth
letter occurs the following, which it must be remembered was
probably written about 1725 or 1726, although not published
until 1754.”

“*The Men have more Regard to the Comeliness of their
posterity, than in those Countries where a large Fortune serves to
soften the hardest Features, and even to make the Crooked
straight ; and, indeed, their Definition of a fine Woman seems
chiefly to be directed to that Purpose ; for, after speaking of her
Face, they say, ‘ She’s a fine, healthy, straight, strong, strapping
Lassie.’

‘“«T fancy now I hear one of our delicate Ladies say, ‘“ ’Tis just
so they would describe a Flanders’ Mare.” I am not for confound-
ing the Characters of the two Sexes one with another; but I
should not care to have my Son a valetudinary being, partaking
of his Mother’s nice Constitution.

““«T was once commending to a Lady of Fortune in London,
the upright, firm, yet easy Manner of the Ladies walking in Edin-
burgh. And when I had done, she fluttered her Fan, and with a
Kind of Disdain, mixed with Jealousy to hear them commended,
she said, “‘ Mr. , 1 do not at all wonder at that, they are used
to walk.”’”’

MISCELLANEA 205
The Coroner and a Biological Fact.

A cuTTING from an evening newspaper was sent to us some time
ago by a subscriber, in which appeared a report of an inquest held
at Islington.

A six-weeks-old baby had died from natural causes “ due to
heart and lung trouble.” The medical man who conducted the
post-mortem, and knew the family, said that the father of the
child was not a healthy man, and that the mother was physically
weak. In his opinion “they ought not to have had children at
all.” These two people had begotten fifteen children and only
three were alive.

The Coroner, Mr. Danford Thomas, said ‘‘ there had been a
discussion in medical circles with reference to the children of unfit
parents, and he considered that such cases ought to be gone into.”
He added : “ It is a disgraceful thing to have fifteen children and
twelve die. It is high time something was done, I am quite
sure.”

Now some of these remarks will, we feel certain, commend
themselves to everyone who loves humanity well enough to
desire to see it healthy and vigorous. We shall all endorse the
remark that it is disgraceful for such people to have fifteen chil-
dren. But personally we fail to see the disgrace in the natural
death of twelve of them. There is much to be said for the
ethics of those so-called benighted and heathen tribes in Central
Africa, described by Mr. E. Torday in another part of this
Journal.

With regard “ to the discussion in medical circles ” alluded to
by the Coroner, two facts need emphasizing. First: the rank and
file of the medical profession, namely, the general practitioners,
who daily see the consequences of human recklessness and folly, are,
we believe, dead against the modern sentiment which would delibe-
rately save these defective races. Second : there is a small mino-
rity of medical men who for some reason or another, prefer official
posts to general practice. These are the men who initiate dis-
cussions and start societies for the “‘ Ethical Salvation of Unethical
Races.” It is with them we find all sorts of panaceas more or less
plausibly advocated for the amelioration and prevention of
infantile mortality, and for the employment of other methods
of cheating a beneficient Nature. And however varied may be
the panaceas proposed there is a remarkable uniformity and
universality in one proposition which runs throughout them all
as a conspicuous and dominant thread. It never fails to show
itself. Always it is proposed that there shall be an increase of salaried
medical officials. In the long run such a policy is short-sighted
and must inevitably lower the status and endanger the best

206 THE MENDEL JOURNAL

interests of the medical profession. But with that we have
nothing todo. It lies outside the scope of this Journal. We are,
however, concerned in pointing out that an army of medical
officials, of sanitary inspectors, carrying around with them
hundredweights of new palates in gold, of teeth in enamel, of
pig’s thyroid, of baby incubators, and the other paraphernalia,
such as spectacles and free food, nurses and ambulances, that
pertain to the craft of saving the unfit, could not possibly make
those twelve lost children, derived from such a stock, worthy or
happy citizens. In anguish they were born, but in peace they
have died, for they died early. Is it kindness to save them, that
they may suffer the prolonged misery arising from civic unfitness
and the pain which springs from physical imperfectness ? Does
it reduce the ultimate or sum total of human misery, to help this
weakly-viable race prolong its existence until it can reproduce
its like 2 We who ask that these things shall be left alone are
the true lovers of humanity. We are, too, the true artists of life,
for we give an ideal transcending that false sentiment which
seeks to save life at all cost, even though by so doing it degrades it.
We seek for facile strength, surpassmg beauty, and sponta-
neous happiness. That is a true sentiment, because it is a virile
conception based on truth and the noblest love of our race.

Of course, we do not urge that these twelve children should
have been left to die in pain or to endure anguish. No good can
be served by such conduct. So long as the parents can afford to
employ medical aid under the conditions of voluntary service and
mutual contract, we do not see that anyone has a right to inter-
fere. But the moment this race comes to the State or to the Local
Authority for aid, then the Nation has the night to say : “ You are
obviously an unfit race, a burden to your community, and a
source of misery to yourselves. We will relieve your pain and
distress, but at the same time understand that your civic liberties
are much curtailed and your freedom to propagate your race is
altogether and irrevocably prohibited.” Such a policy has no
latent dangers to better citizens. It can be practically worked
without any increase of officialdom, which just now is swarming
over the land and devouring its harvest like locusts. It gives all
men a chance of maintaining themselves free if they so desire it.
Itis unaccompanied with those social dangers of momentum which
inevitably follow every attempt to exercise unnecessary compul-
sion or duress upon, or official inspection and control of the people.
Sooner or later such compulsion and control gathers velocity and
mass and ultimately affects the liberties, rights, and legitimate
privileges of the Classes. -We are afraid the Classes who initiated
free compulsory education did not recognise that fact.. And yet
it is an obvious biological truism, that as soon as we create a

MISCELLANEA | 207

parasitic official class,* it will, true to the instincts and attributes
of parasites, swarm by multiplication over the body of its host,
until at last host and parasite are both destroyed.

As soon as a hooligan or other criminal is arrested for some
felony or misdemeanour, or an unemployable seeks the shelter of
the workhouse, the Nation has a right to say: “ In the light of
modern knowledge—which endorses some of the concep-
tions of Plato—we know that the committal of crime or perennial
laziness is in many instances, perhaps in most, a manifestation of
congenital civic defectiveness. We, therefore, want to know your
history. We shall construct your pedigree, and if we find that
your race is unworthy, you and all its afflicted members shall lose
your ordinary civic liberties, and for you and your race there shall
be no further opportunity of propagation.” That is the only
sensible line to adopt towards congenital criminals and loafers.
The demagogic policy of providing concerts and lectures, and
palatial dwellings in lordly grounds, and the singing of hymns and
psalms, may be effective play to the gallery, but so far as states-
manship is concerned it is a mere casting of pearls before an
inappreciativegaudience. It certainly is not Biology applied to

Life.

The Local Government Board for Scotland and
“The Mendel Journal.’’

In Part 2 of The Mendel Journal, in the course of a reply
to Dr. Cobbett’s criticisms of a previous article in Part 1, entitled
‘A Plea for the Operation of a More Virile Sentiment in Human
Affairs,” Mr. Geo. P. Mudge described certain lamentable results
of the boarding-out system of pauper children as practised by
the Glasgow Parish Council. As a result of that article and
of the comments it called forth in the Press the Local Government
Board for Scotland sent a Commissioner to enquire into the
allegations contained in Mr. Mudge’s article. The Commissioner
issued a report last September, and a copy was forwarded to
us for publication in this Journal. Its length, however, together
with Mr. Mudge’s reply, which is long and introduces new matter,
precludes us from publishing either in this Journal. We under-
stand that it is Mr. Mudge’s intention to publish his reply
together with a copy of the Report in book form very shortly.
A brief reply was made in the chief Scotch newspapers imme-
diately after the publication of the Report.

* Of course we do not class all officials as parasites. Some, like those
of the Army, the Navy, and the Bench, are absolutely essential in al/ states
of society, whether barbaric or civilised. And we need to obtain the best
men we can for the work.

Taylor, Garnett, Evans, & Co., Ltd., Printers, London and Manchester.

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