Alfred P Schultz - Race or Mongrel (Classic Reprint)

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

The writer desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the works of Conte A. de Gobineau, Mr. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Dr. Albrecht Wirth, and Dr. Ludwig Woltman.

The writer's hearty thanks are due to E. H. and F. D.

RACE OR MONGREL

CHAPTER I

THE MONGREL IN NATURE

In scientific usage the result of a fertile cross between two distinct species is called a hybrid; the result of a fertile cross between two varieties of the same species is called a mongrel. As, however, the distinction between species and varieties is one, not of kind, but of degree, varieties being species in the nascent stage and species having aboriginally existed as varieties, the distinction between. hybrid and mongrel is also one of degree. The Latin word " hybrida " is derived from the Greek " v/3pi$," an insult or outrage, an outrage on nature, a mongrel.

In nature the hybrid is very rare, species shun crossing , instinctively. In captivity the crossing of animals, not of the same variety, is sometimes brought about by man, by the employment of ruse or force.

From the study of biology we learn that

Crossing in nature is extremely rare. Animals as closely related as hare and rabbit rarely breed together.

When species are crossed^ fertilization rarely follows.

RACE OR MONGREL

Sometimes there is a physical impossibility preventing the male element from reaching the female ovule, as is the case with a plant having a pistil too long for the pollen tubes to reach the ovarium. It has also been observed that, when the pollen of one species is placed on the stigma of another species, though the pollen tubes protrude, they do not penetrate the stigmatic surface.

The male element may reach the female element, but be incapable of causing an embryo to be developed.

A great many of the few embryos which develop after crossing perish at a very early period. The early death of the embryo is a frequent cause of the sterility of first crosses.

Of the very few embryos that are normal at delivery a great many die within the first days of their life. Darwin writes: "Mr. Salter has given the result of an examination of about five hundred eggs produced from various crosses between three species of Gallus and their hybrids; the majority of these eggs had been fertilized, and in the majority of the fertilized eggs the embryos had either been partially developed and had then perished, or had become nearly mature; but the young chickens had been unable to break through the shell. Of the chickens which were born, more than four-fifths died within the first few days or, at latest, weeks, without any obvious cause, apparently from mere inability to live; so that from five hundred eggs only twelve chickens were reared,"

THE MONGREL IN .NATURE 3

Many of the very few hybrids that are viable are sterile, as the mule.

Of the very few hybrids that are not sterile, some breed with the parent species, These offspring revert to the parent species, the hybrid disappears.

Others of the very small number of fertile hybrids breed inter se only. The very small number of these hybrids causes very close inbreeding, with its consequences, degeneration, sterility, and death. Nature destroys the mongrel.

In the development of species the accumulative action of selection, whether applied methodically and quickly, or unconsciously and slowly but more effectually, has been the predominant power, the importance of crossing being insignificant (Darwin).

What J s said of the hybrid is true of the mongrel, the mongrel of the domestic animals being the only exception. Domesticated animals, however, bear a similar relation to animals in nature that plants propagated by cuttings, buds, and so forth, bear to plants propagated by seed. With plants propagated by cuttings, buds, etc., the importance of crossing is immense; for the cultivator may here disregard the extreme variability both of hybrids and of mongrels and their sterility; but plants not propagated by seed are of no importance in the development of species. Their endurance is only temporary (Darwin).

Domestic animals exist as long as man breeds them, feeds them, or fancies them. They lead no life of their

RACE OR MONGREL

own. Turn the domestic animals loose, leave them to nature, and in ten years no mongrel will exist.

From the foregoing considerations we derive this conclusion:

Nature prevents the development of the mongrel; in the few cases in which nature has for the time being successfully been outraged and a mongrel produced, nature degrades that mongrel mercilessly and in time stamps it out.

Nature suffers no mongrel to live.

Read " The Origin of Species," by Charles Darwin.

CHAPTER n

THE MONGREL IN HISTORY

Biology and the corelated sciences of anatomy, physiology, embryology, and medicine prove that man is subject to all the laws which govern animal life; that the rules of nature rule him as rigidly as they govern the animal world, that the violation of any of these laws on his part is always and without exception followed by the disastrous consequences which are the corollary to that law.

The poets and writers of the middle ages well knew that promiscuous intermarriage was bad. The bastards, they depict in their works, are the mean, the low, the sordid, cowards and felons, vermin of humanity. Not great criminals; strength of character, a requisite of greatness even in the field of crime, is the one quality that the mongrel is utterly destitute of.

The fact that most of our domestic animals were domesticated by the savage of antiquity, and that we had but little success in the domestication of wild animals, does not prove the greater intelligence of the savage. Their success was due to the fact that species were then in their nascent stage and more pliable.

RACE OR MONGREL

A community of men, that has not yet become highly specialized, that still consists of crude material, can become absorbed by another more highly developed, not in one generation, but in a dozen or more generations. The absorbent capacity of every race, however, is limited. It is our conviction that we are absorbing and have absorbed countless numbers of the highly specialized Celts, Slavs, Latins, Scandinavians, and Germans. It is a presumption indicating paranoia. External evidence alone prevents us from asserting that we absorb the negro in two generations. Probably a small amount of negro blood can be absorbed by a large white community; in fifty or a hundred generations every trace of the negro blood will have disappeared.

Selection is at work continually throughout organic nature; it uses not only the individual as a unit, but also every cell, every one of the elements that constitute that individual.*^ The necessary time being given^ nature casts out every^a^e^Twhich the har-^mony of the individual is destroyed. This result selection cannot accomplish if a considerable amount of foreign blood is continually injected into a body politic. A homogeneous people cannot develop; selection favours the stronger element in the individual, that is, the one fittest to survive, not necessarily the best. Where many people meet and intermarry, this stronger element is not the same in each individual of the nation. The result is a nondescript mongrel mass, devoid of character, without a future. With the thoroughbred, not with