Abstracts of Papers Read at the First International Eugenics Congress: University of London, July, 1912International Eugenics Congress (1st : 1912 : London)
Science
Abstracts of Papers Read at the First International Eugenics Congress: University of London, July, 1912
International Eugenics Congress (1st : 1912 : London)
Eugenics -- Congresses
A few years ago I had an opportunity of meeting two friends who had
spent many years in different parts of Canada and were acquainted with
families who were derived from an ancestry partly European and partly
North American Indian. I gathered from my friends, in virtue of much
kindness and patience upon their part, some valuable facts concerning
the nature of various facial features in the offspring of the two
mixed races--European and Red Indian. I purpose here to deal with two
families and with only one character, _i.e._, the type of nose. The
Red Indian and European type of nose are easily distinguishable. In the
Red Indian the nose is prominent and its frontal profile is formed by
two lines which diverge from the bridge towards the base. The latter
is, in consequence, very broad. The form of nose is sometimes known as
the _busqué_ or curved type, since its lateral profile is in outline
markedly aquiline. But examination of a series of photographs of Red
Indians shows some variation in the lateral profile, since some are
decidedly concave. But the broadness at the base is apparently never
diminished; it is always marked and unmistakable. The well-pronounced
Indian nose can always be easily distinguished from the European nose
by persons who have had a long acquaintance with both races. But cases
do occur where even an experienced observer would feel some doubt in
expressing an opinion as to which type a given nose belonged. Such
cases are, however, not common.
[Sidenote: K 2a]
From the pedigrees of families derived from a mixed racial parentage
in my possession, I select two for exhibition at this Congress. The
first is that known as "Family 5" in my list. In this case a Scotchman
(Generation A, S) married a full-blood Indian woman. They had a son and
daughter (Generation B, 2 and 3). The half-breed son had the Indian
type of nose. The daughter had a small and well-shaped European nose.
The son married a full-blood Indian woman (Generation B, 1) and had
four children. Two of these were infants at the time my informant knew
them, and though they were described as being generally of the Indian
type, they were too young to give any reliable details concerning the
form of the nose. The two elder children (Generation C, 1 and 2) were a
daughter and a son, and both had the Indian type of nose.
The half-breed daughter (Generation B, 4) married twice. Her first
husband was a half-breed Indian (B 3). He was not seen by my informant.
They had a son and a daughter (Generation C, 5 and 6). The former
was Indian in type of nose as well as in other facial characters.
The daughter, though she had very decided Indian cheek bones, had
the European type of nose. She is of further interest, inasmuch
as while her eye-colour was European the shape of her eyes was
characteristically Indian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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