On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus Homo — John Shaqi
On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus HomoBroca, Paul
Science
On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus Homo
Broca, Paul
Hominids -- Hybridization; Miscegenation
“But it is not so, and whatever be the number of mulattoes in the
colonies, the predominance of the Negro and Caucasian species is not
less certain.... There is, besides, a fact known to persons inhabiting
the colonies, that the white women and the negresses are very prolific,
which is not the case with the mulatresses.
“We believe to be the first who has pointed out the sterility in human
cross-breeds. We have not been able to collect precise and positive
observations based on figures; but we think that the figures will be
soon forthcoming now that the attention of observers is drawn to the
subject.”
The avowal which terminates this passage, much diminishes its
importance. M. Jacquinot, not having sojourned long in the various
countries he visited, was only able to collect superficial observations
in regard to a question which requires long and minute researches. But
Mr. Nott, one of the most eminent anthropologists of America, was in a
better condition to study this subject.
Living in a country where the Caucasian and Ethiopian races are
much mixed, and enabled by his profession as a physician to make
his observations on a great number of individuals, he arrived at
conclusions similar to those of M. Jacquinot. His first essay on
hybridity appeared in 1842. It was but a short paper, which attracted
but little notice, and which we have not been able to consult, no copy
of it being in the Paris library. M. Jacquinot, whose work appeared
in 1846, had certainly no knowledge of this essay, his observations
having been made in 1836-40, before M. Nott had published his own. We
are not, however, engaged here to discuss the question of priority, we
state merely the fact that two distinguished observers studying the
same subject, unknown to each other, arrived at the same conclusions
relating to the sterility of Mulattoes.
In his essay of 1812, Dr. Nott maintained the following propositions,
which we extract from a subsequent publication.[27]
1. That _Mulattoes_ are the shortest lived of any class of the human
race.
2. That _Mulattoes_ are intermediate in intelligence between the blacks
and the whites.
3. That they are less capable of undergoing fatigue and hardships than
either the blacks or whites.
4. That the _Mulatto-women_ are peculiarly delicate, and subject to a
variety of chronic diseases. That they are bad breeders, bad nurses,
liable to abortions, and that their children generally die young.
5. That when _Mulattoes_ intermarry, they are less prolific than when
crossed on the parent stock.
6. That when a _Negro_ man married a white woman, the offspring partook
more largely of the Negro type than when the reverse connection had
effect.
7. That Mulattoes, like Negroes, although unacclimated, enjoy
extraordinary exemption from yellow-fever when brought to Charleston,
Savannah, Mobile, or New Orleans.
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