On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus homo / by Paul Broca ; edited, with the permission of the author, by C. Carter Blake.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus homo / by Paul Broca ; edited, with the permission of the author, by C. Carter Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    generation. Are tliey equally proHfic in their direct alliances as in their mixed ones ? Are their children arriving at ma- turity as the others ? And finally, when these children inter- marry, are they and their descendants prolific ? These ques- tions are yet unanswered. They can only be solved after a long series of observations collected by men of science; not by travellers who view the populations superficially, but by close observers, and principally by physicians resident in these localities. In the mean while, here is another passage from the work of Prof. Waitz, quoted by him from Seemann.^ The Mulattoes of the Negroes and Whites at Panama are prolific between themselves, but their children are brought up with diflBculty; whilst the families of the pure races produce less children, which however arrive at maturity. The Europeans of Panama are of Spanish origin. The prolificness of the Mulattoes of the first degree is clearly indicated in this pas- sage, but doubts may be entertained as to the fecundity of their descendants. The intermixtures of Negroes and Euro- peans are not the only ones the results of which exhibit defects to the observers. The Mulattoes, says M. Boudin,^ are very often inferior to the two parent stocks, both in vitality, intelligence, or morality. Thus the Mulattoes of Pondicherry, known by the name of Topas, exhibit a mortality not only more considerable than that of the Indians, but greater than the Europeans, though the latter are considerably shorter lived in India than in Europe. Positive documents on this point have been pubHshed in the Revue Goloniale. So much as to the vitality. In Java, the Mulattoes of the Dutch and Malays are so little intelligent that they could never be employed as func- tionaries. All Dutch historians are agreed upon this point. This much for their intelligence. The Mulattoes of Negroes and Indians, known by the name of Zambos in Peru and Nicaragua, form the worst class > Seemann, Reise urn die Welt, bd. i, p. 314, 1853. Waitz, Anihrovoloaie p. 207. ^ ' - Bulletins de la 8oci6ti d'Anthropologie: proces-yerbal de la seance du ] p Mars, 1860, vol. i, p. 206.