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
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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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    must not accommodate itself to the progress of human knowledge and bend before truth, if that truth be demonstrated. Hence it is always hazardous to mix up theological arguments with discussions of this kind, and to stigmatise in the name of reli- gion any scientific opinion, since, if that opinion, sooner or later gains ground, religion has been uselessly compromised. The unskilful intervention of theologians in astronomical ques- tions (rotation of the earth), in physiology (pre-existence of germs), in medicine (possessions), etc., has formed more infidels than the writings of philosophers. Why should men be placed in the dilemma of choosing between science and faith ? And when so many striking examples have placed theologians under the necessity to acknowledge that revelation is not applicable to science, why do they obstinately continue to place the Bible before the wheels of progress Sincere Christians have understood that the moment is come to prepare the conciliation of the doctrine of the polygenists with the sacred writings. They are disposed to admit that the Mosaic narration does not apply to the whole human race, but merely to the Adamites, from which sprung Grod's people ; that there may have been other human beings with whom the sacred writer had no concern j that it is nowhere said that the sons of Adam contracted incestuous alliances with their own sisters j that Cain, banished after the murder of his brother, had a mark set upon him that no one might kill him; that, besides the sons of Grod, there was a race of the sons of man; that the origin of the sons of men is not specified ; that nothing authorises us to consider these as the progeny of Adam; that these two races differed in their physical characters, since, by their union, a cross-breed was produced designated by the name of giants, to indicate the physical and moral energy of mixed races. And that, finally, all these antediluvian races might have survived the deluge in the persons of the three daughters-in-law of Noah.^ ' [Compaa'e on this subject Professor R. Owen on The Power of God as manifested in his Animal Creation, 12mo, London, 1863, in wliicli the relations of science to theology are excellently stated.—Editor.] 2 J. Pye Smith, Relations between the Holy Scriptures and Geology, thii-d edition, pp. 398-400. This passage is textually reproduced by Morton in a