Outcasts from evolution : scientific attitudes of racial inferiority, 1859-1900 / John S. Haller, Jr.
- Haller, John S., Jr., 1940-
- Date:
- [1971]
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Outcasts from evolution : scientific attitudes of racial inferiority, 1859-1900 / John S. Haller, Jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![50 • Outcasts from Evolution —relegated the Negro to the bottom of the scale of race develop¬ ment. Osteometrical differences of body linearity, as well as in¬ ternal anatomical differences, corroborated such skull peculiarities as wide nasal aperture, ankylosed nasal bones, prognathism, re¬ ceding chin, and well-developed wisdom teeth and created an index for a hierarchy of the races.®^ Throughout the late nineteenth century the physician remained the chief source of information for comparative race analysis. Dr. Edward A. Balloch, an instructor of minor surgery in the medical department of Howard University, felt secure in establishing several anthropometric generalities concerning the Negro race. The skull is prognathous, with a facial angle of from 65 to 70 degrees. The parietal bones are thick. The zygomatic arches are wide, and the upper edge of the orbit projecting. The pelvis is long and narrow, the iliac bones less wide and more vertical. The tibia and fibula are more convex, and the os calcis is continued in a straight line with the other bones of the foot. The scapulae are shorter and broader. The thigh and arm are rather shorter. While the leg is actually about the same in length, it is relatively smaller, owing to less average stature. The fore¬ arm is longer, both actually and relatively. The foot is an eighth, and the hand a twelfth, longer than in Europeans. The Negro body, according to Dr. William T. English of Pitts¬ burgh, Pennsylvania, present[ed] a coarseness or rudeness and a variety in symmetry with other mathematical inaccuracies. What this meant in anthropometric terms was a heavy, thick, and coarse skull, bones which when examined microscopically show[ed] 32 J. Arthur Thomson, The Influence of Posture on the Form of the Articular Surfaces of the Tibia and Astragahis in the Different Races of Man and the Higher Apes, Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, XXIII (July, 1899), 616-39; Parturi¬ tion of the Negro, Philadelphia Medical Times, XVI (1885), 296; S. M. Burnett, Racial Influence in the Etiology of Trachoma, Medical News (Philadelphia), LVII ( 1890), 542; R. M. Fletcher, Jr., Surgical Peculiarities of the Negro, Medi¬ cal Association of Alabama, Transactions ( 1898), 49-57; A. H. Frieberg and J. H. Schroeder, A Note on the Foot of the American Negro, American Journal of Medi¬ cal Science, CXXVI (1903), 1033-36; J. T. Johnson, On Some of the Apparent Peculiarities of Parturition in the Negro Race, with Remarks on Race Pelvis in General, American Journal of Obstetrics, VIII ( 1875-1876), 88-123; A. J. Parker, Simian Characteristics in Negro Brains, Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sci¬ ences, Proceedings, XXXI ( 1879), 339. 33 Balloch, Relative Frequency of Fibroid Processes, 30.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18025729_0071.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
