The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

This victory of the superior energies is again shown in another very remarkable manner, in the crossing of white and black races. The former is, of all races, most sensible to malarious influences, the latter best able to resist them. On this account it is almost exempt from yellow fever. The Mulatto inherits this double power of resistance. Nott assures us that a proportion of one fourth of black blood is as sure a protection against the yellow fever, as vaccination against the small-pox.

We may now understand, that, in crossing between different races, the half-breeds possess the characters which, in each of them, predominate over the corresponding characters of the other. If the energies are in equilibrium, there will generally be a compromise. The Negro and the White differ essentially in colour and the texture of the hair; the colour of the eyes varies almost as much in one as in the other. In the Mulatto, the two first characters almost always betray the double origin of the individual; the third is uncertain.

On the contrary, in half-breeds of the white and the indigenous American, the eyes and hair are almost always derived from the latter. Humboldt has remarked that these two characters are persistent even after several generations, in unilateral crossing towards the White. M. Ferdinand Denis recognised a descendant of the caciques by the eyes. On the other hand, in the same crossings, the colour of the White overcomes that of the American at the second, and sometimes even at the first generation.

The crossing of the Slav and the Bouriate presents similar facts. The half-breeds invariably have the hair and eyes of the second.

VIII. “In Brazil,” says Martin de Moussy, “mixed races of every origin increase, and form a new population which becomes more indigenous every day, if we may use the expression, and always more similar to the white type, which, according to what takes place in the whole of South America, will, in the end, absorb all the rest.” An analogous fact has been pointed out at Buenos Ayres, in Paraguay, etc.

Can we then consider this result as a sign of the ascendancy of the white race? I do not think so. I rather consider it as the consequence of the general tendency pointed out above.

In the countries which we are discussing, the Negress or Indian woman readily crosses with the White. The female issue of these unions, proud of the blood of her father, would consider herself degraded if wedded to an individual of coloured race, and reserves all her favours for those to whom she approximates by reason of the crossing. The Quadroon reasons and acts in the same manner. In these regions, where colour decides caste, it is always men of whiter race, and especially the pure white, that the women prefer to marry.

The consequence of this is, that the crossing, although apparently left to chance, is in reality unilateral, and always directed towards the superior race. It is accomplished under the influence of a real unconscious selection, and the predominance of the white blood is the result of this selection.

Sooner or later it will also result in the fulfilment of the prediction of Martin de Moussy. The mixed races will in a great measure return to the superior race. But, when brought back to the white type by this circuitous path, and through all these degrees of crossing, they will possess one very great advantage over their European counterpart: they will be acclimatised.

The reverse phenomena appear, according to Squiers, to be taking place in Peru. Here the mixed population tends to return to the indigenous type. The fact is explained, at least in part, by the relations which, since the commencement of the conquest, were established between the conquerors and the conquered race.