On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus Homo

by Paul Broca

We shall study the cross-breeds both in relation to their fecundity and their physical and moral validity; for, from our point of view, it is sufficient to prove that certain cross-breeds are inferior to the parent races, as regards longevity, vigour, health, and intelligence, to render it very probable that the two races are not of the same species.

Relative infecundity of the interbreeds between the White and Negro

When a monogenist is called upon to demonstrate that all human intermixtures are eugenesic, the first example which he ordinarily cites is that of the Mulattoes in America, the issue of the union of European colonists and African negresses. This example, which has for a long time been considered as decisive, might not be without a reply; for there exist races differing much more from us than the races of the western coast of Africa; but the question here is, whether it be quite true that all American Mulattoes are eugenesic.

We meet, first, with this fact, namely, the union of the Negro with a white woman is frequently sterile, whilst that of a white man with a negress is perfectly fecund. This might tend to establish between these two races a species of hybridity analogous to that existing between goats and sheep, which we have termed unilateral hybridity. Professor Serres, fully alive to the gravity of this fact has given the following explanation: “One of the characters of the Ethiopian race[24] consists in the length of the penis compared with that of the Caucasian race. This dimension coincides with the length of the uterine canal in the Ethiopian female, and both have their cause in the form of the pelvis in the Negro race. There results from this physical disposition, that the union of the Caucasian man with an Ethiopian woman is easy and without any inconvenience for the latter. The case is different in the union of the Ethiopian with a Caucasian woman, who suffers in the act, the neck of the uterus is pressed against the sacrum, so that the act of reproduction is not merely painful, but frequently non-productive.”

This explanation, though based upon an anatomical character perfectly correct, is yet far from being satisfactory; but we have quoted it here to show that one of the two most eminent monogenists of our epoch has admitted as a perfectly authentic fact, that the union of Caucasian women with Negroes is very frequently non-productive.

Mr. Theodore Waitz, author of a scientific treatise on Anthropology (the first volume is entirely devoted to the study of general doctrines), has carefully examined the question of the intermixture of races, and endeavoured to reconcile the results of these crossings with the system of monogenists. He was, nevertheless, obliged to admit, from the numerous documents collected, that in many cases the cross-breeds are feebly constituted, Thus, in Senegal the offspring of the Foulahs and the Negroes are handsome and more intelligent than the latter, but there are amongst them many stammerers, blind, hunchbacks, and idiots. The children of Arabs and the women of Darfour are debilitated and little vivacious, and the author adds that the children of a European woman and a Negro are rarely vigorous.[25]

It seems thus to result from these various investigations, that the union between the Negro and a white woman is little productive, and that their offspring is neither vigorous nor vivacious. Nevertheless, we admit this conclusion with some reserve, because the avowed unions of Negroes with white women are comparatively rare, and consequently the authors who have spoken of them could only have their inferences upon a few facts. The inverse intermixture between the white man and the negress is, on the contrary, very frequent, and as prolific in the first generation as in the direct alliances between individuals of the same race.

It is equally known that Mulattoes and Mulatresses are very prolific in their recrossings with the parent races. The great number of individuals of every shade, designated by the name Quadroon, Quinterons, Tercerons, Griffes, Marabouts, Cabres, etc., and by the collective name of mixed blood, proves it. The hybridity of Whites and Negroes is thus, at least, equal to what we described in animals by the name of paragenesic hybridity. The question now arises, whether it be eugenesic, that is to say, whether Mulattoes and Mulatresses of the first degree are indefinitely prolific between themselves.

Relative sterility of some Mulattoes in the first generation

It would be imprudent to restrict ourselves to superficial observations, though positive observations are with difficulty collected. Mulattoes of the first degree are not a well defined and circumscribed caste, like the whites and negroes of pure blood. Mulatresses prefer to unite themselves with the white or with mestizoes whiter than themselves. Mulattoes are thus frequently obliged to intermix with either pure negresses, or with mulatresses issued from a recrossing with the Negro race. There are, nevertheless, a goodly number of unions between the mestizos of the first degree; but the individuals issued from these unions have no longer the same chances of intermarrying as those of the first generation. The number of individuals of the first degree must, therefore, rapidly decrease from generation to generation, and the result is, that even if these cross-breeds were indefinitely prolific between themselves, we could only, by way of exception, find mulattoes issued in a direct line to the third or fourth generation, from the direct and exclusive union of mestizoes of the first degree.