“ 2. It is impossible, no matter how we produce crosses between species or races on the
globe, to obtain a product which represents exactly one of the primitive types ; that is to
say, we shall never be able to construct, with all the pieces, a Negro, an American, a German,
or a Celt.
“ 3. The species will separate from the primitive type, and will become the more altered
by crosses with other species, in proportion as the individuals which compose it differ from
each other, and as the types are more numerous.
iC 4. The greater the differences among individuals, the less the species which have produced
them will be near (yoisines) to each other, and vice versft.” 447
The laws governing hyhridity have as yet been but imperfectly
studied. Some points of vital interest, connected with the crossing
of races, have passed by without notice; for example, the relative
influence of the male and the female on progeny. The physical
characteristics of the common mule (offspring of the ass and mare)
are well known. It partakes of the characters of both parents; hut in
the form of the head and ears, as well as in disposition, it inherits more
of the ass than of the horse. The bardeau, or hinny (offspring of
horse and she-ass) partakes, on the contrary, much more of the peculiarities
of the horse — the head being small, closely resembling the
horse; the ears short; the disposition rather that of the horse; and
the voice is not a bray, hut the neigh. The mule and hinny are
almost as much unlike each other as the horse and ass. How far
this rule may he applicable to other infertile hybrids, I am not prepared
to say.
Where proximate species are bred together, the above rule, based
upon equidse, applies with less force; e.g., the dog and wolf, or different
species of ddgs. I have seen pups from the cross of the cur-dog
and wolf, which presented an intermediate type ; hut the following
appears to show that a different breed of dog may produce a divergent
result:—. ' ■ ; ' ‘J ' (
“ In the recent experiments of Wiegemann, in Berlin, of the offspring of a pointer and
she-wolf, two resembled the father, with hanging ears, while the other was like a wolf-
dog.” 448
When the grey-hound and fox-hound, the fox-hound and terrier,
are coupled, their offspring partake rather of the half-and-half type.
We are unable to declare what shades of difference may arise from
the manner of crossing canine males and females. A grey-hound possesses
greakjSpeed, has a peculiar shape, and pursues his game by
sight-alone; being so destitute of smell as to he incapable of trailing
it. The fox-hound, on the contrary, tracks game almost solely by
scent, has little speed, hut great endurance. How, when fox-hound
and grey-hound are bred together, their offspring is intermediate' in
form, in speed, in sense of smell, and in every attribute. Such law,
I believe, holds with regard to all dogs, when thorough-bred.
Some years ago, I was intimate with a gentleman who owned a
fine pack of fox-hounds. Wishing to retain the sense of smell, and
at the same time procure more speed, he commenced by crossing
them with grey-hounds; and continued crossing until he obtained
a stock of but one-eighth grey-hound, which dogs gave him all the
qualities desired.
How it would appear, from sundry facts already set forth under our
“ Caucasian ” type, that even proximate species are not invariably
governed by the same laws. Some species produce an intermediate
type, like the dogs just cited ; while , others possess a tendency to
reproduce each of the parent stocks. We may instance the white
and gray mice, the deer and ram, no less than the fair and the dark-
skinned races of men.'
During a professional visit (which interrupted these lines) to the
house -of a friend, Mr. Garland Goode, my notice was attracted by
some curious facts respecting the crossing of races. Among his slaves
he owns three families, all crosses of white and black blood, as follows
: —-
' 1st. A woman, three-fourths white, married to a half-breed mulatto man. She had four
children; the two first and the last of which were even more fair than the mother. The
other presented, a dark complexion — that o f the father.
2d. A mulatto woman, half-breed, married to, a full-blooded Negro man, not of the pettiest
hue, although' black. They had thirteen children; of which most were’ even blacker
than the father, while two exhibited the light complexion of the mother.
3d. A mulatto man, married to a very black Negress. They had twelve children; and
here again the majority of the children were coal-black, whereas two or three were as light
in complexion as the father.
With respect to these examples, it is evident that, in the first case,
white-blood predominated in the parents. In the two latter, the He-
gro blood was paramount. Thus, in three cases, the law of hybridity
seems clearly to have been called into action. The children had a
tendency to run into the type of the predominant blood: because, in
the first example, white-blood preponderated in the children; in the
two last, black-blood. How, I do not consider this Yule to be constant
; but such examples are common. Mr. Lyell has again, in these
matters, made statements upon exceptions to rules, and not, assuredly,
upon the rules themselves.
Observations are wanting to settle many of the laws that govern
the mixing of human species. In the United States, the mulattoes
and other grades are produced by the connection of the white male
with the Negress; the mulattoes with each other; and the white male
with the mulattress. It is so rare, in this country, to see the offspring
of a Hegro man and a white Jwoman, that I have never personally
encountered an example; but such children are reported to partake
more, of the type of the Hegro, than when the mode of crossing is
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