“ Where there is no natural repugnance >to each other, and races meet and mix on equal
terms, the relative number of the two races influences greatly the result : the type of the
lesser number may disappear entirely. Take, for example, a thousand white families and
one hundred black ones, and place them together on an island. The result would be, that
the black type would after a while disappear, although there is reason to believe that traces
of it would ‘ crop out’ occasionally during a very long time. Where two fair-skinned races
are brought into contact, the extermination of one would probably sooner be effected;
nevertheless, even here, it is impossible to destroy the germ entirely. The Jews form a
convincing illustration of the influence of the larger over the smaller number. This, from
the time of Abraham to the present, has been a more or less adulterated race ; yet its type
has been predominant, is preserved, and is likely to be for ages to come. Such a law is
well illustrated in the lower animals. Cross two domestic animals of different races ; take
the offspring, and cross it with one of the parent stocks ; continue this process for a few
generations, and the one becomes swallowed up in the other.
P Even where two races meet in equal numbers, which is an extreme supposition, in order
to make a uniform type they would have to pair off uniformly, one race with another, and
not each race to intermarry among themselves. This equilibrium could not be maintained ;
and without it, each race would preserve its own type.
“ There is another tendency in nature, that interests us here particularly, and which has
been curiously and ingeniously illustrated by M. Coladon, of Geneva. He bred a great
many white and gray mice, on which he made experiments by crossing constantly a, white
with a gray one. The product invariably was a white or a gray mouse, with the characters
of the pure race : g point de métis, point de begarrure, rien d’intermédière, enfin le type
parfait de l’une ou de l’autre variété.- Ce cas est extrême, a la vérité ; mais le précédent
ne l’est point moins ; ainsi les deux procédés sont dans la nature : aucun ne règne exclusivement.’
” 41
The habit of reflecting on the relations in which primitive races
are found, induces us to consider the following as the conditions
which may make one or the other of these effects preponderate.
Where races differ considerably, which animals do whenever they
are of different species, (like, for example, the horse and the ass,
the dog and the wolf or fox,) their product is constantly hybrid.
If, on the other hand, they are very proximate, (très voisines, says M.
E dw a r d s ,) they may not give birth to mixtures (mélanges), hut reproduce
pure or primitive types.
On examining facts closely, the greatest conformity is encountered
precisely where we perceive, at first? glance, the strongest contrast.
In the crossing of widely different races, the hybrid presents a type
diverse from that of the mother; notwithstanding certain conformities.
So also when two proximate races reproduce the one and the other primitive
type, the mother gives birth to a being which differs from herself.
Behold here an uniformity of facts ; hut remark likewise, that in this
last crossing, the mother produces a being more like herself than in
the former case. She departs then less from the general tendency
of nature, which is the propagation of the same types.
“ In the higher order of animals, the two sexes concur in the formation of two individuals
which represent them ; thus”the mother gives birth sometimes to one made in her own
image—at others to one after the image of the father. Here she produces two very distinct
types, notwithstanding their relations, and to such a point that the male and female of the
same'species often differ more between themselves, than one or the other differs from individuals
of the same sex, in proximate species. This is so true, that the male and its
female, among animals whose habits there has been no opportunity of examining, have
frequently been classified as distinct species; insects and birds especially have furnished
numerous examples.
“ It is manifest that the observations of M. Coladon belong to this order of facts, considered
in their general bearing ; as the mother produces two types, of which one represents
that of her own race, and the other the physical characters of the race of the father.
Other examples of the same kind might be presented, but this is sufficiently striking.
“ The most important consideration is, that, the same phenomena are seen in the human
races, and, further, in the same conditions indicated. Those human races which differ most
produce constantly hybrids {métis). It is thus that a mulatto always results from the
mixture of white and black races. The other fact, of the reproduction of two primitive
types, when the parents are of two proximate (voisines) varieties, is less notorious, but is
not, on that account, the less true. The fact is common among European nations. We
have had frequent occasions to notice it. The phenomenon is not constant— but what of
that? Crossing lometimes produces fusion, sometimes the separation of types; whence
we arrive at this fundamental conclusion: that people appertaining.to varieties of different,
but proximate races, in vain unite, in the hypothetical manner we have described above;
a portion of the new generations will preserve the primitive types.”
These facts are no less true than curious ; and every American,
especially, has the means at hand for verifying them. When a white
man and a negress marry, the product is a mulatto or intermediate
type. When a white man and white woman marry, the one having
dark hair, eyes and complexion, with one cast of features, and the
other light hair and eyes, and fair complexion, with different features,
some of the children will generally resemble one parent, some the
other ; while others may present a mixed type, being a reproduction
of the likeness of an ancestor (generally forgotten) of either parent.
Every .race, at the present time, is more or less mixed. A nation,
that is, a numerous population, may be dispossessed of, and displaced
from, a large extent of its territory ; but this is extremely rare —
savages alone furnishing almost all such examples. In America,
witness the Indians driven before the whites, without leaving a trace
behind them. There is a fixed incompatibility between civilized and
savage man : they cannot dwell together. On the Old Continent, it
is not now a question of savages ; science has there to deal at most with
barbarians; that is, people possessing the commencements of civilization.
Otherwise, it would be neither the interest of conquerors to
drive them all off, nor is it their inclination to abandon their native
soil ; of which history affords abundant proof. Mythology, fable, and
Utopian philanthropy, have traced imaginary pictures ; but history
nowhere shows us a people who, first discovered in the savage state,
afterwards invented a civilization, or learned the arts of their discoverers.
The monuments of Egypt prove, that Negro races have
not, during 4000 years at least, been able to make one solitary step, in