Chapter I: Front Matter

Publications of the
Anthropological Society of London.

HYBRIDITY IN THE GENUS HOMO.

BROCA.

ON THE

PHENOMENA OF HYBRIDITY

IN THE

GENUS HOMO.

BY

DR. PAUL BROCA,

SÉCRÉTAIRE GÉNÉRAL À LA SOCIÉTÉ D’ANTHROPOLOGIE DE PARIS, HONORARY
FELLOW OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

EDITED,

With the Permission of the Author,

BY

C. CARTER BLAKE, F.G.S., F.A.S.L.,

HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, FOREIGN
ASSOCIATE OF THE SOCIÉTÉ D’ANTHROPOLOGIE DE PARIS, MEMBER OF THE COMITÉ
D’ARCHÉOLOGIE AMÉRICAINE DE FRANCE, ETC., ETC.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY, BY

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, & ROBERTS,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

1864.

T. RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET.

TO

RICHARD OWEN, ESQ.,

F.R.S., M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S.

FOREIGN ASSOCIATE OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS, AND HONORARY
FELLOW OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,

ARE DEDICATED THESE PAGES,

As a Testimony

OF THE RESPECT AND FRIENDSHIP OF

HIS PUPIL,

C. CARTER BLAKE.

EDITOR’S PREFACE.

The Publishing Committee of the ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY have done me the honour to confide to me the task of editing Dr. Broca’s valuable little volume. This duty I have now fulfilled, and hope that the members of the Society and the general public will experience the same pleasure in reading the translation, as I received when first I perused the original.

The causes which led the committee to suggest the publication of the present translation are lucidly expressed by the motto which Dr. Broca placed on his title-page. The public mind is so little acquainted with the real facts relating to the hybridity of the Races of Man, that its investigation, “_non ex vulgi opinione, sed ex sano judicio_,” is necessary to the efficient progress of our science. Such an appeal, however, necessitates that the whole subject should be again reviewed, and to attain this object the perusal of a work on similar principles to that of Dr. Broca becomes the primary requisite for future researches. It may be said, that no work which so completely investigates the whole subject of Human Hybridity has ever been published, and the Council having confirmed the recommendation of the Publishing Committee, I have endeavoured to perform my allotted task with as much prospect of success as could be anticipated amidst the pressure of numerous and laborious avocations unconnected with the Society.

The necessity for the publication of this work in England may be conceived, when we reflect on the laxly defined ideas which form an integral part of the intellectual heritage of even educated Englishmen, with regard to the problems of anthropology. We have been so often told, that all races of men have been demonstrably proved to be fertile _inter se_, that many have conceived that the laws regulating this presumed fertility are ascertained and fixed, beyond the reach of disproof, or even of doubt. The Author and Editor of the following pages are, however, of a different opinion; and are content to wait for the accumulation of future facts.

To obviate any misconstruction which may be placed on my meaning on this topic, I shall quote the words of the great Dutch philosopher:--

“I invite not the vulgar, therefore, nor those whose minds, like
theirs, are full of prejudices, to the perusal of this book. I would
much rather that they should entirely neglect it, than that they
should misconstrue its purpose and contents after the fashion usual
with them.”

I should have felt more gratification if the task of interpreting the thoughts of the great French master of our science had fallen into worthier hands than my own. The habitual methods of thought of Dr. PAUL BROCA are so exact, his style so terse, his knowledge of the literature of Anthropology so vast, and his power of application and concentration of ideas so powerful, that a just preference might have selected another Editor. It has scarcely been necessary for me to add a single foot-note to the lucid exposition of the Secretary of our parent Society.

It is my pleasurable duty to thank my friend Dr. James Hunt, the President of our Society, for the kindness by which he placed in my hands the editorship of this volume, and for many most valuable suggestions regarding it. To my colleague Mr. J. Frederick Collingwood, for whose friendly assistance in the performance of the secretarial duties I am indebted for the leisure which has enabled me to edit this work, my thanks are also due.

To the Council and to the Society I now commit this little tract, an earnest of the more important works which will be hereafter published during the year 1864, in the hope that it may ultimately advance the best interests of the science all sincere anthropologists must desire to aid.

C. C. B.

4, ST. MARTIN’S PLACE,
_March_, 1864.

GLOSSARIAL NOTE.

The significations of the following words, habitually used by Dr. Broca, are appended:--

AGENESIC. Mongrels of the first generation, entirely
unfertile, either between each other, or with the two parent species,
and consequently being unable to produce either direct descendants or
mongrels of the second generation.

DYSGENESIC. Mongrels of the first generation, nearly altogether
sterile.

_a._ Unfertile with each other, therefore with no direct descendants.

_b._ They sometimes, but rarely and with difficulty, breed with one
or the other parent species. The mongrels of the second generation,
produced by this interbreeding, are infertile.

PARAGENESIC. Mongrels of the first generation having a partial
fecundity.

_a._ They are hardly fertile or infertile _inter se_, and when they
produce direct descendants, these have merely a decreasing fertility,
tending to necessary extinction at the end of some generations.

_b._ They breed easily with one at least of the two parent species.
The mongrels of the second generation, issued from this second
breeding, are themselves and their descendants fertile _inter se_,
and with the mongrels of the first generation, with the nearest
allied pure species, and with the intermediate mongrels arising from
these various crossings.

EUGENESIC. Mongrels of the first generation entirely fertile.

_a._ They are fertile _inter se_, and their direct descendants are
equally so.

_b._ They breed easily and indiscriminately with the two parent
species; the mongrels of the second generation, in their turn are,
themselves and their descendants, indefinitely fertile, both _inter
se_ or with the mongrels of all kinds which result from the mixture
of the two parent species.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
DEDICATION v

EDITOR’S PREFACE vii

Glossarial Note x

SECTION I.

General remarks on the interbreeding of human races 1

Pretended examples of hybrid races (_note_ on the Griquas of
Southern Africa) 3

Significations of the words _race_ and _type_ 12

SECTION II.

On Eugenesic Hybridity in the Genus _Homo_ 16

SECTION III.

Examples tending to prove that the interbreeding of certain
human races is not Eugenesic 25

Remarks on the interpretation of human hybridity 26

Relative infecundity of the interbreeds between the White and
Negro 28

Relative sterility of some Mulattoes in the first generation 30

Moral or physical inferiority of some Mulattoes _ib._

Malay and mixed breeds 40

Relative sterility of the interbreeds between the Europeans
and the Australians or Tasmanians 45

Observations of Count Strzelecki; discussion 55

Conclusions on human hybridity 60

SECTION IV.

Recapitulation and Conclusion 61

ON THE PHENOMENA OF HYBRIDITY IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.