OF EUGENESIC HYBRIDITY IN MANKIND.
If the opinion I wish to combat were not supported by authors of
acknowledged talent, it might, perhaps, be superfluous to demonstrate
that there exists in the human species _eugenesic hybrids_. Most of the
readers of these pages must reconcile themselves to this qualification,
for assuredly men of a pure race are very rare in the country they
inhabit. Nothing is, in fact, more clear than that many modern nations,
to commence with the French, have been formed by the intermixture of
two or more races. My excellent teacher, Gerdy,[16] has devoted a long
chapter, in his Physiology, to this subject, and has, after great
research, arrived at the conclusion that all, or nearly all, actual
races have been crossed more than once, and that the primitive types
of mankind, altered and modified by so many crossings, are no longer
represented upon the earth. There is here much exaggeration: for there
are races who, by a peculiar geographical situation, and the prejudices
of caste or religion, have remained in a state of purity; and on the
other hand, as M. P. Bérard[17] remarks, it is not sufficient for the
production of a mongrel race, that two groups of different races should
become allied and fused. If in either of the groups there exists too
great a numerical inequality, the mongrels resume, after the lapse of
a few generations, nearly all the traits of the more numerous race,
and are fused in it. It is for this reason that, despite of numerous
crossings, many races have preserved all their characters from remote
antiquity. I have already had occasion to observe that the _Fellahs_
of present Egypt are exactly like the figures represented upon the
Pharaonic epoch.[18] No country has, however, been so frequently
conquered as Egypt, which from Cambyses to Mehemet-Ali, for more than
twenty-three centuries has been governed and oppressed by peoples of
foreign races, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, and Mamelukes.
The Macedonian colonies, founded by Alexander and his successors,
soon lost their ethnological character.[19] Southern Italy has not
preserved the impress of the Norman race. It would be vain to search
in Asia Minor for the descendants of the Gauls with fair hair,[20]
who once established themselves in Galatia; and though the Visigoths
possessed Spain for more than two centuries, and have never been
expelled from it, and we may without exaggeration compute the number
of the conquerors at several hundred thousand, and though their blood,
mitigated by intermixture, runs to this day in the veins of an immense
number of Spaniards, the latter have preserved no trace of their
Germanic origin.
But when the intermixture of races is effected in nearly equal
proportions, or if it be the result, not of one invasion, but of a
constant and abundant immigration, the case is altogether different,
and the fusion of the ethnological elements gives rise to a hybrid
population, in which the number of individuals of a pure race is
constantly diminishing, so that at the termination of a few centuries
the representatives of the two primitive types become the exceptions.
In a long Memoir “On the Ethnology of France,” which I lately read
before the Anthropological Society of Paris, I have shown to what
extent intermixture may modify the physiognomy of a people. Examining
in the first place the records of history on hand, the origin of
the populations of our departments, and appreciating as much as
possible the proportion of the elements which we find in combination;
determining, also, for each region the principal and the accessory
stocks, I have been enabled to find in the present French nation, in
the midst of the innumerable variations of stature, complexion, hair,
eyes, cephalic shapes, etc., which may everywhere be expected in mixed
races; I have been able to detect, I repeat, the characters of these
different races, and to recognise the more or less marked and dominant
impress of the Celts, Kimris, Romans, and Germans. I was even enabled,
on the statistics of recruiting, to give to my inquiries, in regard
to stature, a rigorous precision. I cannot in this place enter into
any details: I am obliged to refer the reader to the Memoir, which is
published by the Anthropological Society. In point of fact, it was
merely because eminent men have for some years doubted the existence of
eugenesic hybridity in mankind, that it became necessary to demonstrate
so evident a proposition, that the population of France in at least
nineteen-twentieths of our territory, presents in unequal degrees the
characters of mixed races.
This single example might suffice; but I have no doubt that by
examining in a similar manner the historical origin and the actual
condition of the peoples of Northern Italy, Southern Germany, Great
Britain--not to speak of the United States, where the fusion of
blood is probably inexplicable--it might be demonstrated with equal
certainty, that these different races have given birth, by their
intermixture, to ethnological modifications still recognisable. In all
these countries is the instability of anthropological characters in
contrast with the fixity which is the mark of pure races; and we might
say, without fear of error, that the greater part of Western Europe is
inhabited by mixed races.
Moreover, the authors who have denied the existence of mixed races,
have not denied that there are in Europe and elsewhere, numerous
vivacious populations, formed by the intermixture of two or several
distinct races. They merely asserted that mongrel breeds, whatever
their origin, were necessarily inferior in reference to fecundity to
individuals of pure blood, and that their direct descendants would
become extinct after a few generations, unless they contracted new
alliances with the mother races, or at least with one of them. If we
object to this, that the mixed populations possess everywhere, as those
of France and Great Britain, a vitality and fecundity which leaves
nothing to be desired, they reply that this proves nothing; that the
cross breeds are prolific in a collateral line, as is observed in cases
of paragenesic hybridity, and they add that two cases may present
themselves:
1. If among the two primitive races these obtain a very large numerical
inequality, the predominant race soon absorbs the other. After two
or three generations, the less numerous race counts scarcely one
representative, and the cross-breeds are fused in the more numerous
race. The latter thus returns to a state of original purity. The
mixed race has only a transitory duration, and leaves no trace of its
existence.
2. If, on the contrary, the two races, though numerically unequal,
are in sufficient proportion that neither can absorb the other, both
persist indefinitely beside each other upon the same soil. The hybrid
race which they engender, seems also to persist indefinitely; but
only in appearance, for they constantly intermarry with the pure
races, while the latter marry between themselves. The mixed race
gains thus, in every generation, a contingent equal to what it loses,
those which represent it at present are not the descendants of those
who represented the mixed race five or six generations back. It is
not maintained by itself: existing only under the condition of being
sustained by the races from which it is issued, and if there arrived a
time when it is completely isolated from these two races, and reduced
to its own forces, it would necessarily become extinct after a few
generations.
I might urge some objection against the first point, for it does not
seem to me to be demonstrated, that in a mixture of very unequal
proportions, the less numerous race exercises _no influence_ upon the
other race. I acknowledge, however, that this influence, if it exists,
is sufficiently slight to be set aside.
The second point is much more serious, for if accepted without
restriction, we must admit that eugenesic hybridity does not exist in
mankind, and that all cross-breeds, whatever their origin, whether they
are issued from nearly approaching or distant races, not merely the
descendants of whites and negroes, but also of Celts and Kimris, are
incapable of engendering a durable posterity. For my part, I believe
that such is actually the case with certain mongrel-breeds; I believe
that in the genus _Homo_, there are very unequal degrees of eugenesic
hybridity; but after having recognised that eugenesic hybridity does
exist between dog and wolf, hare and rabbit, goat and sheep, camel and
dromedary, I am permitted to say that it also exists between certain
races of men.
Among the facts quoted to prove the sterility of human cross-breeds,
some are of great value: and we shall examine them in the sequel;
others have been wrongly interpreted, while some are far from being
exact. I have already pointed out a cause of error which was not taken
into account, and which occurs frequently: it is the change of climate
which alone is capable of sterilising a race transplanted into the
midst of another race. Before attributing a defect of fecundity to
the mixed descendants of an immigrant race, we must see whether in
the same country the individuals of this race are more prolific in
their direct alliances. It is known, for instance, that the Mamelukes,
originating from the region of the Caucasus, have never taken root
in Egypt, where, nevertheless, from 1250, the epoch of their advent,
until 1811, the period of their extermination, their caste has always
formed a notable part of the population. They could only maintain
themselves by reinforcements which they annually received from the
native country, and though not half a century has elapsed since the
great massacre of Cairo, there remains no trace of them on the borders
of the Nile. Such being the fact, it was concluded therefrom, that the
descendants of the Mamelukes and the Egyptians were hybrids of little
or no fecundity. Gliddon has thus interpreted it, and Pouchet has
accepted that interpretation.[21] This, however, is not the real cause
of the sterility of the Mamelukes in Egypt, and Volney, who, towards
the end of the last century, has carefully observed and studied this
race, offers the following remarks on them: “Seeing that they have
existed in Egypt for centuries, one would be apt to believe that they
have reproduced themselves by the ordinary process of breeding; but if
their first settlement is a curious fact, their perpetuation is not
less so. For five centuries there have been Mamelukes in Egypt, yet not
one of them has left a subsisting line: there exists not one family
of the second generation, all their children perish in the first or
second generation. _The Ottomans are nearly in the same condition_,
and it is observed that they only preserve themselves from the same
fate by marrying indigenous females--what the _Mamelukes have always
disdained_. (The wives of the Mamelukes were, like their slaves,
imported from Georgia, Mongrelia, etc.) Let it now be explained why
well formed men, married to healthy women, cannot naturalise on the
borders of the Nile a blood formed at the foot of the Caucasus! We
are at the same time reminded that European plants equally refuse to
perpetuate their species in that locality.”[22] Despite the precision
of this passage, many Mamelukes no doubt took wives and numerous
concubines from the indigenous population. It is difficult to believe
that it could have been otherwise, and Gliddon had a right to say,
that if the offspring of the two races had been prolific, there would
inevitably have been produced in Egypt a mixed race. But the fact
revealed by Volney, which is perfectly authentic, still maintains its
force, namely, that the Mamelukes, by the simple fact of change of
country, had lost the power of engendering _with the women of their own
race_, a prolific posterity; hence, nothing proves that the sterility
of their offspring depended on the influence of hybridity, but rather
on the influence of climate.
It is not our purpose successively to review all particular
intermixtures produced in human races, or to determine the degree of
the fecundity of the hybrids resulting from it.
To demonstrate that eugenesic hybridity really exists, one instance
is sufficient, provided it be conclusive; and to find this example
we need not travel beyond our country. The population of France, as
we have amply established elsewhere, is descended from several very
distinct races, and presents everywhere the character of mixed races.
The pure representatives of the primitive races form a very small
minority; nevertheless, this hybrid nation, so far from decaying, in
accordance with the theory of Mr. Gobineau; far from presenting a
decreasing fecundity, according to some other authors, grows every day
in intelligence, prosperity, and numbers. Ever since the revolution
has broken the last obstacle which opposed themselves to the mixture
of races, and despite of the gigantic wars which during twenty-five
years mowed down the _élite_ of its male population, France has seen
the number of its inhabitants increase by more than one-third; this is
not a symptom of decay. Dr. Knox, in his curious essay on the Races
of Men (London, 1850), has thought proper to utter, in relation to
the French, some hard truths: and also some calumnies, which we shall
put to the account of his patriotism. Mr. Knox has accorded to the
French nation an increasing physical prosperity, and as this side of
the question is the only one which occupies us here, we might dispense
with any other testimony. That learned author thought what he said
about the French applied exclusively to the Celtic race; he supposed
that upon our soil there were nought but pure Celts, and that the other
ethnological elements have not in any degree modified the character
of the old Gallic race. I have refuted this assertion at some length
in my _Mémoire sur l’Ethnologie de la France_, and Dr. Knox,[23] in
praising in his own manner the Celtic race, has not perceived that
unconsciously, and contrary to his own system, he wrote the apology of
a strongly mixed race. But the partisans of this system will doubtless
say that, on the whole, the mixed Kimro-Celtic race, which now inhabits
France, does not subsist by itself; that the two parent races, the
Celts and the Kimris, one of which predominates in the north-east,
the other in the north-west, the south and the centre, persist,
almost pure, in their respective regions, and that the mixed race
only maintains itself by recruiting themselves incessantly in these
vivacious _foci_. My reply to this is, that the individuals perfectly
representing the Celtic or Kimri type are infinitely rarer than the
rest, even in the departments where history or observation demonstrates
that the influence of one of these races is altogether preponderant.
They are especially rare in the districts of the intermediary zone,
which I have termed Kimro-Celtic, and where the two chief races have
originally become intermixed in nearly equal proportions. Finally, in
these latter departments, where the intermixture has been strongest,
the population is neither less handsome, nor less robust or prolific
than in the others. As regards the vigour of the constitution, I
have consulted in the registers for recruiting the special list of
exemptions on account of infirmities, that is, for other physical
causes than stature. I have found that, other circumstances being
equal, there are as many infirm in 1000 conscripts in the purest
departments, as in the mixed districts. I cannot here dwell any longer
upon this proposition, of which I have given a rigorous demonstration
in my _Mémoire sur l’Ethnologie de la France_.
There remains now the question of fecundity. The causes which determine
the increase or the decay of a population are so multifarious, and for
the most part so foreign to ethnological influences, that we cannot
without committing grave errors, estimate the degree of fecundity of
different races, in comparing for each of them, the number of births
and deaths. It appears, nevertheless, very probable that all the races
are not equally prolific, and the mind easily perceives that there must
be between them notable differences. It is, therefore, unnecessary
that in order a mixture should be eugenesic the fecundity of the
cross-breed should be _absolutely equal_ to that of individuals of
pure blood. Had it been demonstrated by strict numbers, that a mixed
race, by the simple fact of intermixture breeds less rapidly than the
two parent races, and were it demonstrated that it presents a greater
number of cases of sporadic sterility, it would by no means result
from it that this mixed race is incapable of maintaining itself and
increasing by itself. The intermixture would cease to be eugenesic if
the fact of sterility became sufficiently general to render the births
diminishing with every new generation, so that at length the gaps
caused by death could no longer be filled and the race would prove
inevitably destined, sooner or later, to become extinct. Thus, even
if it were demonstrated that the offspring of an intermixture between
Celts and Kimris are somewhat less prolific than the ancestors of the
pure races, and that the mixed populations increased less rapidly than
the others; the Kimro-Celtic hybridity would not on that account cease
to be eugenesic, provided the _relative_ sterility did not descend
beneath the degree when the sterility becomes _absolute_, that is to
say, when the fecundity becomes insufficient. But the departments in
which history and ethnology prove that the intermixture has been pushed
to the extreme point, the population far from having diminished, has
increased since the revolution, namely, since the establishment of
new territorial divisions, as rapidly as in the rest of France, and
it appears to me as certain that the intermixture of Kimris and Celts
either between themselves, or with the Romans and Germans, constitute
examples of eugenesic hybridity.
We must, however, take care not to imitate the paradoxical reasoning
of our adversaries, and because some crossings of _certain_ races are
eugenesic, to conclude, _à priori_, that _all_ the other intermixtures
are equally so. The study of hybridity in birds and quadrupeds has
taught us that we can never know with certainty, before making the
experiment, what will be the result of crossing. Neither must we forget
that the ethnological facts which have served us as examples apply to
the intermixture of races distinct, no doubt, but nearly related in
many respects. The mixture of races more distant from each other, is
it equally prolific, and are the descendants eugenesic? This is the
question we now intend to examine.