On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus homo / by Paul Broca ; edited, with the permission of the author, by C. Carter Blake.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus homo / by Paul Broca ; edited, with the permission of the author, by C. Carter Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    those races who have degraded themselves should be placed under the jjrotection of others,—to borrow an ingenious eu- phemism from the language of the defenders of slavery.^ But if the Ethiopian is king of Soudan by the same right as the Caucasian is king of Europe, what right has he to impose laws upon the former, unless by the right of might ? In the first case, slavery presents itself with a certain appearance of legi- timacy which mig'ht render it excusable in the eyes of certain theoricians; in the second case, it is a fact of pure violence, protested against by all who derive no benefit from it. Erom another point of view, it might be said that the poly- genist doctrine assigns to the inferior races of humanity a more honourable place than in the opposite doctrine. To be inferior to another man either in intelligence, vigour, or beauty, is not a humiliating condition. On the contrary, one might be ashamed to have undergone a physical or moral degradation, to have descended the scale of beings, and to have lost rank in creation. [1 See, for many valuable hints on this subject. Savage Africa, by W. Win- wood Eeade, 8vo, London, 1864.—Editor.] THE END.