"Results of mixing the races," by Dr. W.A. Evans, Birmington Age Herald

"Results of mixing the races," by Dr. W.A. Evans, Birmington Age Herald

Image 458. Birmingham Age Herald NOV 9 1927 How To Keep Well By Dr. W. A. Evans Results of Mixing the Races Dr. R. M. Fleming undertook to find out how the physical qualities showed themselves in a group of mixed whites and blacks, and whites and Chinese, in an English port city. In this city there was considerable intermarriage between these several races, as well as a good many illegitimate births, and, in consequence, there was a considerable mixed breed population. In the children of mixed white and negro blood, the evidence of the latter blood is plainly descernible, even in the children of the second generation, in whom three-fourths of the inheritance was white. Since nearly all negroes and all whites have long, narrow heads, nearly all the half breeds were oong headed. Seventy per cent of the mixed breeds had the long, slender legs and the bulbous bone endings near joints that are rather peculiar to negroes. Seventy per cent had noses which showed the negro blood unmistakably. With three exceptions all showed pigmentation of the skin. This included the quarter breeds and octoroons, as well as the half breeds. The distribution of the pigment in different parts of the body was very uneven. In some the color was deeper on the face; in others on the trunk, and still others on the legs. There did not seem to be any genetic law covering pigmentation, either as to amount, distribution, or age at which it was most in evidence. Where the white parent was Portuguese the color was an orange-yellow, and the cheeks were pink -- a kind of pigmentation that was not found where the white parent was Anglo-Saxon. Thirty per cent of the children with Anglo-Saxon parent had English eyes and 50 per cent negro eyes. Fifty per cent had typical negro hair; 25 per cent had English hair. In 25 per cent the hair was a blend. In 12 per cent the lips were English; in 50 per cent they were negro, and in the remainder they were of a mixed type. All in all, the negro seemed more prepotent than the white. The qualities transmitted were more negro than white. In the mixtures of white and Chinese the following were the proportions of different physical characteristics: 47.3 per cent of the children had that peculiar fold of the skin near the eye which gives the slant eye so characteristic of the Chinese eye; 68.4 per cent had the yellow tinge to the skin, of the type which characterizes the Chinese: a like proportion had eyes of the color of those of the Chinese; 47.3 per cent had Chinese hair; 55 per cent had broad flat noses; 47.3 per cent broad lips; 40 per cent had heads which were broad across the temples, a characteristic of the Chinese head; 85 per cent had long heads. The generally accepted notion that Chinese mixed breeds tend to have round heads was not verified. The Chinese, as compared with the British, seemed to be prepotent, but not strongly as the negroes.

  • ID: 10452
  • Source: DNALC.EA