252 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



d'entraver les croisements. Elles se causent a elles-memes le 

 plus grand de tous les maux: rabatardissement de la race." 



In Ploss-Bartel's monumental work, Das Weib, it is stated that 

 race mixture in general increases the beauty of the female sex, 

 a statement in which he is supported by Reibmayer {Inzucht und 

 Vermischung beim Menschen, p. 64). Boas says that "observa- 

 tions on half-breed Indians show that a type taller than either 

 parental race develops in the mixed blood ; that the fertility of the 

 mixed blood is unexceeded ; and that I cannot find any evidence 

 that would corroborate the view so often expressed, that the hy- 

 brid of distinct types tends to degenerate." E. Fischer, who has 

 devoted an extensive study to the Boer-Hottentot hybrids of 

 South Africa, describes them as of good vitality, fertile and effi- 

 cient, and presenting no evidence of deterioration. According to 

 Hoffmann the intermixture of native Hawaiian women with full- 

 blooded Chinese has produced a physically and morally superior 

 type, and Dr. Baelz maintains that the Japanese-Caucasian cross 

 breeds are physically and intellectually the equals of the mem- 

 bers of either pure race. 



With all the opportunity that has been afforded for the study 

 of negro-white crosses it might be supposed that the biological 

 status of such mixtures would be well known. But this is far from 

 the case. The general opinion is that the mulatto is inferior in 

 physical development, vitality, and especially prone to disease. 

 Hoffmann quotes from the report of the Provost Marshal Gen- 

 eral eleven statements of examining surgeons in the Civil War. 

 Ten of these express an unfavorable opinion of the physical con- 

 dition of the mulatto, and in only one instance was an opinion 

 given favorable to the mixed type and that was based on only 

 two cases which made it of no determining value. While the 

 mulatto is not inferior in weight and is of intermediate height, his 

 lung capacity is less than that of either pure race. According to 

 Gould, the average lung capacity of white soldiers in the Civil 

 War was 184.7 cubic inches; of negroes 163.5, while in the mulatto 

 it was only 158.9, The chest circumference was found to be for 

 whites 35.8 inches, for negroes 35.1, and 34.97 for mixed breeds.^ 



