Abstract
SIGNOR COLAJANNI, a Socialist deputy and professor of statistics, is a convinced opponent of the doctrine of Anglo-Saxon superiority. The questions which he proposes to himself are, in brief:—(a) the meaning of the terms race and nation; (b) the existence of distinctive racial qualities; (c) the transmission of acquired qualities; (d) the equivalence of decadence in the nation and senescence in the individual. He concludes (a) that we have no data by which to determine the specific racial attributes of Sergi's European types; (b) that the terms superior and inferior, save as an expression of their relative positions at a given moment, have no meaning when applied to nations; (c) that acquired qualities are transmitted, especially when segregation favours fixation of the type; and (d) that decadence is relative, by comparison with the progress of other nations; nations may, phœnix-like, rise from their ashes and attain a second time to greatness.
Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races supérieures et Races inférieures.
By Prof. N. Colajanni. Translation by Julien Dubois. Pp. xx + 432. (Paris: F. Alcan, 1905.) Price 9 francs.
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T., N. Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races supérieures et Races inférieures . Nature 72, 533 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072533a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072533a0