Abstract
ON February 8 a well-attended meeting of the Manchester University Branch of the Association of Scientific Workers heard a lecture on “Race Theories“by Prof. F. Wood Jones. The differences between various types of men are sumcient for them to be classified in three distinct species, the leiotrichi or mongol, the ulotrichi or negro, and the cymotrichi. The last-named species, to which we belong, is rather less easy to define. Since interbreeding between the species readily occurs, the view that there is only one species, Homo sapiens, has been widely, held. Numerous zoological and botanical examples of the interbreeding of species with the production of fertile offspring are now known, and it is therefore again justifiable to speak of three distinct species, particularly as they can be distinguished in embryo less than three months old, as well as in fossil remains of the pleistocene period. Within these species are numerous sub-species or races, each with distinct characteristics. Segregation whether geographical, or religious and political as in the case of the Jews in Europe, tends to produce such races. Nevertheless in Europe at the present time there is no nation in which more than 10 per cent of the population belongs to a pure race. The belief that half-breeds of certain races inherit the worst qualities of both races is quite unfounded. The belief probably arose because in certain cases only the least desirable elements in both races produced such half-breeds. Professor Wood Jones strongly advocated intermarriage between all races.
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Race Theories. Nature 151, 220 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151220b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151220b0