The Morbid Proclivities and Retrogressive Tendencies in the Offspring of Mulattoes

The Morbid Proclivities and Retrogressive Tendencies in the Offspring of Mulattoes

The Journal of the American Medical Association
Volume 20, Number 1 (1893-01-07)
pages 1-2
DOI: 10.1001/jama.1893.02420280009001

W. A. Dixon, M.D.

Read in the Section of Diseases of Children, at the Forty-third Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association, held at Detroit, Mich., June 7, 1892.

Observations extending over a period of more than thirty years have thoroughly impressed the conviction upon my mind that the offspring of mulattoes are the subjects of constitutional diseases to a greater degree than are those of unmixed blood, and that when confined strictly to their own class, they scarcely reach the fourth generation in descent, by reason of disease and sterility.

I have often wondered if others have had occasion to notice this feature in mulatto life, or whether the conclusions at which I have arrived are false and unwarranted from being based upon observations confined to a local district, yet rich in examples that go far to establish the view propounded. I believe that there is not much to be found in current medical writings upon the subject. Our locality is on the border between the free and the slave States of fifty years ago and more. It…

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