Darwinism stated by Darwin himself · Charles Darwin
REVERSION IN THE HUMAN FAMILY.
The cases of reversion may be divided into two main classes, which, however, in some instances, blend into one another; namely, first, those occurring in a variety or race which has not been crossed, but has lost by variation some character that it formerly possessed, and which afterward reappears. The second class includes all cases in which an individual with some distinguishable character, a race, or species, has at some former period been crossed, and a character derived from this cross, after having disappeared during one or several generations, suddenly reappears. * * * * * [Page 21.] From these facts we may perhaps infer that the degraded state of so many half-castes is in part due to reversion to a primitive and savage condition, induced by the act of crossing, even if mainly due to the unfavorable moral conditions under which they are generally reared.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.