610 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

578

X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

Some children will be witty. Some do have a great deal of wit, but I don’t know how they come by it. Do you think, doctor, as the counsel on the other side does, that a pistol is an instrument of much efficacy in generation? On the contrary, sir, a pistol is generally used to take away life. There is what is called the cannon de la vie. Do you mean that? Of what color may that be, doctor? It may be black or white. Which of the two would be most influential on the birth of a white child? Most probably the white. There it is! I will lay my life that is what the man had in his hand when the scuffle began, that so strongly affected the mother. Did you ever hear how the mistress of Pope Nicholas III was brought to bed of a young bear? No, sir; but many women have had bearish children.

Mr. Sampson: After that, I think they may bear anything. Do you find a great affinity in what concerns generation, between man and beast?

Undoubtedly. May not the principle of material affection influence in one as in the other?

I am of the opinion. So that when the Dutch farmers on Long Island plough a black mare with a bay horse, to have a bay colt, the idea is not unreasonable?

There is nothing unreasonable in ploughing a black mare with a bay horse, nor in a black mare having a bay foal, more than a black hen having a white egg. Does not Mr. D’Azara lean to the notion of a primitive color?

He gives the philosophers their choice in supposing our first parents to have been either of white or black complexion.

Mr. Sampson: How do you account for the ring-streaking of Laban’s lambs? The fact we cannot doubt; we have it on such high authority. Does it appear to you an extraordinary interference of Providence in favor of an individual, or can it be accounted for by the principle of maternal affection, and by the ordinary laws of nature?

By the ordinary laws of nature. That being the case, doctor, there remains only to thank you for the information you have given us.

Dr. Paseatis: The child in question appears to be three-fourths white and one-fourth black. But I pronounce with diffidence upon such subjects, as I know how easy it is to err where there is a want of certain data. Nature is uniform in her works and faithful to fixed rules; and when facts are in dispute or doubt, there is no way of forming an opinion but by recurring to those rules which experience has established. I have lived long in the West Indies, and have remarked three principal characteristics of the negro race, and all compounded of it. First, the crispations of the hair. Second, the rete mucosum which gives the black hue to the skin. Third, the conformation of their legs and feet. These characterizing marks are discernible in all the mixtures between black and white; but according as the mixture participates more of one than of the other, so naturally will the hair, the features, the complexion, and the structure of the limbs. I have observed, further, that in general when there happened in any one or more of these distinguishing indications a deviation from the general rule, it was owing to some accidental cause, and not to any inherent principle in the race itself.

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