On the foetus in utero : as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism in a series of essays now first collected / by Alexander Harvey.

  • Harvey, Alexander, 1811-1889.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the foetus in utero : as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism in a series of essays now first collected / by Alexander Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cases where, after connection of the kind in ques- tion, fruitful intercourse has taken place between a native man and woman. But in a communication on the subject with which he has favoured me, the Count assu]-es me, that he has never met with such a case. It has not (he writes me) come under my cognizance to see or hear of a native female, who, having- a child with a European, had afterwards any offspring with a male of her own race. And I am informed by Professor Groodsir, and by Dr. Car- michael, of Edinburgh, and by Dr. Maunsell, of Dablin, that they have learned from independent sources, that, as regards the aborigines of Australia, Strzelecki's statement is unquestionable, and must be regarded as the expression of a law of nature.^ Assuming that the fact is truly a law of nature, and that it holds as absolutely and extensively as Strzelecki's experience would lead us to infer, it is, as Professor Goodsir observes, a very remark- able one, and indicates a series of influences of high import in the natural history of the human race. What that import is, it may not be easy to compre- hend, nor perhaps is it a short line that will fathom it. But it seems to indicate, how little account * The intercourse of Kamehamha's men [people] and that of the whiilc shififi [manned by Eurnpeans], which now began to anchor in their waters, was sadly disastrous to the native consiitu- tion and morals, poisoning the fountains of health, and inducing premature decay and barrenness. This observation, though by no means very definite, seems to point to the fact aUutled to in the text. See an article entitled On the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands, in the New York Biblical Repository and Critical Review, for .July, 184'J.