On a remarkable effect of cross-breeding / by Alexander Harvey.

  • Harvey, Alexander, 1811-1889.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a remarkable effect of cross-breeding / by Alexander Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    gent, though as mysterious, as the rest of those connect- ed with generation.” * In the woi’k in which the foregoing allegations are made, Strzelecki does not state whether he has ever met with exceptional cases,—that is to say, cases where, after con- nection of the kind in question, 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 assures 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, which, hav- ing a child with a European, had afterwards any offspring with a male of her own race.” And I am informed by Professor Goodsir, and by Dr. Carmichael of Edinburgh, and by Dr. Maunsell, of Dublin, 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.f* Assuming that the fact is truly a law of nature, and that it holds as absolutely and extensively as Strzelecki’s ex- perience would lead us to infer, “ it is,” as Professor Goodsir observes, “ a very remarkable one, and indicates a series of influences of high import in the natural history of the human x’ace.” What that import is, it may not be easy to comprehend, nor perhaps is it a short line that will fathom it. But it seems to indicate, how little account soever might be taken of it by the author of “ The Ves- tiges of the Natural History of Creation,” that there is in * “ Pliysical Description of New South Whiles and Van Dieman’s Land,” p. 347. t “ The intercourse of Kamchainha’s men [people] and that of the whale ships [manned by Europeans], wliich now began to anchor in their waters, was sadly disastrous to the native constitution and morals, poison- ing the fountains of health, and inducing premature decay and burren- ness. Tliis observation though by no means very definite, seems to point to the fact alluded to in the text. See an article entitled “ On the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands,” in the “ Now York IJiblical Re- pository and Critical Review,” for July, 1849.