M. de Strzelecki has not specified that the sterilisation of the native females was the consequence of the procreation of cross-breeds. He merely speaks of sexual relations in general; and it appears to result from the text, that a native woman who has cohabited for some time with a European, becomes sterile in the intercourse with men of her own race, even if she has not produced a child.
It has, however, been assumed that this observer speaks only of such women who have at least once been impregnated by a European, and it is in this form that the question has been examined by physiologists. The question has been asked, how the gestation of a Mulatto’s fœtus could modify the constitution of the mother to render her barren with the men of her own race; and Mr. Alex. Harvey,[77] in developing a theory of Mr. McGillivray, has supposed that the embryo, whilst in utero, subjected the mother, by some sort of inoculation, to organic or dynamic modifications, the elements of which had been transmitted to the embryo by the father, and the mother would then retain the impress permanently. In support of this hypothesis, the author reminds us that certain diseases, such as old and non-contagious syphilis, may be communicated to the mother by the mediation of the fœtus. He further observes that in horses, oxen, sheep, and dogs, a female, impregnated for the first time by a male, may for a long time preserve a certain disposition to produce with another male young resembling the first, a phenomenon well-known to breeders. He finally remarks that a mare, having given birth to a mule, conceives subsequently with greater difficulty from horses than from asses, and he connects these instances with those of the native women who once impregnated by a white man, become by it barren in their connexion with men of their own race without, however, losing the capacity of becoming again pregnant by white men.
I cannot accept this adventurous theory which Dr. Carpenter was nearly ready to adopt, but which he has discarded in a postscript, owing to fresh information which he received while his article went to press.[78] The influence of the first male upon the succeeding progeny has been many times rendered evident by the crossing of animals of the same race, and even of different species.[79] The existence of such a phenomenon in the human species is, at any rate, still doubtful, and the connexion of facts of this kind, with Strzelecki’s assertion, is yet more questionable. We must also observe that Strzelecki, in pointing out the barrenness of savage women who have cohabited with the Whites, does not merely speak of such who have produced Mulattoes, but applies equally to those women who had not given birth to any children; and if Mr. Harvey had taken the exact meaning of the text, he might, perhaps, not have advanced his theory.
The observations of M. de Strzelecki, though made in various regions, have been published in a work on Australia. It was thought that he spoke especially of the native women of New South Wales, and it was more from that country that more information was expected on that subject. Mr. Heywood Thomson, a surgeon of the English navy, took up the question, and sent to the Edinburgh Monthly Journal an article tending to refute Strzelecki’s assertion. This article effectively shows that Strzelecki’s opinion was far too general. The author states, that he had known a colonist of the Macquarie river, who communicated to him the following fact:—One of his convict servants had a child born him by an Australian woman, who subsequently returned to her own tribe, had then a second child by a native man. Mr. Thomson states, that other instances of the kind had occurred in the colony; and he strikes a fatal blow at Mr. Harvey’s theory by adding, that the Australian women who have for a certain time cohabited with the Whites, are not more prolific with them than with the natives. But though Mr. Thomson has endeavoured to prove that the cohabitation with Europeans does not necessarily render Australian women barren with men of their own race, he acknowledges that such a result is very common. He admits it as a fact which cannot be contested,[80] and considers it so certain that he tries to explain it, by attributing it to the following causes:—
1. The European who has cohabited with an Australian woman, sends her away after the lapse of a few years, when she is often not young enough to produce children, as Australian women rarely conceive after the thirtieth year. 2. The cohabitation with a European modifies the constitution of the savage woman, who smokes, and is frequently intoxicated during that time. 3. Having not lost the habits of savage life, she returns to her tribe, where she now has some difficulty to support fatigues and irregularities, which diminishes her fecundity. 4. Finally, when she becomes a mother, and the fatigues of maternity are added to her other troubles, she tries to escape them by infanticide. It is to the united effect of these causes that the author attributes the rarity of children born of Australian native women who have returned to their tribes.
It is very significant when an author, despite of himself, confirms by his theories, facts which he had undertaken to disprove. I will not allude again to the story of infanticide, a hundred times more improbable here, than in cases where the child had been begotten by a European. Though it follows, from Mr. Thomson’s article, that Strzelecki’s assertion was too general, it results at the same time that the assertion was well founded. But this is not the place to search for the explanation of a phenomenon which, despite the efforts of Mr. Harvey, does not touch hybridity. If I have dwelt on the fact, it is because the polemics raised by Strzelecki’s observations have incontestably established that the cohabitation of Whites and native Australian women is very common in Australia; and we do not comprehend under this name the sexual intercourse which is accidental and transitory, such as occurs when the women come to market, but the cohabitation under the same roof, and prolonged during several months, and even years. The scarcity of Australian Mulattoes can thus be attributed neither to the rarity nor to the transitory nature of sexual intercourse; neither can we admit, until we are better informed, that the relative sterility of such crossings is the consequence of some homœogenesic defect between the two races.
In studying the cases preceding those just mentioned, we have put the question whether Mulattoes of the first degree were, between themselves, indefinitely prolific, to answer which we had to analyse a certain number of facts. In the present case the facts fail us, and the question can only be examined theoretically. No traveller or author has spoken of the alliance of Australian Mulattoes between themselves, nor of their recrossing on the parent stock. No writer has informed us whether these Mulattoes are robustious, intelligent, vivacious, or, on the contrary, weak, stupid, and short-lived. One thing appears to me certain, that the number of young Mulattoes who die at an early age, or who are not viable, must be relatively considerable, and this may perhaps have given rise to the accusation of infanticide, which I have already refuted. This defective progeny is also observed in the crossings of certain species of animals but little homœogenesic; and if it be true, as everything tends to establish, that the union of the Whites and the Australian women is but little prolific, we may suppose that Mulattoes sprung from such disparate unions, must enter the category of inferior cross-breeds. Are they very prolific between themselves? This seems not very probable, though we have no experimental knowledge of it. It is even doubtful whether they are very prolific with the Whites, for no one has mentioned the existence of Quadroon Mulattoes, which might be as easily recognised as the Quadroons of the Antilles. However small the number of hybrid women of the first degree may be, these women ought to have produced with the Whites, if they had been very prolific, a progeny which ought to have become numerous in the population of a colony founded above seventy years; for there can be no doubt that there, as everywhere, the woman of colour selects by preference the alliance of men of a superior race.
I am far from advancing these suppositions as demonstrated truths. I have studied and analysed all documents within my reach; but I cannot be responsible for facts not ascertained by myself, and which are too much in opposition to generally received opinions to be admitted without strict investigation. I, therefore, earnestly draw the attention of travellers, and especially of physicians resident in Australia to this subject, the importance of which I have endeavoured to point out. Until we obtain further particulars we can only reason upon the known facts; but these, it must be admitted, are so numerous and so authentic as to constitute if not a rigorous definitive demonstration, at least a strong presumption in favour of the doctrines of polygenists.
Conclusions on human hybridity
From the whole of our researches on the hybridity of the human race we obtain the following results:—