56 INTERMIXTURE OF CERTAIN RACES 



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 foetus could modify 

 the constitution of the mother to render her barren with the 

 men of her own race ; and Mr. Alex. Harvey, 1 in developing a 

 theory of Mr. McGillivray, has supposed that the embryo, 

 whilst in utero, subjected the mother, by some sort of inocula- 

 tion, 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 com- 

 municated to the mother by the mediation of the foetus. 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 an- 

 other 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 dif- 

 ficulty from horses than from asses, and he connects these in- 

 stances 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. 2 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. 3 The existence of such a phenomenon 



1 Alexander Harvey (of Aberdeen) on the Fcetus in Utero, as inoculatino- 

 the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism, and on the 

 influence thereby exercised by the males on the constitution and the repro- 

 ductive power of the female. In the Monthly Journal of Med. Science of 

 Edinburgh, vol. ix, p. 1130 ; vol. xi, p. 299; and vol. xi, p. 387 (1849-1850). 



2 Carpenter, art. " Varieties of Mankind," in Todd's Cyclopaedia of Ana- 

 tomy and Physiology, vol. iv, p. 1341 and 1365. 



3 A mare of Lord Morton, covered by a zebra, produced at first a zebra 

 mule; covered subsequently by an Arab horse she produced successively 

 three zebra foals like the first mule. 



