484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



years ago, he says: "It was to the effect that the children of 

 white women by a white father had been repeatedly observed to 

 show traces of black blood, in cases when the woman had previous 

 connection with [i. e., a child by] a negro." At the time I received 

 this information, an American was visiting me ; and, on being 

 appealed to, answered that in the United States there was an es- 

 tablished belief to this effect. Not wishing, however, to depend 

 upon hearsay, I at once wrote to America to make inquiries- 

 Prof. Cope, of Philadelphia, has written to friends in the South, 

 but has not yet sent me the results. Prof. Marsh, the distin- 

 guished paleontologist, of Yale, New Haven, who is also collect- 

 ing evidence, sends a preliminary letter in which he says : " I do 

 not myself know of such a case, but have heard many statements 

 that make their existence probable. One instance, in Connecticut, 

 is vouched for so strongly by an acquaintance of mine, that I have 

 good reason to believe it to be authentic." 



That cases of the kind should not be frequently seen in the 

 North, especially nowadays, is of course to be expected. The first 

 of the above quotations refers to facts observed in the South dur- 

 ing slavery days; and even then, the implied conditions were 

 naturally very infrequent. Dr. W. J. Youmans, of New York, has, 

 on my behalf, interviewed several medical professors, who, though 

 they have not themselves met with instances, say that the alleged 

 result, described above, " is generally accepted as a fact." But he 

 gives me what I think must be regarded as authoritative testi- 

 mony. It is a quotation from the standard work of Prof. Austin 

 Flint, and runs as follows : 



" A peculiar and, it seems to be, an inexplicable fact is, that previous preg- 

 nancies have an influence upon offspring. This is well known to breeders of 

 animals. If pure-blooded mares or bitches have been once covered by an inferior 

 male, in subsequent fecundations the young are likely to partake of the character 

 of the first male, even if they be afterward bred with males of unimpeachable 

 pedigree. What the mechanism of the influence of the first conception is, it is 

 impossible to say ; but the fact is incontestable. The same influence is observed 

 in the human subject. A woman may have, by a second husband, children who 

 resemble a former husband, and this is particularly well marked in certain in- 

 stances by the color of the hair and eyes. A white woman who has had children 

 by a negro may subsequently bear children to a white man, these children present- 

 ing some of the unmistakable peculiarities of the negro race." * 



Dr. Youmans called on Prof. Flint, who remembered "investi- 

 gating the subject at the time his larger work was written [the 

 above is from an abridgment], and said that he had never heard 

 the statement questioned." 



Some days before I received this letter and its contained quo- 



* A Text-Book of Human Physiology. By Austin Flint, M. D., LL. D. Fourth edition- 

 New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888, p. 797. 



