NOT EUGENESIC. 59 



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 alli- 

 ance 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 shortlived. 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 rela- 

 tively 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 homosogenesic ; 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 pro- 

 bable, 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 Mulat- 

 toes, 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 es- 

 pecially of physicians resident in Australia to this subject, the 



