92 INTRODUCTION. 



the original slacks, or it will become extinct by reverting to the 

 original types, or by ceasing to be prolific. Nobody doubts that 

 mixed offspring may be produced by intermarriage of different i 

 The Griquas, the Papuas, the Cafusos, and the mulattoea of the 

 Americas, bo elaborately described and enumerated by Prichard, 

 only show the existence of such races; and that the same c 

 which first produced them may continue to produce them. The 

 point is, whether they would be perpetuated if Btrictly confined to 

 intermarriages among themselves. It Ins been said, as the result 

 of observation, that, when tin- descendants of muluttocs intermarry 

 for a few generations, (without mixture of the primitive r 

 the offspring either ceases to be prolific, or reverts towards tip- 

 original stocks. The same is true, as far as has been observed, 

 of the mixture of the white and red races. 



In the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 for April 22, 1851, is a communication from Dr. S. G. Morton, on 

 the infrequency of mixed offspring between the European and Aus- 

 tralian races. This well-known fact led the colonial government to 

 official inquiries; and to the result that in thirty-one districts, whose 

 inhabitants were 15,000 in number, the half-breeds did not es 

 200. Infanticide, disease, promiscuous intercourse, and the natural 

 repugnance of races, would not explain the fact in Australia, when 

 similar causes elsewhere are not followed by similar effects. " Is 

 not," he asks, " the real cause of the difference of race the disparity 

 of primordial organization ?" 



The strongest argument in favor of this is that no new variety 

 of men has ever been thus formed and perpetuated by the mixture of 

 races, though there has been no greater obstacle to the permanence 

 of such races than of the existing pure races ; we have a right to 

 believe such a permanent race impossible till the contrary is proved. 

 This conclusion is strengthened by the well-known consequences of 

 intermarriage of near relations in civilized communities ; every one 

 conversant with the subject knows that scrofula, imbecility, and idiocy 

 are to be traced to this intermixture as effects to their cause. His- 

 tory abundantly shows that artificial breeds, mixed races of men (and 

 animals) are never permanent and self-supporting ; they require sup- 

 plies from the pure breeds, or they become extinct. Look at the 

 Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru ; the " Mulatto " (which 

 means a mixed race) arose from the mingling of European and 

 Indian blood. The supply from Spain has ceased ; the native 

 Indian continues, and upon him the Mulatto is forced ; thus the pop- 

 ulation gradually returns to the aboriginal Indian type as in the days 

 of Montezuma ?nd the Incas. The same is true of the mixture of 



