176 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



The first impregnation seems to exert in cross-breeds, both in 

 animals and in man, an important influence on physical forma- 

 tion. A mare which has first produced a mule produces subse- 

 quently indifferent colts ; a sow first crossed by a wild boar, 

 a bitch with a dog of a different race, Subsequently produce 

 young resembling the first. Thus it has often been observed, 

 that the children of a second marriage resemble those of the 

 first husband. 1 With regard to cross-breeds of various races, 

 instances are recorded of Negresses who, after having first 

 given birth to Mulatto children, had subsequently children by 

 a Negro, which, however, resembled the father of the first. 2 

 That Negresses, after having had Mulatto children, no longer 

 conceive by a Negro, as has been asserted, is an error. This 

 applies also to Strzelecki's assertion, 3 that the native women of 

 a great part of North America, as well as those of Polynesia, 

 Australia, and Yan Diemen's Land, were sterile with men of 

 their own stock after having once been impregnated by Euro- 

 peans. That he is wrong as regards the Australian women has 

 been shown by Thompson. 4 



In proceeding now to the chief question, namely, the com- 

 parison between mongrels and the original types as regards 

 unlimited prolificacy, we may assume as a demonstrated fact, 

 that however many types of mankind we may assume, all of 

 them (as far as our present knowledge extends) are prolific 

 between each other, and produce by intermixture certain inter- 

 mediate types which exhibit in various degrees the characters 

 of the parents. By crossing, it may be generally asserted, the 

 lower type is improved by a higher type, as, for instance, the 

 Negro into the Mulatto, the American Indian into the Mestizo; 

 and this improvement progresses when the connection of the 

 cross-breeds with individuals of a higher type is continued : thus 

 from Mulattoes spring Tertroon, Quadroon, Quintroon. This 

 improvement of the race corresponds to the deterioration of the 



1 Instances of this kind in Lucas, and in Latham, " Man and his migra- 

 tions," p. 65. 



2 Harvey in Nott and Gliddon, p. 396. 



3 " Descript. of N. S. Wales," p. 347, 1842. 



4 Fechner's " Centralbl.," 1853; Todd, "Cyclop.," p. 1365; and "Munch. 

 Gel. Anz.," p. 197, 1852. 



