166 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



fested by the same species of Pediculi or lice. Now Mr. A. 

 Murray has carefully examined the Pediculi collected in different 

 countries from the different races of man;^ and he finds that 

 they differ, not only in color, but in the structure of their claws 

 and limbs. In every case in which many specimens were obtained 

 the differences were constant. The surgeon of a whaling ship 

 in the Pacific assured me that whgn the Pediculi, with which 

 some Sand-Wich Islanders on board swarmed, strayed on to the 

 bodies of the English sailors, they died in the course of three 

 or four days. These Pediculi were darker colored, and appeared 

 different from those proper to the natives of Chiloe in South 

 America, of which he gave me specimens. These, again, appeared 

 larger and much softer than European lice. Mr. Murray pro- 

 cured four kinds from Africa, namely from the Negroes of the 

 Eastern and Western coasts, from the Hottentots and Kaffirs; 

 two kinds from the natives of Australia; two from North and 

 two from South America. In these latter cases it may be pre- 

 sumed that the Pediculi came from natives inhabiting different 

 districts. With insects slight structural differences, if constant, 

 are generally esteemed of specific value: and the fact of the 

 races of man being infested by parasites, which appear to be 

 specifically distinct, might fairly be urged as an argument that 

 the races themselves ought to be classed as distinct species. 



Our supposed naturalist having proceeded thus far in his In- 

 vestigation, would next Inquire whether the races of men, when 

 crossed, were in any degree sterile. He might consult the work" 

 of Professor Broca, a cautious and philosophical observer, and in 

 this he would find good evidence that some races were quite fertile 

 together, hut evidence of an opposite nature in regard to other 

 races. Thus it has been asserted that the native women of Aus- 

 tralia and Tasmania rarely produce children to European men; 

 the evidence, however, on this head has now been shown to be 

 almost valueless. The half-castes are killed by the pure blacks: 

 and an account has lately been published of eleven half-caste 

 youths murdered and burnt at the same time, whose remains 

 were found by the police." Again, it has often been said that 

 when mulattoes intermarry they produce few children; on the 



s 'Transact. R. Soc. of Edinburgh,' vol. xxii. 1861, p. 567. 



" 'On the Phenomena of Hybrldity in the Genus Homo,' Eng. translat. 

 1S64. 



i» See the interesting letter by Mr. T. A. Murray, in the 'Anthropolog. 

 Review,' April, 1868 p. liii. In this letter Count Strzelecki's statement, 

 that Australian women who have borne children to a white man are 

 afterwards sterile with their own race, is disproved. M. A. de Qua- 

 trefages has also collected ('Revue des Cours Scientiflques,' March, 

 1869, p. 239) much evidence that Australians and Europeans are not 

 sterile when crossed. 



