( 4° 6 ) 
[June, 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
SOME FACTS ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 
To the Editor of The journal of Science. 
Sir, — The fertility and durability of crosses between diverse 
human races has been, and continues to be, the subject of debate 
among anthropologists, and thus any little fadt, the result of 
observation, is interesting to its professors. 
During a sojourn of three years on the West Coast of Africa, 
the subject being interesting to me I made it a matter of observa- 
tion and enquiry. In result I found the intercourse between a 
white man and negro woman was generally fruitful. The issue 
intermarrying with the issue of a similar character, generally, I 
may say was always productive and apparently healthy : in the 
second generation, on such intermarriage, the issue were weakly 
and unhealthy; more so in a third generation, when usually they 
died out. If a mulatto coon of the second generation had issue 
by a white or a black man, the virility of the descendants was 
restored. If the issue was again crossed by a white or a black 
man, so far as vigour and appearance went they were almost 
indistinguishable from the stock of the male parentage. What 
the result would be between a white mother and a black father I 
was unable to ascertain. Probably on the coast such an alliance 
was never formed. 
Since my return to England I met with such an instance. A 
negro married a white woman, and had issue a son, who inter- 
married with a niece of the wife, and had issue three sons : the 
second son married a woman of the same stock as his mother, 
and has seven Children (five girls and two boys), who are as 
healthy as the children of the white poor usually are ; the girls 
have less of the negro type than the boys. The father of the 
children is very swarthy, and has fine curly silky hair, and a 
slight figure. His negro descent is unmistakable ; although he 
has no thick lips, yet there is something about him, to those who 
are acquainted with the class, which would indicate the negro 
descent. The elder brother is a short burly figure, more negro- 
like than the brother just described. He married a white 
woman, but of an alien stock ; his issue are sturdy and strong. 
The third son would anywhere be taken for a man without the 
