mixtures of allied races. The first effect of such intermixture is to
disorder the homogeneity of type hy the introduction of divergent
forms. If the influx of the foreign Clement is suddenly arrested,
these abnormal or accidental forms are absorbed into the primary
type. If the introduction is continued over a long period, the homogeneous
aspect of the nation is destroyed, and the physical characters
of the primary stock, together with those of the disturbing element,
disappear, as the fusion proceeds to give rise to a hybrid race blending
the characters of both, and assuming a homogeneousness of its
own, which, if the fusion were perfect, would very likely lead to the
supposition of its being a pure form, especially if the history of these
changes was not made known. A cranioscopist having the skulls of
such a people in his cabinet, together with specimens of those of the
primary stocks from which it sprung, could easily assign it a place
in classification, between the other two, hut would he puzzled not a
little to determine whether it was a primary or secondary form, a
pure race or not. A resort to history would here he necessary, just
as it is with the naturalist. As the latter, hy studying the anatomical
peculiarities of an animal in conjunction with its history, establishes
its primordial character and durability, so the ethnographer,
ascertaining the osteologic differentiae of the races of men, and contrasting
them with the records of remote, historic times, is enabled
to point out the durability of certain types through all the vicissitudes
of time and place. In this way,'alone, can he discriminate
primary typical forms from secondary or hybrid — a pure race from
a mixed breed.
The thoroughness of the fusion, and the time required to effect it,
will depend very much upon the degree of difference between the
parent stocks, and upon the relative numbers which are brought
into contact. The more closely allied the groups, the more likely
are they to fuse completely; the more widely separated, the less
likelihood is there of a perfect intermixture.
“ The amalgamation of races, there are strong reasons for believing, depends chiefly on
their original proximity—their likeness from the beginning. Where races are remote, their
hybrid products are weak, infertile, short-lived, prone to disease, and perishable. Where
they are primitively nearer in resemblance, there is still an inherent law operating and
controlling their intermixture, by which the predominant blood overcomes that which is in
minor proportion, and causes the offspring ultimately to revert to that side from which it
was chiefly derived. As it is only where the resemblance of races is most intimate that
moral antagonisms can be largely overcome, so it is in these cases alone that we may expect
to meet with the physical attraction productive of perfect amalgamation ; nature, probably,
still, at times, evincing her unsubdued resistance by the occurrence of families bearing the
impress of one or the other of their original progenitors.”104
104 Crania Britannica, p. 8.
The aboriginal tribes of Australia are among the lowest specimens
of humanity—the farthest removed from the European. How, according
to Strzelecki, the women of these tribes are incapacitated
from reproducing with males of their own .race, after they have once
been impregnated by a European.105 Dr. Thompson, however, expresses
his doubt of this statement, and denies its truth with regard
to the Hew Zealand women.106
“ D est remarquable que, quoiqu’un grand nombre d’Européens habitent maintenant dans "
les memesicontrées que les Andamènes, on n i mentionne pas encore l’existence d’hybrides
résultant de leur union. Cette circonstance est peut-être due à ce que la difference entre
ces deux extrémitiés de la série humaine rend plus difficile la procréation des hybrides.” w
Heré, then, are the elements of a theory, or rather the indications
of an unknown physiological law, whose importance is self-evident,
and whose elucidation connects itself with an allied series of phenomena.
I allude to the , instances in which the progeny of the female
by a second husband resemble the first husband in physical appearance,
temperament, constitutional disease, &c.
From the above remarks, it will be readily inferred that every
additional foreign element introduced into a nation will only serve
to render a thorough fusion more and more difficult. Indeed, an
almost incalculable time would be required to bring the blending
stocks into equilibrium, and thus cause to disappear the innumerable
hybrid forms or pseudo-types. As long as the blood of one citizen
of such a nation differed in the degree of its mixture from that of
another, diverse and probably long-forgotten forms would crop out
m the most unaccountable manner, as indications of the past, and
obstacles to the assumption of that perfectly homogeneous character
which belongs to the pure stocks alone._ To be assured of the truth
of these propositions, we have but to examine with care the population
of any large commercial city,, as London, Constantinople, Cadiz
Hew York, &c.
If, now, it be true, as Count de Gobineau maintains, in his philosophical
inquiry into the Cause of Hational Degeneracy, that a nation
hves and flourishes only so long as the progressive and leading ethnical
element or principle, upon which it is based, is preserved in a
vigorous state, and that the exhaustion of this principle is invariably
accompanied with political death, then should the American statesman
turn aside from the vapid and mischievous party-questions of
the day—questions whose very littleness should permit them to pass
105 Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, London, 1845.
106 British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review for April, 1855.
Im Des Races Humaines, ou Éléménts d’Ethnographie. Par J. J. D’Omalius D’Hallov
Pans, 1845, p. 186. ;