Indigenous Races of the Earth

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250 TilE CRANIAL CilARACTERISTICS mi>...iiures of allied races. Tho .first oifect of such intermixture is to disorder the homogeneity of type by the introuuction of divergent forms. If the influx of the foreign element is suddenly arrested, these abnormal or accidental forms are absorbed into th 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 primaq stock, together with those of tho disturbing clement, disappear, as the fusion proceeds to give rise to a hybrid race blend­ing Lhe characters of both, and assuming a homogeneousness of its own, which, if the fLlsion were perfect, would very likely lead to tho supposition of its being a pure form, especially if the history of these changes was not made known. A crnnioscopist having tho 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 classi:fication, between the other two, but would be 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 be necessary, just as it is with the naturalist. As the latter, by studying the anatomi­cal peculiarities of an ~tnimal in conjunction with its history, esta­blishes its primordial character and durability, so tho ethnographer, ascertaining the osteologic difr'crentiro 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 aro 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. " 1.'ho amalgamation of mcos, thoro arc strong reasons for believing, depends chiefly on their original proximity-their likeness from tho beginning. Where races aro remote, their hybrid products aro weak, infertile, short-lived, prone to disease, and porisbablo. Where they aro primitively nearer in resemblance, thoro is still an inherent law opemtiug and controlling their intermixture, by which tho predominant bloocl overcomes that which is in minor proportion, and causes tho ofl'spring ultimately to revert to that side from which it was chiefly derived. As it is only whore the resemblance of i·aoos is most intimate that moral antagonisms can be largely ovoroomo, so it is in these cnses alone that wo may expect to. meet ':'ith the pbysicalatt.raction productive of perfect amalgamation; nature, probably, ~ttl\, at times, evincing her unsubdued rosistaneo by the occurrence of families bearing tho 1m press of one or the other of their original progenitors." 104 104 Crania Dritannioa, p. 8. OF TilE RACES OF MEN. 251 The aboriginal tribes of Australia are among the lowest specimens of humanity-tho farthest removed from the European. Now, ac­cording to Strz lecki, the women of these tribes arc incapacitated from reproducing with males of their own race, after they have once been impregnated by a Europcan. 105 Dr. Thompson, however, ex­presses his doubt of this statement, and denies iLs truth with regard to the Now Zealand women.106 "11 est rcmnrqunblc quo, quoiqu'un grand uombro d']~urop<lons llabitc.nt mnintonnnt dan ~ los mGmcs contr<!cs quo los Andamllnos, on no mentionno pas encore l'cxistcnco d'hybridcs r<!sultant do lour 'union. Cotto circonst110ce est poul-otro duo il ce quo !11 dill'ol'(·ncc ent1 o cos deux extr6miti6s do la s6ric humaino rend plus difficilo lrt pro01·6ation liOH hybrilh·~ ." 107 IIorc, thou, are the clements of a theory, or rather the i ndication:'l of an unknown physiological law, whoso importance is self-cviucnt, and whose elucidation connects itself with an allied series of plJCJlO­mcna. I allude to tho instances in which the progeny of the fcmalo by a second husband resemble the first husband in physical appear­ance, temperament, constitutional disease, &c. From the above rcmarJ-s, it will be readily inferred that every additional foreign clement introduced into a nation will only servo t.o render a thorough fusion more and more difficult. Indeed, an almost incalculable time would be requh·ed to bring the blending stocks into equilibrium, and thus canso to disappear the innumerable hybrid forms or pseudo-typos. As long as the blood of one citizen of such a nation diftored in the degree of its mixture from that of another, diverse and probably long-forgotten forms would crop out in tho most unaccountable manner, as indications of tl1c past, anu obstacles to the assumption of that perfectly homogeneous character which belongs to the pure stocks alone. To be assured of the truth of these propo itions, we have but to examine with care the popula­tion of any large commercial city, as London, Constantinople, Cadiz, Now York, &c. If, now, it be true, as Count de Gobineau maintains, in his philo­sophical inquiry into the Cause of National Degeneracy, that a nation lives aud flourishes only so long as the progressive and leading eth­nical element o1· 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 Do cription of Now South Wnlcs and Van Dicmen's Land, London, 1845. 100 Dritish und Foreign Modico-Chirurgical Review for April, 1855. 101 Des Rncos Humaincs, ou El~m6nts d'Ethnographio. Par J. J. D'Omalius D'JJo.lloy. Paris, 1845, p. 18G.