The Descent of Man

e whether the races of men, when crossed,
were in any degree sterile. He might consult the
work (9. 'On the Phenomena of Hybridity in the
Genus Homo,' Eng. translat., 1864.) of Professor
Broca, a cautious and philosophical observer,
and in this he would find good evidence that
some races were quite fertile together, but evidence
of an opposite nature in regard to other
races. Thus it has been asserted that the native
women of Australia and Tasmania rarely produce
children to European men; the evidence,
however, on this head has now been shewn 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. (10. See the
interesting letter by Mr. T.A. Murray, in the
'Anthropological 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