574 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Suffice it to note here that the Honorable Mr. Olivier, governor of 

 Jamaica, recognizes in the presence of the mulatto only a past bless- 

 ing, a present advantage, and a future promise of great good. 



In the beginning we shall need to raise the question once more as to 

 whether the Negro and Caucasian are actually different man-species, 

 as was held by the eminent zoologist, Louis Agassiz, and as is still held 

 by many, as, for example, the noted French psychologist, Le Bon; or 

 whether they simply represent different "races" or varieties of the 

 same species homo, as is more commonly believed. Le Bon quotes with 

 approval : 



If the Negro and the Caucasian were snails, all zoologists would affirm 

 unanimously that they constitute excellent species, which could never have de- 

 scended from the same couple from which they had gradually come to differ. 1 



However, simply external gross appearance is no infallible criterion 

 by which to judge of species. And the more highly developed the or- 

 ganism the wider do the individuals differ within the species. Two 

 human brothers may differ infinitely more than two true snail-species. 

 Zoology can furnish many examples where a larval form, or individuals 

 of opposite sex, or the same form modified by peculiar environmental 

 conditions, have been mistaken for separate species. The real scien- 

 tific test is that of impossibility of effecting a cross, or of infertility 

 inter se of hybrids of a possible cross. A cross between the horse and 

 the ass produces a mule. But mules are infertile if interbred. Hence 

 horse and ass are separate species. A very valuable cross can also be 

 effected between the cow and the buffalo. But the offspring are barren 

 bred among themselves. Hence cow and buffalo are at least of different 

 species. The mulatto is the product of a negro-white cross. He is as 

 fecund with his own kind, or when he mates with white or negro, as 

 either pure-breeding negroes or whites are. As a matter of fact, the 

 mulatto is probably more prolific than the normal average of either 

 white or negro. During the past twenty years he has increased at 

 twice the rate of the Negro. The Negro is then simply a black variety 

 of the human species. He is the white man's brother; and we may 

 both be cousins of the apes. 



The second question that presents itself is this : Is the mulatto nec- 

 essarily degenerate? The idea has been and is very eminently and 

 widely held that the crossing of races is intrinsically bad, biologically 

 harmful; that it inevitably and inexorably works deterioration. 

 Agassiz noted in Brazil a 



decadence that results from cross-breeding which goes on in this country to a 

 greater extent than elsewhere. This cross-breeding is fatal to the best qualities 

 whether of the white man, the black, or the Indian, and produces an indescribable 

 type whose physical and mental energy suffers. 



!"The Psychology of Peoples," New York, 1912, p. 4. 



