7i THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Even when we encounter one or several men, presenting the char- 

 acters of these types, we cannot identify them, for lack of historical 

 documents upon the subject. Consequently, if we judge by the looks. 

 if we take account only of the men themselves, we cannot decide 

 whether the diiferences they present are differences of race or differ- 

 ences of species y whether man is to be considered as arising from a 

 single primitive stock, or whether we ought to suppose several primi- 

 tive stocks. 



But we have already said, and we again repeat, that man is an 

 03'ganized and living being ; and, as such, he obeys all the general laws 

 which govern all organized and living beings": he consequently obeys 

 the laws of crossing. These, then, we must interrogate, to find out 

 whether there is one or several species of men. 



Take, for example, the two most distinct types, those which, more 

 than any others, seem separated by profound differences the white 

 man and the ne^ro. 



If these types really constitute distinct species, their union 

 ought to bear the stamp we have found to characterize the unions 

 between animals and vegetables of different species. In the great 

 majority of cases they should be infertile ; in all the remainder, slightly 

 fertile ; the fertility should soon disappear, and they should not be 

 able to form intermediate groups between the negro and the white. 

 If these two men are only races of one and the same species, their 

 union, on the contrary, should be very fertile ; the fertility should oe 

 kept up by their descendants, and intermediate races ought to be 

 formed. 



Well, gentlemen, the facts here are decisive, and admit of no hesi- 

 tation. It is scarcely three centuries since the white man par excel- 

 lence the European made, so to say, the conquest of the world ; he 

 has gone everywhere, and everywhere he has found local races, human 

 groups that do not resemble him ; everywhere he has crossed with 

 them, and the unions have been very fertile, sometimes very sensibly 

 more fertile than those of the indigenous people themselves. 



And further, in consequence of a detestable institution, which hap- 

 pily has never sullied the soil of France, in consequence of slavery, 

 the white has taken the negro everywhere, everywhere he has crossed 

 with his slaves, and everywhere a mulatto papulation has been formed. 

 Everywhere, also, the negro has crossed with the local groups, and 

 everywhere there have sprung up intermediate races, which, by their 

 characters, proclaim this double origin. The white, finally, has 

 crossed with these mixed breeds, and hence has resulted in certain 

 parts of the globe, and notably in America, an inextricable mass of 

 mixed peoples, perfectly comparable with our street- dogs and roof- 

 cats. 



The rapidity with which these mixed races cross and multiply is 

 truly remarkable. It is hardly three centuries, about twelve genera- 



