306 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the existence of our colonies. We know very well that there are somft 

 parts of the globe where the European is acclimated almost immedi- 

 ately ; not that he can escape all sacrifices, but they are relatively few. 

 I refer you to the case of Acadia, that country in Canada peopled by 

 sixty French families, and which, in a very short time, counted its in- 

 habitants by thousands. I may cite you also to what is passing every 

 day at the Cape, in Australia,- at Buenos Ayres. 



You see, then, in both worlds, and under the most diverse climates, 

 Europeans prosper, multiply, and work, as they do in Europe. Still 

 there are places where the question is much more diffcult of solution, 

 and which have been considered fatal to Europeans. I will name in 

 particular, on the western coast of Africa, our colony of Senegal, and 

 above all that of Gaboon ; I will point out, in America, the Antilles 

 generally, and consequently Guadeloupe and Martinique ; then French 

 Guiana. Algeria itself has been a subject of lively debate from this 

 point of view. It will seem natural to you that I should dwell a little 

 more upon this last place, because of its special interest for all of us. 



From the day of our conquest the question has been, whether the 

 French could be acclimated on the soil of- Algeria ; and, curiously 

 enough, friends and enemies, Englishmen and Frenchmen, military 

 commanders and physicians, were almost unanimously agreed that it 

 cpuld not be done. They relied on the tables of mortality, which 

 showed an excess of deaths over births. It is easy to see that a coun- 

 try, where the number of those who die gains on that of those who 

 are born, is fated to become depopulated, unless new immigrants repair 

 the annual losses. This is what was said of Algeria, and it is one of 

 the points that I have had to discuss in my lectures. 



Now, in spite of documents so often quoted, I do not hesitate to 

 say that Frenchmen have beep acclimated in Algeria, and have lived 

 there very well. To ai-rive at this conclusion I have not denied the 

 figures the facts cited by those who reached the opposite one ; on 

 the contrary, I have accepted them. But I have interpreted them, 

 resting on this principle, which we never abandon, namely, that, as re- 

 gards his body, man is an animal and nothing else. Consequently, if 

 the laws that govern animality bear heavily on him in certain circum- 

 stances, he profits, in return, by advantages that these same laws 

 bring to animals. 



Now, before studying the acclimation of man, I began by studying 

 the acclimation of plants and animals. This study taught me that, 

 from the moment when an organized species changes its environment, 

 be it plant, animal, or man, it must be resigned to make two kinds of 

 sacrifices : sacrifices bearing upon the individual, and sacrifices bear- 

 ing upon the race. In Algeria, the former were shown by the figures 

 of mortality of the army, which were much more considerable than in 

 France. The latter were made apparent by the figures of mortality 

 of children, which, in Algeria, were double those of France. 



