488 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



recognize in the different national types. Upon looking up the nation- 

 ality of the Cuban teachers as recorded on their cards, we find that of 

 the men 74 per cent, had Cuban fathers and mothers, 17 per cent, had 

 Spanish fathers and Cuban mothers, while 2 per cent, descended from 

 parentage of mixed Cuban, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, 

 Negro and American origin. 



Among the women, 71 per cent, had Cuban fathers and Cuban 

 mothers, 22 per cent. Spanish fathers and Cuban mothers, 3 per cent. 

 Spanish fathers and Spanish mothers, while 4 per cent, had mixed 

 descent of Cuban, American, French and Mexican origin. In both 

 the men and women the descent is so largely Cuban and Spanish that 

 the influence of the other nationalities would hardly be appreciable. 

 We must look, then, to Spanish and Cuban ancestry and to the con- 

 ditions under which they have lived to account in a large measure for 

 the poor physique of their descendants as we see them to-day. 



Looking up the physical status of the Spaniards, as shown by their 

 height and weight, we find the height of the average Spaniard to be 

 ii'i.64 inches, according to the report of the Anthropometric Commit- 

 tee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and 

 Baxter's report of the soldiers entering the U. S. Army during the 

 Civil War. In the latter report, the men from Italy, Spain and Por- 

 tugal, in the order given, are shown to have had the lowest average 

 stature of all the recruits that entered the service. Assuming that 

 the Spanish soldiers were built on the same lines as the Cuban teachers, 

 that is, weighing about 1.77 pounds to every inch in stature, it would 

 make them average about 116.18 pounds. This is a very low standard 

 of physical attainment, and ranks the Spanish immigrants who come 

 to this country with the Portuguese, Hungarians, Hindoos, Bavarians, 

 Chinese and North American Esquimaux. 



Concerning the causes that have led to Spain's physical, mental 

 and moral deterioration, it is hardly necessary to speak. When we 

 consider that during the dark days of the Inquisition, from 1481 to 

 1808, more than 340,000 persons were punished for their religious con- 

 victions, and 32,000 of these were burnt alive, and that thousands who 

 represented the nation's best blood fled from the country — what other 

 result could have been expected? Let us turn now to the island of 

 Cuba. Columbus described the native Cubans as 'loving, tractable 

 and peaceable; though entirely naked, their manners were decorous 

 and praiseworthy.' Another authority says 'the early Cubans seem 

 to have been men of medium height, broad shoulders, brown skinned, 

 fiat-featured and straight-haired.' Into this native element has been 

 ] mured an infusion of Spaniards, Creoles, Negroes, Chinese and other 

 foreign blood, with its inevitable tendency to mix races. 



Prom a physical point of view, the Cubans of to-day are inferior to 



