ACCLIMATIZATION. 785 



rility from climate as a single cause in this part of tlio world, 

 then, can neither be affirmed nor denied, from utter lack of evi- 

 dence.* 



On the contrary, a number of examples of continued fertility 

 might be given. Brace affirms the Jews to be fertile even in 

 Cochin-China, f and Joest says that Europeans in Africa often 

 bear children.]; The Spanish women in Guayaquil, on the 

 authority of Dr. Spruce, in a climate where the temperature is sel- 

 dom below 83 F., and in the complete absence of intermarriage 

 with the natives, are the finest along the coast ; and the white 

 population is exceedingly prolific* The experience of Algeria, 

 so far at least as heat is concerned, seems to bear out the same 

 conclusion, the birth-rate being higher even than in France. I De 

 Quatrefages, despite his inference of a temporary infertility, cer- 

 tainly takes a hopeful view for the other French colonies."^ Some 

 remarkable examples of fecundity, indeed, are not lacking. Some 

 years ago, an English woman, never out of India, not even taking 

 a vacation in the hills, died at the age of ninety-seven, leaving 

 eighteen children.^ Tilt, however, denies that the English in 

 general can ever become acclimated there. % Sterility, of course, 

 while most important, is not the only element in the acclimatiza- 

 tion of the race. Even if we could affirm that sterility did not 

 result, the perpetuation of a people in the tropics would not 

 necessarily follow ; for the mother may seldom survive child- 

 birth, as in the East Indies and on the Zambesi, % or the children 

 may seldom survive, J the age of six being often a critical period.** 

 But these facts have no connection with sterility or the reverse, 

 although they may produce the same negative result in the end. 

 The final word upon this subject awaits more carefully sifted 

 evidence than any we now possess. 



Comparative Aptitudes of European Nations. The 

 future political destiny of Africa is not unlikely to be dominated 

 by a remarkable fact namely, the severe handicap against which 

 the Teutonic stock, and especially the Anglo-Saxon branch, strug- 

 gles in the attempt permanently to colonize the tropics. And 



* Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, 1886, p. 92. 

 \ Wallace, op. cit. 



X Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 1885, p. 473. 



* Wallace, op. cit. 



II Levasseur, La Population Fran9aise, iii, p. 432. 

 ^ Op. cit, p. 231. 



Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 1885, p. Z19. 

 X Health in India for British Women. 

 ^ Peschel, Wallace, Quatrefages. 



J Jousset, op. cit., p. 314. Cf. Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropo- 

 logie, 1885, p. 258, on Egypt, ** Wallace, op. cit. 



VOL. XLVIII. 51 



