WHY WE MEASURE PEOPLE. 21 



is certainly presented to us by Egypt. The modern Fellah 

 differs in nowise from his ancestors, several millenniums ago 

 who lived at the times of Tothmes and Rhameses, although, 

 according to the calculations of M. Hamy, slavery had 

 introduced upon the borders of the Nile more than 

 20 millions of negroes. These, in a climate which at first 

 sight would be favourable to their acclimatisation, were not 

 able to perpetuate their race, neither directly nor indirectly, 

 that is to say, by crossing. All the more reason, one may 

 say, that the same can be said of the historic conquerors of 

 this unfortunate country, from the Hyskos and the Persians 

 up to the Turks and the latest comers, the English. The 

 waves of foreign blood that have spread over Egypt have 

 disappeared never to return. 



The reasons are many. If the aboriginal race is more 

 numerous than its invaders, and this is nearly always the 

 case, it can not be entirely destroyed, whatever be the 

 slaughter which accompanies the conquest ; the women and 

 the children are preserved. The importance of the subse- 

 quent crossings can not then, at the maximum, attain more 

 than one-third. The stable condition that follows puts 

 then ipso facto the new comer in a minority from the 

 commencement of the conquest, the work of selection by 

 acclimatisation does the rest. It is a matter of a few 

 generations. 



The only case where the occupation can be definitive is 

 that of an invasion by a very superior race emigrating with 

 women and children to a region peopled by nomads or true 

 savages, — such as the occupation of the United States or 

 of Australia by the Europeans. In Canada, despite the 

 political occupation and the incessant arrival of emigrants 

 of their own blood, the English are absolutely balanced by 

 the old French element, who were masters of the soil 

 before their arrival. 



But the presence of woman at the time of a conquest, 

 if she is indispensable to a real and definitive colonisation, 

 since alone it ensures the perpetuity of pure descendants, is 

 not, however, sufficient. Except in a savage country, the 

 women of the conquering party would always be in a 



