552 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tlie whites are more fecund, and the successive censuses appear to prove 

 that during the three and a half centuries which have elapsed since 

 the settlement of the country, the comparatively few white immigrants 

 have multiplied at a far more rapid ratio than the multitudes of negroes 

 brought over from Africa, or the Indian aborigines. 



In 1890 an enumeration was made of the married couples in the 

 city of Eio de Janeiro; the race and color of each partner was ascer- 

 tained and reported, and also the number of children born of each 

 marriage. The average number of children in families where both 

 parents were white is given as 3.507, while the black families produced 

 only 2.987, and the intermarriages of blacks and mulattoes, 2.908. Of 

 all the children 75.2 per cent, were the offspring of parents who were 

 both white, leaving 24.8 per cent, for children of mixed or colored 

 blood. The total white population was returned as 62.7 per cent, and 

 of the other races at 37.3. Taking the four races separately, the 

 whites, numbering 62.7 per cent, of the total population, took part in 

 only 6.9 per cent, of the marriages and only 6.1 per cent, of the chil- 

 dren had one or both parents black. The Indians were 3.4 of the 

 population and furnished 2.4 per cent, of the marriages and children. 

 Those reported as mulattoes composed 21.6 per cent, of the population, 

 but took part in only 13.9 per cent, of the marriages, which produced 

 13.2 per cent, of the children. Irregular unions producing children are 

 reported as marriages, and therefore the differences indicated above can 

 not be explained by assuming that negroes, mulattoes and Indians 

 live in concubinage more than the whites. A considerable number of 

 those reported as 'white' have a small amount of negro or Indian 

 blood in their veins, but this fact does not affect the conclusion that 

 fecundity increases with the predominance of white descent. 



Leaving out the mixed marriages, the superior fecundity of the 

 whites is still more apparent. Of the children of unions where both 

 parties belonged to the same race, 81.6 were white; 11, mulatto; 5.3, 

 negro, and 2.1, Indian, while the respective percentages of total pop- 

 ulation were: white, 62.7; mulatto, 21.6; negro, 12.3, and Indian, 3.4. 



It is therefore clear that even in Rio, a seacoast city whose climate 

 is reputed particularly fatal to Europeans, whites now show a greater 

 propensity to marriage than the black or mixed races, and that their 

 unions are more prolific. Comparative mortality statistics are not 

 available, but it is probable that the acclimatized whites are longer 

 lived than the other components of the population, and that this has 

 cooperated with their superior fecundity in bringing about a more 

 rapid increase as compared with other races. The various censuses of 

 the city of Eio de Janeiro taken in the last hundred years show the 

 result that was to be expected from the above figures. The percentage 

 of whites increased from 45 per cent, in 1799 to 55 per cent, in 1872, 



