io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



their native climate. They regard themselves as the equal of 

 the whites, and look in a patronizing way on the Indian. Their 

 families are usually very large, and the female sex is said to be 

 very handsome. 



Quite recently I had occasion to investigate the question 

 whether pulmonary consumption tends to exterminate the Amer- 

 ican Indian ? * and I then found that nearly all those Indian 

 agencies which show the lowest consumption rate are precisely 

 those which are shown in the table of this paper to contain the 

 largest number of mixed bloods. Of course, it is just possible 

 that the presence and the absence of pulmonary consumption in 

 certain tribes is purely a coincidence ; yet I think, from what has 

 been said concerning the improved physical condition of the 

 mixed Indian, it is quite evident that the greater immunity of 

 these tribes from consumption is due to the fact that they com- 

 prise a large element which has a superior power of warding off 

 disease. 



These facts and inductions obviously show that Nature steps 

 in and adds more toward a solution of the difficulties of the In- 

 dian problem than statesmanship has ever accomplished. Such 

 a process, although at the beginning it acts prejudicially to the 

 interests of the white race, will in the end operate to the advan- 

 tage of both races. There can be no doubt that the harmony of 

 feeling which it establishes, and the permanency of common 

 interests which it insures, counterbalance all the evils which it 

 ever inflicted. Moreover, these developments also confirm the 

 wisdom of the course of our Government, and that of our phil- 

 anthropic people who have undertaken to second these efforts 

 of Nature, by educating and training the growing generation of 

 Indians in the ways of civilization and of Christianity. 



DARWINISM AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



I. 



THE publication of the " Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,-' 

 a review of which has already appeared in the pages of the 

 " Guardian," seems a fitting opportunity for attempting to face 

 the question how far Darwinism affects Christian faith, and 

 what are the points of traditional interpretation or apology 

 which are modified by it. Christian theology has no fear of 

 scientific discoveries. It claims all truth as belonging of right 

 to Him who is the Truth. But Christian theologians are but 

 slowly learning that panic fear of new theories is as unreason- 



* See "New York Medical Journal," for May '7, IBS';. 



