510 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



narily include under a common denomination. Between the Aryan 

 and Semitic branches, for example, the contrast is very clear. All the 

 statistical documents and all the observations at large {grands traits) 

 that have been made to this day go to confirm the greatly superior 

 power of acclimatization of the Semitic to the Aryan peoples. The 

 latter peoples may also be divided ; and it is easy to separate those 

 varieties with different aptitudes into geographical groups. The peo- 

 ples of the south, the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Maltese, and the 

 Sicilians, are much superior to those of the north — so much so that 

 the choice of one or another of these elements might be of decisive 

 importance for the success of a colonizing enterprise. 



In this may be found the solution of the controversy into which I 

 have been drawn in the course of political debates. The fact is, that 

 the history of the colonization of the Antilles shows us that, in the 

 French and English establishments, the results of colonization have 

 always been disastrous for immigrants from Europe, while in the 

 Spanish colonies the results have been relatively favorable, although 

 not so favorable as my adversaries have wished to make them appear. 



These general observations must not, however, be accepted without 

 reservation. They as yet represent only the starting-point of the dis- 

 cussion which it remains for us to bring to bear upon two capital ques- 

 tions. The first of these questions is concerning the opinion, which 

 seems at the outset extremely plausible, that immigration into regions 

 near the tropics, or even under the tropics, is nearly harmless to peo- 

 ples who are natives of southern latitudes. Nothing is further from 

 being proved, as we may see by referring to the negroes, whom it is 

 very difficult to remove safely from one tropical country to another. 

 The French in Senegal have had sad experience of this fact, and have 

 seen death make terrible ravages among black populations which they 

 had transplanted from their native land. 



Another consideration that it is important not to lose sight of is 

 that the farther south we go the more have the Aryan branches been 

 exposed to foreign admixtures. The Maltese race, for example, ex- 

 hibits a much superior resistance to the Sicilian or the southern Span- 

 ish race. We might be tempted to explain this by the insular situa- 

 tion of the former race, and by the character of the climate of its 

 country. In that case the Maltese, transported to the African Conti- 

 nent, for instance, to a considerable distance from the coast, having 

 come out from a climate distinctly insular, might be supposed to feel 

 the change more profoundly than a Spaniard coming from his more 

 continental climate. But nothing of the kind takes place. Algerian 

 statistics establish most positively that the Maltese constantly holds 

 his overwhelming superiority in adaptability over the Spaniard. 



So the explanation of the special power of resistance shown by 

 this race can not be based entirely upon an agreement of the climate 

 of its native country with that of the place to which it emigrates. 



