24 HYBRIDITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



Celtic hybridity would not on that account cease to be eugenesic, 

 provided the relative sterility did not descend beneath the de- 

 gree when the sterility becomes absolute, that is to say, when 

 the fecundity becomes insufficient. But the departments in 

 which history and ethnology prove that the intermixture has 

 been pushed to the extreme point, the population far from 

 having diminished, has increased since the revolution, namely, 

 since the establishment of new territorial divisions, as rapidly 

 as in the rest of France, and it appears to me as certain that 

 the intermixture of Kimris and Celts either between themselves, 

 or with the Romans and Germans, constitute examples of 

 eugenesic hybridity. 



We must, however, take care not to imitate the paradoxical 

 reasoning of our adversaries, and because some crossings of 

 certain races are eugenesic, to conclude, a priori, that all the 

 other intermixtures are equally so. The study of hybridity in 

 birds and quadrupeds has taught us that we can never know 

 with certainty, before making the experiment, what will be the 

 result of crossing. Neither must we forget that the ethnologi- 

 cal facts which have served us as examples apply to the inter- 

 mixture of races distinct, no doubt, but nearly related in many 

 respects. The mixture of races more distant from each other, 

 is it equally prolific, and are the descendants eugenesic ? 

 This is the question we now intend to examine. 



