32 INTERMIXTURE OP CERTAIN RACES 



" In a colony, that is to say in an island, or a part of a 

 continent of limited extent peopled by Negroes and 'white men 

 for some centuries, the greater part of the population should 

 be composed of mulattoes. . . . 



" But it is not so, and whatever be the number of mulattoes 

 in the colonies, the predominance of the Negro and Caucasian 

 species is not less certain. . . . There is, besides, a fact known 

 to persons inhabiting the colonies, that the white women and 

 the negresses are very prolific, which is not the case with the 

 mulatresses. 



" We believe to be the first who has pointed out the sterility 

 in human cross-breeds. We have not been able to collect 

 precise and positive observations based on figures; but we 

 think that the figures will be soon forthcoming now that the 

 attention of observers is drawn to the subject." 



The avowal which terminates this passage, much diminishes 

 its importance. M. Jacquinot, not having sojourned long in 

 the various countries he visited, was only able to collect super- 

 ficial observations in regard to a question which requires long* 

 and minute researches. But Mr. Nott, one of the most eminent 

 anthropologists of America, was in a better condition to study 

 this subject. 



Living in a country where the Caucasian and Ethiopian 

 races are much mixed, and enabled by his profession as a physi- 

 cian to make his observations on a great number of individuals, 

 he arrived at conclusions similar to those of M. Jacquinot. 

 His first essay on hybridity appeared in 1842. It was but a 

 short paper, which attracted but little notice, and which we 

 have not been able to consult, no copy of it being in the Paris 

 library. M. Jacquinot, whose work appeared in 1846, had 

 certainly no knowledge of this essay, his observations having 

 been made in 1836-40, before M. Nott had published his own. 

 We are not, however, engaged here to discuss the question of 

 priority, we state merely the fact that two distinguished ob- 

 servers studying the same subject, unknown to each other, 

 arrived at the same conclusions relating to the sterility of 

 Mulattoes. 



