;86 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this is peculiarly unfortunate, since these are the very peoples 

 who find population pressing most severely upon the soil at 

 home.* The Latin nations, of course, are the ones who lay most 

 stress upon this comparative disability of their rivals; but in 

 justice to the French, it must be added that they have generally 

 recognized that the Spaniards and Italians possess as great an 

 advantage over them as they in turn do over the Germans, f The 

 experience of Algeria affords a good illustration of this point. 

 The year 1854 marks the first excess of births over deaths in this 

 colony ; and the following table shows the relative disabilities of 

 the Europeans for 1855-'56 : J 



Dr. Ricoux * gives the following death rates per thousand for 

 children under one year: Spaniards, 180; Maltese, 178; Italians, 

 194; French, 225*2; and Germans, 273. This disability of the 

 Germans is confessed by all their most able and candid authori- 

 ties. || All writers, even in France, acknowledge that the Medi- 

 terranean natives possess a peculiar aptitude in this respect. A 



* Levasseur, La Population Fransaise, iii, p. 432. 



f Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, viii, p. 190. 



\ Bulletin de la Soci6t6 d'Anthropologie, 1886, p. 269; cf. L'Anthropologie, vi, p. 120. 

 The small number of Germans present weakens the force of the evidence somewhat. 



* Annales de Demographic, vi, p. 14. Cf. Quatrefages, op. cit., p. 230, and Bordier, 

 Colonization, p. 184. The only north Europeans ever successful are the Dutch in South 

 Africa and in the East Indies. 



| Ratzel, Anthropo-Geographie, i, p. 304 ; Virchow, Fritsche, and Joest in Verhandlun- 

 gen der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, 1885, pp. 211, 474, etc. It will have been 

 noted that nearly all references in German fall within the years 1885-'87. The ques- 

 tion drifted into politics out of the hands of scientists into those of pamphleteers. Vide 

 Max Nordau, Rabies Africana, hi Asiatic Quarterly Review, second series, ii, p. 76 ; and 

 G. A. Fischer, Mehr Licht im dunkeln Welttheil, Berlin, 1886. A blue-book on the 

 subject was promised (Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft, 1886, p. 87), but the 

 attention of the Colonial Society was for some reason diverted. Tropical hygiene was 

 fully discussed, but the broader scientific aspect of the matter was neglected (Verhand- 

 lungen, 1889, p. 732). As late as 1890 no definite government report had been issued 

 except Mahly's work. The Germans apparently do not dare to handle it without gloves, 

 and their views are unique in their optimism (Kohlstock in Science, 1891, p. 3; and 

 Finckelnburg in Handbuch der Staatswissenschaft). 



A Ratzel, loc. cit. ; Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1883, No. 2 ; Jouaset, 

 p. 292; Montano, pp. 444, 446; Felkin, in Scottish Geographical Magazine, ii, p. 52, and in 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1886, p. 730 ; Levasseur, op. cit., ii, p. 

 431 ; and Bordier, Colonization, pp. 185, 493. 



