20 HYBRIDITY OP THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



goat and sheep, camel and dromedary, I am permitted to say 

 that it also exists between certain races of men. 



Among the facts quoted to prove the sterility of human 

 cross-breeds, some are of great value : and we shall examine 

 them in the sequel; others have been wrongly interpreted, 

 while some are far from being exact. I have already pointed 

 out a cause of error which was not taken into account, and 

 which occurs frequently : it is the change of climate which 

 alone is capable of sterilising a race transplanted into the midst 

 of another race. Before attributing a defect of fecundity to 

 the mixed descendants of an immigrant race, we must see 

 whether in the same country the individuals of this race are 

 more prolific in their direct alliances. It is known, for instance, 

 that the Mamelukes, originating from the region of the Caucasus, 

 have never taken root in Egypt, where, nevertheless, from 

 1250, the epoch of their advent, until 1811, the period of their 

 extermination, their caste has always formed a notable part of 

 the population. They could only maintain themselves by re- 

 inforcements which they annually received from the native 

 country, and though not half a century has elapsed since the 

 great massacre of Cairo, there remains no trace of them on 

 the borders of the Nile. Such being the fact, it was concluded 

 therefrom, that the descendants of the Mamelukes and the 

 Egyptians were hybrids of little or no fecundity. Gliddon 

 has thus interpreted it, and Pouchet has accepted that interpre- 

 tation. 1 This, however, is not the real cause of the sterility of 

 the Mamelukes in Egypt, andVolney, who, towards the end of 

 the last century, has carefully observed and studied this race, 

 offers the following remarks on them : " Seeing that they have 

 existed in Egypt for centuries, one would be apt to believe that 

 they have reproduced themselves by the ordinary process of 

 breeding ; but if their first settlement is a curious fact, their 

 perpetuation is not less so. For five centuries there have been 

 Mamelukes in Egypt, yet not one of them has left a subsisting 

 line : there exists not one family of the second generation, all 



1 Gliddon, The Monogenists and the Polijgenists. Philadelphia, 1857. George 

 Pouchet, De la Pluralite des races humaincs, p. 136. Paris, 1858. 



