ON ETHNO-CLIMATOLOGY. 135 



is suffered, and their offspring become degenerate and cease to propagate 

 (heir species in a few generations; and should necessity force Europeans to 

 perform the drudgery of labouring in the field, their lives will be rendered 

 still shorter, and their existence little better than a prolonged sickness." 

 Dr. Thomson has entered into the various attempts of the Portuguese, Dutch, 

 English, JVench, and Danes to colonize India. He has also dwelt on the 

 attempts of the Dutch and Spaniards at colonization in the Indian Archi- 

 pelago, and also on the state of European colonies in tropical Africa and 

 tropical America. His conclusion is, " that man can only flourish in climates 

 analogous to that under which his race exists, and that any great change is 

 injurious to liis increase and also to his mental and physical development." 



Sir Alexander Tulloch well observes, that military returns, properly orga-. 

 nized and digested, serve as the most useful guides " to point out the limits 

 intended by nature for particular races, and in which alone they can thrive 

 and increase" — boundaries which neither the pursuit of wealth nor the dreams 

 of ambition should induce them to pass, and proclaim, in forcible language, 

 tiiat man, like the elements, is controlled by a Power which hath said, 

 " Hither slialt thou come, but no further." 



Let us glance at the attempts of tiie French to colonize the North of Africa. 



The mortality of the civil population in France is about twenty-five in a 

 thousand, while the average mortality of the civil population in Algiers, in 

 1853, was 435, and in ISS*, 53*2 in a thousand. "In all the localities of 

 Algiers, without exception," says M. Boudin, " the mortality of the Euro- 

 pean population exceeds by far, not merely the normal mortality of England 

 and France, but even that of the cholera years in these two countries." 

 Notwithstanding these facts, the population is annually increasing by the 

 influx of inmiigrants. As regards other colonies, the following table, quoted 

 by M. Boudin from the official report of the Ministry of Algeria, published 

 in 1859, speaks for itself: — 



Births. Deaths. 



Guadaloupe 20,095 20,675 



Guiana 2,333 2,830 



Reunion 18,934 20,775 



This would be more satisfactory had the proportion of the women to men 

 been also given. 



But, before I proceed on this side of the question, I would call attention 

 to the statement frequently made by the President of this Section. On 

 one occasion, for instance, Mr. Crawfurd* said, " It has been confidently 

 asserted that the British possessions in India are an unfit residence for the 

 permanent dwelling of Englishmen, although within the same latitudes with 

 the warm parts of America, and portions of it even more distant from the 

 equator." " No less an authority," continues Mr. Crawfurd, " than the late 

 Duke of Wellington gave it as his opinion that Europeans, especially in 

 Lower Bengal, most of which is without the tropics, would die out in a third 

 generation ; but it is certain that this was an hypothesis of His Grace un- 

 supported by facts." Mr. Crawfurd further contends that the Duke of 

 Wellington's observation was made at an unfavourable time, and that at 

 present the case is very different. Now all recent facts and observations 

 prove that the Duke of Wellington was right. From numerous private in- 

 quiries of residents in India I have obtained confirmation of this opinion. 

 We have, moreover, the most extensive writers and observers on tropical 

 diseases giving exactly similar opinions. 



* " On the Effects of Commixture, Locality, Climate," &c., Transactions of the Ethnologi- 

 cal Society, New Series, vol. i. p. 89, 1861. 



