150 REPORT — 1861. 



cannot be rapidly displaced from one region and located in another without 

 injury. This must be admitted ; but it may be answered that it can be done 

 slowly — that if it cannot be done in one generation, it may be done in time. 

 Now it is quite evident that " time is no agent " in this case ; and unless there 

 is some sign of acclimatization in one generation, there is no such process. 

 A race may be living and flourishing in its own centre, but sometimes a very 

 slight change into a new region will produce the most disastrous results. 

 The Spaniards, for instance, cannot with impunity migrate into the new re- 

 gion on the opposite coast. In Egypt we see exemplified perhaps the most 

 remarkable proof of what I have stated. From time immemorial Egypt has 

 been ruled by foreign races, but not one has left any descendants. Mr. War- 

 burton* has briefly expressed himself on this point in these words: — " The 

 Turk never or rarely intermarries with Egyptians, and it is a well-known fact 

 that children born of other women in this country rapidly degenerate or die ; 

 there are few indigenous Turks in Egypt. Through the long reign of the 

 Mamelukes there was not one instance, I believe, of a son succeeding to his 

 father's power and possessions." These Mamelukes were generally adopted • 

 Circassian slaves, who adopted others in their turn; and they had plenty of 

 Circassian women imported to perpetuate their race, but witli no better results 

 than have met all other invaders. Of the English residents at Cairo the 

 same writer observes, '* The English seem to succumb, for the most part, 

 to the fatal influence of this voluptuous climate, and, with some admirable 

 exceptions, do little credit to the proud character of their country." 



The English also, when sent to any part of the Mediterranean, suff"er far 

 more than in England. It has been proposed to locate British troops at these 

 stations for a time, before they proceed to India. The caution that a warm 

 climate requires change of habits might do good ; but we strongly suspect 

 that if troops were located in the Mediterranean for a few years before pro- 

 ceeding to India, the mortality would be far higher when they arrived there. 

 If also, with a view of colonizing India, we were to send a colony, for a ge- 

 neration or more, to dwell in the Mediterranean, we should get a degenerate 

 race who would have few of the qualities of the British race. Wherever we 

 go, we may apply the question in a similar manner. The distribution of 

 mankind over the globe is the result of law, order and harmony, and not of 

 mere chance and accidental circumstances, as too many would have us 

 believe. From the earliest dawn of history, races of men existed very much 

 as they do now, and in the same locations. Jewish history, both monumental 

 and written, tells us that the Jew has not changed for the last three thousand 

 years; and the same is the case with all other races who have kept their blood 

 pure. I would therefore say that it is as difficult to plant a race out of its 

 own centre, as it is to extinguish any race without driving it from its natural 

 centre. The Tasmanians and American Indians have both been extinguished 

 by removal from their native soil; and this is nearly the only process yet 

 discovered of extinguishing any race of man. The object of this paper, 

 however, is simply to suggest to ethnologists and geographers the necessity 

 of a further investigation of the important question of acclimatization. 



* Loc. cit. p. 67. 



