THE INFLUENCE 'OF HYBEIDITY. 105' 



is proved by the great number of military exemptions.* In 

 the north-west, in the region which was always encroached 

 upon by the fair and powerful races of the north, the result is 

 quite the contrary. Here, then, are two distinct races : the 

 one, formerly mistress of the west, and then pushed to the 

 extremity of the continent ; the other, leaving its forests and 

 encroaching on the rest, both differing as much as possible 

 by physical aspect and by moral aptitudes, but now filling 

 up their numbers, so to speak, by each other's help, and 

 working together for the glory and prosperity of their common 

 land. 



We must not, however, give a general meaning to these last 

 words, and thus extend their meaning to all cases of ethnic 

 cross-breeding. The two united terms must not be too dissi- 

 milar, so that the two branches may reunite as regards pro- 

 gress. This is essential ; and if we have endeavoured to prove 

 that the hybrids of distant races do not possess all the neces- 

 sary conditions of animal life and of propagation, it would be 

 easy to find numerous proofs in order to show that, generally, 

 the intellectual conditions of hybrids are not much more satis- 

 factory than their physical condition, since the two intelligent 

 organisms which are there combined do not show a decided 

 similarity. 



Doctor Tschudif says, in speaking of the Zambos (hybrids 

 from aborigines and Negroes at Lima), "As men, they are ; 

 greatly inferior to the pure races ; and as members of society, j 

 they are the worst class of citizens :" they alone furnish four- . 

 fifths of the criminals in the prisons of Lima. Mr. E. Gr. Squier J 

 has made almost the same observation about the Zambos of 

 Nicaragua. In his part of the country, the union of Spaniards 

 with these same Americans, seems to have only produced dege- 

 nerate men, who show no capability whatsoever for perfec- 

 tion or improvement. In fact, it is on account of these same 

 principles that M. de Gobineau has set himself to prove at 



* [The standard in France is, we believe, five feet. EDITOK.] 



f Peru, 1846. 



J Nicaragua : Us People, vol. ii, p. 153, New York, 1852. 



Essai sur I'Inegalite des Races Humaines, Paris, 1852. 



