SECT. III.] INTERMIXTURE OP RACES. 185 



called Pueblos Indians in New Mexico, that they degenerate 

 because the inhabitants of the same village only intermarry. 



We believe we are justified in concluding from the pre- 

 ceding facts, with regard to sexual intercourse and the quality 

 of the offspring, that there exists, both in individuals of the 

 same stock, as well as between different nations, not exactly 

 antipathy, but still incompatibility, which, though not explica- 

 ble as to its origin, is sufficiently established; and, in spite 

 of this, we are not competent, from the sterility or decay of 

 certain races, to infer a difference of species of mankind as its 

 cause. Such a conclusion is inadmissible, on the ground that 

 there are not a few peoples sprung from the same stock, ac- 

 counted as deficient in vitality, who perpetuate themselves in 

 full health. For this purpose, we shall examine the contested 

 prolificacy of Mulattoes, 1 as far as it seems founded on facts. 

 It has been asserted that the Mulattoes would become extinct 

 if they could be cut off from any infusion of new blood from 

 the parent stocks. 2 Mulattoes of the same degree are said to 

 be rarely prolific. 3 Nott, especially, has, in his work " On 

 Hybridity," dwelt on the sterility of Mulattoes, which had 

 already been noticed by Etwick and Long, 4 in order to establish 

 their defective vitality. He has, it is true, subsequently aban- 

 doned the view, that, of all men, the mean duration of life is 

 least in the Mulatto ; and he now only maintains that the Mulat- 

 toes in the north of the United States proceeding from English- 

 men possessed less vitality than those of the south sprung from 

 dark-complexioned races, such as the Spaniards, Portuguese, 

 etc. Nott's present theory regarding Mulattoes is, that they 

 are less capable of sustaining physical labour than the Europeans 

 and Negroes ; that the women are very delicate, have many 

 miscarriages, and are subject to many chronic diseases.: that 



1 With regard to the axiom of Geoffrey and Nott, quoted above, as to the 

 sterility of Mulattoes, it is interesting to compare Wiegman's observation, 

 that in plants hybrids are sterile which present an intermediate type between 

 two species ; whilst those which partake more of one or the other species, can 

 be propagated by seeds. 



2 Van Amringe, " Investigations of the theories of the nat. hist, of man ;" 

 Knox, "The Races of Man," 1850; Ham. Smith, "Natural history of the 

 human species," 1848. 



3 Day, " Five years residence in the West Indies," i, p. 294, 1852. 



4 " History of Jamaica." 



