Always, in accounting for such a phenomenon, two factors are to be considered—race and environment. Hence, in our study of climatic circumstances the first must be carefully eliminated before proceeding to study the second.
Finally, the effects of ethnic intermarriage or crossing must in every case be taken into account. It is present as a complication in almost all colonial populations, and is by far the most subtle and difficult of all eliminations to be made. Notwithstanding the objection that accommodation to climate by intermarriage is in reality not acclimatization at all, but the formation of an entirely new type, the two are continually confused; and crossing with native stocks is persistently brought forward as a mode and policy of action. As an element in colonization, and a devious means of avoiding the necessity of acclimatization, it arises to complicate the situation. Intermarriage is said to be the secret of Spanish and Portuguese success;[1] in Mexico this has apparently been the case,[2] as well as in the Philippines.[3] Dr. Bordier states that the Spanish and southern French are more prolific than others in marriage with negroes;[4] and concludes that the only hope for the future of French colonization in Cochin China lies in such crossing with the natives.[5] The efficacy of this remedy is to-day accepted quite generally by anthropologists. Topinard agrees with Ten Kate that half-breeds resist climatic changes better than pure whites,[6] and other authorities concede the same.[7] Desmartis has even proposed to inoculate the British troops in India with Hindu blood as a preventive of tropical disorders.[8]
- ↑ Revue d'Anthropologie, N. S., iii, p. 265. Dr. Felkin finds the success of south Europeans in their element of Semitic blood (Scottish Geographical Magazine, ii, p. 652).
- ↑ Ibid., V, p. 318.
- ↑ Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1883, No. 2.
- ↑ Colonisation Scientifique, p. 285. An example is also given in Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, viii, p. 190.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 397.
- ↑ Elements d'Anthropologie, p. 204. The Hudson Bay Company refused for many years to employ trappers with white wives, partly because they desired to increase the supply of half-breeds (PoHtical Science Quarterly, ii, p. 139).
- ↑ Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, xxix, p. 178. "Bertillon's principle" is accepted by Landowsky in the Bulletin of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, 1878, p. 817. In Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, viii, p. 190, is a statistical account of crossing in Algeria on a meager basis, seeking to prove that French crosses with natives are more prolific than those with Germans.
- ↑ Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1861, p. 143.
Mémoirs de l'Académié de Médecine, Paris, xxix, 1878. It formed the basis of an interesting discussion at the meeting of the Association française pour l'Avancement des Sciences. Vide Bulletin for 1878, p. 803. Sormani, Chervin, and Lagneau have also treated of it in their respective publications.
