the existence of our colonies. We know very well that there are some parts of the globe where the European is acclimated almost immediately; not that he can escape all sacrifices, but they are relatively few. I refer you to the case of Acadia, that country in Canada peopled by sixty French families, and which, in a very short time, counted its inhabitants by thousands. I may cite you also to what is passing every day at the Cape, in Australia, at Buenos Ayres.
You see, then, in both worlds, and under the most diverse climates, Europeans prosper, multiply, and work, as they do in Europe. Still there are places where the question is much more difficult of solution, and which have been considered fatal to Europeans. I will name in particular, on the western coast of Africa, our colony of Senegal, and above all that of Gaboon; I will point out, in America, the Antilles generally, and consequently Guadeloupe and Martinique; then French Guiana. Algeria itself has been a subject of lively debate from this point of view. It will seem natural to you that I should dwell a little more upon this last place, because of its special interest for all of us.
From the day of our conquest the question has been, whether the French could be acclimated on the soil of Algeria; and, curiously enough, friends and enemies, Englishmen and Frenchmen, military commanders and physicians, were almost unanimously agreed that it could not be done. They relied on the tables of mortality, which showed an excess of deaths over births. It is easy to see that a country, where the number of those who die gains on that of those who are born, is fated to become depopulated, unless new immigrants repair the annual losses. This is what was said of Algeria, and it is one of the points that I have had to discuss in my lectures.
Now, in spite of documents so often quoted, I do not hesitate to say that Frenchmen have beep acclimated in Algeria, and have lived there very well. To arrive at this conclusion I have not denied the figures—the facts cited by those who reached the opposite one; on the contrary, I have accepted them. But I have interpreted them, resting on this principle, which we never abandon, namely, that, as regards his body, man is an animal and nothing else. Consequently, if the laws that govern animality bear heavily on him in certain circumstances, he profits, in return, by advantages that these same laws bring to animals.
Now, before studying the acclimation of man, I began by studying the acclimation of plants and animals. This study taught me that, from the moment when an organized species changes its environment, be it plant, animal, or man, it must be resigned to make two kinds of sacrifices: sacrifices bearing upon the individual, and sacrifices bearing upon the race. In Algeria, the former were shown by the figures of mortality of the army, which were much more considerable than in France. The latter were made apparent by the figures of mortality of children, which, in Algeria, were double those of France.
