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of the independence and originality of the Aryan mind, that may well excite our astonishment, and give us a higher appreciation of the part which our race have played in the history of the world.

We propose to give in a future number, a sketch, necessarily very slight and incomplete, of M. Pictet's second volume, which is devoted to the examination of the Civilization of the Aryan race in their early home, the circumstances of their pastoral and agricultural life, their arts of war and peace, their social condition, laws, science, and religion.

ETHNOLOGICAL INQUIRIES AND OBSERVATIONS. By R. KNOX, M.D.

Inquiry into the Influence of Climate and of Hybridity over Man. THE natural antagonism of race to race; the antagonism of man to nature's works; the laws negating hybridism in man; the tracing certain races of men to continents or centres of creation now submerged; and the influence of climate in destroying aggressive races -these were amongst the earliest of my ethnological inquiries, undertaken at a time when the superficial work of Prichard had entire possession of the field of ethnology.

The theories which all but universally prevailed before the publication of my lectures on the Races of Man, were, that all men being of one species, the varieties they present are more apparent than real; that it is education, government, climate, and civilization which give rise to these varieties, men being everywhere the same au fond: in a word, the hypothesis of Hippocrates continued to prevail until the date I refer to; and, moreover, in respect of the acclimatization of man in various regions of the world, it was boldly asserted that with time and care all varieties of men might be dislocated from the land of their origin and transferred to other regions and other climates, to which they would become habituated, viable, progressive, and as it were aboriginal. Now, although such theories found no support in history, they maintain their ground to this day; and for this simple reason, independent of others, they tallied well with certain theological hypotheses, in the support of which interests unexampled in the history of man for magnitude and importance had been long em

barked. To the theories just mentioned there was added another, namely, that the various species of animals which adorn the earth were in reality hybrids, produced by the admixture of a few primitive species with each other. This doctrine, supported by the illustrious Broca, the first of living ethnologists, I shall afterwards consider. Let us, in the meantime, attend to the question of acclimatization, and its influence over man. The theories offered by me some twenty years ago, as substitutes for the then received ideas on this subject, were that, when races of men abandon the lands on which they had grown up their so-called aboriginal land—emigrating to another continent or zone of the earth, they either wandered into desert regions, uninhabited by beast or man, or into others occupied by a section of the human race. In either case it seemed to me certain that the emigrating and obtrusive race became extinct in time. For, either they were speedily absorbed by the stronger or more numerous race in possession (as the Goths, Germans, ar Gauls in Italy*), or, unless continually fed by fresh waves from their original soil, they gradually altered, deteriorated, and withered away, and so becoming non-viable and non-productive, perished. It is needless to say what opposition a theory of this kind met with in North America.

All physiological and zoological theories must, to be trustworthy, be based on observations made on the species in question, and not on analogical arguments drawn from other species. This is my answer to most of the strictures made on my work on the Races of Men by a distinguished zoologist, M. Quatrefages. Whether the great and glorious French nation, the most illustrious for literature, science, and art since the Roman period, the most energetic, the most highly civilized, be a hybrid race, as my esteemed friend M. Broca maintains, or not, I shall hereafter consider. But, in the meantime, one experiment at least, on the largest scale imaginable, has been made in comparatively modern times, having a direct reference to these allimportant questions, which the theologian, the statesman, and the dynasties of the earth would fain have men believe to be theoretical and of no importance. In vain! Let any unbiassed mind turn over the page of history for the last twenty years, and calmly look at the

The history of the Goths is remarkable. When they first encountered the Roman arms, they occupied both banks of the Lower Danube, stretching towards the Euxine and the Dniester. They emigrated into the Roman empire in vast numbers, bringing with them their wives and children. For a time they were masters of Italy; under the name of Austrians, they still hold Venice. Now, how is it they could not maintain their ground in any of the fine colonies they occupied for so long a time?

attitudes of the nations, and he will, I think, be forced to admit that, under the mass of political verbiage, of persiflage, of so-called national interests and dynastic pretensions, there lies the question of race, which, sooner or later, will upturn the world. What is the grand question which now agitates America? Is it not a question of race? What has brought Austria to the verge of destruction? Is it not this question of race? What agitates Russia and Germany, England and India but this question of race, the antagonism of race to race, -the mysterious unextinguishable dislike of race to race? Humboldt, the most illustrious of modern philosophers, as he has been called, although he was no philosopher in the strict sense of the word, but a man devoted to facts, experiments, and direct intuitive observation, published,* in 1808, his political essay of the kingdom of New Spain, which in fact means Mexico. He had examined into the condition of that dependency of the crown of Spain with infinite care and labour, neglecting no source of information. Here are the results nearly in his own words:- "Mexico cannot be arranged under the head of tropical countries: the mean temperature of the great plains, of those situated at least within the tropics, elevated about 984 feet above the level of the sea, does not exceed 77° of Fahr., that is to say, 14° or 15° greater than the mean heat of Naples. From the configuration of the country you may, with a thermometer in your hand, select, within the distance of a few leagues, any temperature you choose, from that of frozen Lapland to the arid heat of Algiers. the declivity of the Cordilleras there reigns perpetually a soft spring temperature, which never varies more than 4° or 5° cent. (seven or nine of Fahr.) In the capital of Mexico the centigrade thermometer has been known to fall below the freezing point. If Europeans cannot live and thrive in such countries, where can they live? The whole table-land of Mexico has a medium temperature about that of Rome. Moreover, the country abounds with every production that man can possibly want or desire."

On

In 1793, according to M. Humboldt, the population amounted to 4,483,529: he estimated the population in 1803 to be 5,808,000; and he inclines to the opinion that the population may double itself in about forty years. The vomito prieto is a scourge confined to the coasts, and does not carry off annually more than 2,000 or 3,000 individuals. As to emigrants, Europe does not send more than 800 to Mexico;† and he concludes that the progress of population in Mexico

Paris, 8th March, 1808. I quote the translation by Black, the original not being near me at the time.

+ So soon as the emigration from Spain began to decrease, Spain recovered

and North America is solely derived from an increase of internal prosperity. We shall see presently how singularly erroneous were his conclusions. From these, and other data and reflections, the celebrated traveller and natural philosopher foretold a brilliant future for Mexico! Ignoring the history of the past and the natural history of man, forgetful of all the moral and physical circumstances that regulate the future, he could see no obstacle to the transference of race from one continent to another. He had become, in truth, wholly a political economist-a disciple of Adam Smith and a colleague of those geometricians, mathematicians, and statisticians who leave nature altogether out of the reckoning. In his time the population of Mexico was composed of-1. Individuals born in Europe. 2. Spanish Creoles, that is, descendants of Europeans, but born in Mexico. 3. Mestizos, half-castes between the whites and Indians. 4. Mulattos, between whites and negros. 5. Zambos, between negros and Indians. 6. The copper-coloured Indians. 7. African negros. Lastly. A few men of Chinese and Malayan descent had found their way into Mexico.

This was the character of the population by whose means Canning, Guizot, and others (profound statesmen !) hoped to redress, and foretold that they would redress, the balance of the Old World by the New. My answer, on reading their statements, was immediate, and amounted to this. A premier of England may perform wonderful things; he can erect kingdoms and make kings, but he cannot form

a race.

About three hundred years ago, Cortez set his foot on the American continent, accompanied and followed by the best blood of the Spanish race. So long as Spain could stand the drain, Mexico held its ground, Spain, in the meantime, becoming wholly exhausted; and now, despite of the sad experience of the past, they again attempt the same insane game, to be followed by the same results, proving the adage, if it required any proof, that individuals may occasionally profit by the experience of the past-generations of men, never. But yesterday, as it were, Don Pacheco cautioned the Cortes, and through it the Spanish nation, to be prudent and moderate in their next attempt on Mexico and the continent of America. In Mexico he proved the Spanish race was reduced to 8,000, the rest of the nation was one of mulattos or hybrids (a worthless rabble) and of men of the pure

from the exhaustion caused by the drain of her best blood to America. Macaulay is of opinion that Ireland has never recovered the loss of Fitzgerald and the 7,000 men of the best blood of the race, who quitted Ireland with him in 1790.

American blood. He thus warned the Spanish nation what they were to look to from such elements of population. The elements of the present Mexican population, I said, are doomed to destruction. The European element will perish so soon as the European supplies are withheld. The hybrid of all sorts will also necessarily perish; and, with time, the whole population may revert to the primitive Red Indian, the untameable savage, who is now as he was in the time of Cortez. This picture has been drawn by Humboldt. And now, in about fifty years from the period of Humboldt's dream of the progress of the kingdom of New Spain or Mexico, see in what the experiment, for such it is, has ended! I quote no idle traveller, wandering about to amuse himself, without either information, powers of observation, or authority. I quote the official report of D. Pacheco, sent out by the government of Spain, an adept in the laws and manners of the country, a Spaniard himself, and fully disposed to say all that he could in favour of his quondam countrymen.

It was stated in the Madrid journals some years ago, that the Senate commenced, the day before, the discussion of the paragraph in the address relative to Mexico. The principal speaker was M. Pacheco, at one time ambassador to that country. He detailed, at considerable length, the wrongs which Spanish subjects have suffered at the hands of the Mexican government, and declared, in his opinion, the intervention of Spain was not only justifiable, but imperatively called for. The Madrid Gazette furnishes the following digest of this, on many accounts, important speech :

"For the person sent to Mexico (that person was myself), it was needful that the Spanish Government should decide on pursuing in Mexico an active policy. Here is the resumé of that policy. 1. To place ourselves at the head of the Spanish race in America, while making them comprehend that we have bona fide accepted their independence; but that, in the natural course of the world, Spain is, and must be, at the head of all the individuals of that race. 2. There is in America a nation that is not of Spanish origin, the population of North America, which circumstances render a rival to ours. That race pretends that the Latin race must be subordinated to it in America -an absurd pretension of the Anglo-Saxon race, and in my opinion utterly without foundation. 3. Protection to Spanish interests. In Mexico there are 8,000 Spaniards, who represent 150 millions of piastres. Such were the fundamental principles of the instructions that were given to me. (M. Pacheco read his instructions.) On leaving for America I believed, in common with almost everybody in

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