Note 44 — SECTION III.

It is unknown what is the degree of intermixture in the hybrid populations of Mexico and South America; the observations relative to these crossings are extremely difficult to collect, for the variation of Mulattoes of different degrees is not so apparent as in the Mulattoes, Quadroons, etc., of Negroes and Europeans. With regard to colour, hair, shape of the cranium, the European races, especially those of the south, differ infinitely less from the American races than from the Ethiopian and the intermediate characters; even Mulattoes of the first degree are much less marked in the first than in the second case. Thus the famous Paulistas of the province of Saint-Paul, Brazil, issued from the union of Portuguese and Indians, constitute a vigorous class, brave, and even heroic, though ferocious and turbulent. According to certain authors, the European blood predominates in them; others, on the contrary, maintain that they are pure Indians. These contradictions prove the difficulty of estimating the degree of the intermixture between the Mulattoes sprung from Europeans and Indians. The question whether Mulattoes of the first degree are indefinitely prolific between themselves,—whether they are habitually, or only exceptionally so, cannot be solved by travellers. Resident observers, and especially physicians, may ultimately furnish precise facts.