Note 1 — IV

Bertillon (Acclimatement et Acclimatation, Dict. Encycl. des Science, Médicales) ascribes the capacity of the Spaniards for acclimatization in tropical countries to the large admixture of Syrian and African blood which flows in their veins. The ancient Iberians appear to have reached Spain from Chaldea across Africa; the Phoenicians and Carthaginians had flourishing colonies in the peninsula, and, in later times, the Moors possessed a large portion of the country for a century, and ruled with great splendor, a state of things leading to a mixture of race. Thus Spanish blood has three distinct times been abundantly crossed with that of Africa. The warm climate of the peninsula must also largely contribute to render its inhabitants fit for life in the tropics. The pure Indo-European race has never succeeded in establishing itself on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, much less in the arid soil of the tropics.

In Martinique, where from eight to nine thousand whites live on the proceeds of the toil of 125,000 of the colored race, the population is diminishing instead of increasing. The French creoles seem to have lost the power of maintaining themselves, in proportion to the existing means of subsistence, and of multiplying. Families which do not from time to time fortify themselves with a strain of fresh European blood, die out in from three to four generations. The same thing happens in the English, but not in the Spanish Antilles, although the climate and the natural surroundings are the same. According to Ramón de la Sagra, the death-rate is smaller among the creoles, and greater among the natives, than it is in Spain; the mortality among the garrison, however, is considerable. The same writer states that the real acclimatization of the Spanish race takes place by selection; the unfit die, and the others thrive.