The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

III. I do not mean by this that I consider the Aryan, or any races, capable of always becoming at once acclimatised in any given locality. On the contrary, there are regions which are fatal to man, to whatever group he may belong, and however well prepared he may seem to be to brave their influence. Such is the great estuary of the Gaboon, where the Negro himself cannot live. The general constitution of the inhabitants grows sensibly weaker; the reproductive organs appear to be particularly affected, and the number of women greatly surpasses that of the men. We know how dangerous the climate of this country is to the European, and it will be interesting to see whether the Paouins will in their turn yield to the deleterious influence of these coasts, which they are gradually approaching.

We need not, moreover, go so far for examples. Who does not know the reputation of the Maremma, and the marshes of Corsica? At one time the swamps of the Dombe, and the mouth of the Charente, in France, were scarcely less dangerous.

Even where the conditions are much less severe, acclimatisation almost always demands numerous and melancholy sacrifices, which some anthropologists have done wrong to overlook. The fact is but too natural. A race, which has settled under the influence of certain conditions of existence, cannot effect a change without undergoing modification, and hence suffering. This fact will be noticed in some detail in the chapter dedicated to the formation of these derived groups from the species. I can here only point out the general law.

IV. Thus, every colonization of a distant country must be regarded in the first place as a conquest attempted by the immigrating race. Now, whether the battle has to be fought with man or with the conditions of life, the victory is only gained at the cost of human life. We must not, however, exaggerate the extent of inevitable losses, and deny the possibility of acclimatisation. We must put the problem clearly, and seek for experimental data, whence the solution may be naturally deduced.

Every question of acclimatisation comprises two terms, which are, so to speak, the components of the resultant which we are seeking for or studying. These terms are race and conditions of life. We already know the exact significance of the former of these two words, and we shall presently consider in some detail what we are to understand by the latter. At present we will take it as simply representing all the conditions of existence presented by a given place, and proceed to point out its influence in acclimatisation.

We have seen that certain conditions of life appear to be fatal to all races. In cases of this kind, we should distinguish how much of this insalubrity is due to the regions, and how much is the result of accidental circumstances, sometimes provoked by man himself. The plain of the Dombe in France was once as salubrious as the surrounding country. The exaggerated industry of the marshes transformed it into a pestilential region, where it was quite as fatal for foreign populations to live as it would have been in the swamps of the Senegal. Sanitary measures are now tending to restore it to its former condition. It is evident that we cannot reproach the Dombe with the deleterious influence which human intelligence seems to have undertaken to develop.

Even when the latter does not step in to vitiate the conditions of life, we cannot charge a country with opposing unfavourable conditions to an indigenous or foreign race, when these conditions may be attributed to the negligence of the inhabitants, or to some special cause, which human intelligence might modify. Deprived of the care which rendered it healthy and luxuriant, the Campagna of Rome has become a branch of the Pontine Marshes. On the other hand, the environs of Rochefort have become healthy; Bouffarik, once one of the most dangerous spots in Algeria, has become the centre of a flourishing population. It was not, therefore, the general natural conditions which rendered these localities dangerous, especially to strangers, but simply accident. As soon as the cause is removed, acclimatisation becomes not only possible, but easy.

Considered from this point of view, many countries, which now appear to repel all attempts at immigration, will, perhaps, at some future period, be particularly favourable to the development of colonizing races. It is clear that in all cases of this kind we must distinguish between normal and accidentally vitiated conditions of life.

I cannot enter into all the details which this distinction would allow, and shall confine myself to quoting a few facts.

The very progress of civilization sometimes results in the vitiation of certain conditions of life. Such is the almost inevitable result of the crowding together of human beings in a relatively limited space. This is one of the points most clearly demonstrated in the statistical researches of M. Boudin upon the comparative mortality of the country and of barracks, for example. A comparison of our large towns and rural districts leads to the same result, and points to a special action upon the organs of reproduction. M. Boudin could not find a pure-blooded Parisian whose genealogy could be traced for more than three generations. At Besançon, town families become extinct in less than a century, and are replaced by others from the country. London, I have been assured, presents a similar phenomenon.