worthy, but to the average result; and the two general conclusions which the facts so far as known suggest are these: that races of marked physical dissimilarity do not tend to intermarry, and that when and so far as they do, the average offspring is apt to be physically inferior to the average of either parent stock, and probably more beneath the average mental level of the superior than above the average mental level the inferior.
This last point is open to doubt, and, if true, may be more true of some hybrid stocks than of others. One is surprised, when one comes to inquire into the matter, to find how little positive evidence there is bearing on it. An element of uncertainty is introduced by the fact that in some cases it is the more vigorous, in others the less vigorous sections of an advanced race that have intermarried with the backward race, and that the conditions, physical, social and political, under which a mixed race grows up, are more favourable in some regions than they are in others[1]. It has already been observed that the Arabs have largely permeated, and have doubtless improved, some of the African races. Whether the most advanced branches of the native race in Mexico might not have, had they remained unmixed, reached as high a level as the mixed race, is an interesting question, on which I will not hazard an opinion.
- ↑ This subject of race-mixture is one of extreme interest with regard to which, so far as I know, comparatively few data for positive conclusions exist. It deserves to be fully investigated by men of science. The difficulties are obvious, because the concomitant and perturbing conditions are so numerous.
