tellectually, physically and morally. It has been
claimed that the admixture of the Negro with the Caucasian has given
us a resulting mulatto, weaker physically than either of the parent
stock, but this statement is based upon hypothesis, and is not borne
out by the facts in the case. It is true, however, that a resulting
lowering of vitality has followed the admixture of "_kindred blood_,"
which was almost unavoidable during the days of slavery as the result
of certain well-known procreative practices that obtained on the part
of the master, and on account of the itineracy of the Negro incident
to his chattelism. In "those dark days" it was hard enough for the
Negro to recognize his near kin on his maternal side, and it was
infinitely impossible for him to trace the "family tree" from the
paternal side. The evil effects of this consequent admixture of
"similar" blood cannot be denied, and must bear a modicum of
responsibility for the excessive mortality of the Negro of to-day.

(2) The fact that the great majority of the Negro women in the cities
of the South are compelled to work steadily even while they are
_enceinte_, doubtless often interferes with the normal development of
the internal organs of their offspring, causing a lack of vitality
which is not apparent to the casual observer, but which must make them
an easy victim to disease.

(3) The same social and economic conditions that keep the expectant
mother busy with her daily labors, also abbreviate her
"lying-in-period," which not only weakens her physically, but deprives
her newly-born offspring of its natural food--thus consigning it to an
infant's grave, or so debilitating it that it succumbs to the first
disease with which it becomes affected. It is bad enough to be
bottle-fed, physiologists tell us, but it is infinitely worse to be
hand-fed. The majority of the Negroes in the Southland are hand-fed
from birth with food decidedly improper both as to quality and
quantity, thus making defective the very substructure of their being.
Is it any wonder that such a people die faster than another people,
who nurse their young or have it done, or who give them pure cow's
milk modified scientifically, or other artificial infant food prepared
skilfully amid the best sanitary environments?

(4) The early motherhood of the Negro has its evil effects. The proper
age for a woman to become a mother is at twenty-five years and usually
before that time development is not