need of unnecessary alarm over a single factor; for in sociology, as
in mathematics, we cannot escape the fundamental truth that the whole is
greater than any of its parts.

VITAL CAPACITY AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY.

The author's proposition as to the low vitality of the Negro and its
effect upon his economic efficiency is contrary alike to the traditional
and prevalent belief. The whole fabric of slavery rested upon the
assumption that the Negro was better able to resist the trying condition
of the southern climate than the white laborer. The industrial
reconstruction of the South is building upon the same foundation. No one
doubts that the Negro is able to resist certain miasmatic and febrific
diseases which are so destructive to the white race in the tropical
regions of the earth. Science and wise hygienic appliances have improved
the condition of the white race in this respect, it is true, but will
not the same appliances benefit the Negro in the same degree?

Dr. Daniel H. Williams, surgeon-in-chief of the Freedmen's Hospital, at
Washington, D. C., informs me that during his professional experience he
has performed upward of 3000 surgical operations, one-fourth of which at
least were upon white patients, and that he has found unmistakable
evidence of higher vital power among the colored patients. I am also
informed that this is the general opinion of the medical profession.

Although the author treats exhaustively the whole catalogue of diseases
and the numerous ills which flesh is heir to, it can be safely claimed
that he does not establish his main proposition set forth in the
beginning of the chapter, and that at least a Scotch verdict is
demanded: "not proven."

CHAPTER III.

_Subject._ Anthropometry.

_Gist._ "In vital capacity, the most important of all physiological
characteristics, the tendency of the race has been downward."[36]

Ample statistics are presented to show that in proportion to structure
the Negro is heavier than the white man. This fact, the author tells us,
is ordinarily considered favorable to a healthy development and freedom
from pulmonary weakness. "The elaborate investigations of the medical
department of the New York Mutual Life, in 1874, of the Washington Life,
in 1886, the Prudential Insurance Company of America, in 1895, and the
New York Mutual Life, in 1895, prove conclusively that low weight in
proportion to age and stature is a determining factor in the
susceptib