Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/621

Rh in a criminal lack of care during the periods of maternity and childhood. This is proved by the enormous death rate among children below the age of ten, which in some districts reaches fifty per cent or more of the total. In bringing forward their array of retarding causes, as given in the foot-note, most writers overlook that most of the injurious features complained of have nearly always existed, and are shared by the fast-growing mestizos, who, moreover, expose themselves more to the vicissitudes of war than any other class. It must be admitted that the contact of races with its active and passive influence is entitled to greater consideration, although not to the same extent as in the United States, where the relative conditions of life are so widely different.

In this connection must be weighed the effect of absorption by the mixed race, generally embraced under the term mestizo, which has grown at a comparatively enormous rate, at the expense of both Indians and whites. Its former proportion of twentytwo per cent to the total population has now expanded to about forty-three, while the whites have increased only to twenty per cent, and the aborigines declined from sixty to thirty-seven. The negro mixtures are practically merged in them, and the greater part of