There is no race question upon which we have so great a lack of scientific information at the present time as that of the degree of direct intermixture of the two races. Public opinion at the South seems to be almost unanimous in its belief that, since the Civil War and emancipation, intermixture of the two races has decreased and that the mulatto population at the present time is largely the offspring of mulattoes alone or of mulattoes and negroes, and that there has been relatively little new infusion of white blood. But no statistical basis for this opinion exists, and general observation on a question so difficult and delicate must be regarded as a very slippery foundation for the belief. Questions on this point were introduced into the censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 and 1890, and the results were tabulated and published for each of these censuses except 1880. Prior to 1890 the question was asked in substantially the same terms, that is, simply the number of mulattoes. In 1890 unfortunately it was sought to amplify the question and Congress required the Census Office to report the number of mulattoes, quadroons and octoroons. Such precision in this field is unobtainable and, in natural reaction against the misleading results obtained in 1890, the Office in 1900 omitted the question entirely. I cannot feel that this was wise. The results obtained in 1850, 1860 and 1870 for the whole United States showed substantial agreement, the per cent. of mulattoes among the total negroes having been reported as in 1850, 11.2; in 1860, 13.2; in 1870, 12.0. These figures cannot be accepted as showing an increase in the proportion of mulattoes down to the Civil War and a slight decrease after that time, much less can the slightly larger proportion of mulattoes reported in 1890 (15.2 per cent.) with a different form of question be regarded as any evidence of an increase of race mixture since emancipation, but the general conclusion that between one-eighth and one-ninth of the negro population at about the time of the Civil War was mulatto may be regarded as probable. I believe that if the question should be repeated in 1910 in substantially the same terms as those employed in 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880, the results would be likely to indicate far more accurately than general observation can do whether the proportion of mulattoes among the negroes has increased or decreased since emancipation. To establish this, one need not believe that the reported percentages at former censuses were correct. All that would be necessary for such a result would be that the question put in substantially the same terms at intervals during half a century would secure answers which if not entirely accurate would at least err in the same direction and by about the same amount.