AND ITS INHABITANTS 171 



but it illustrates white deaths instead of colored. It differs 

 from Figure 34, however, because the number of deaths is 

 much greater, being about 921,000. Moreover, the relative 

 importance of different places varies much. For instance, in 

 New York City there are only about 2,500 colored deaths per 

 year, while white deaths number nearly 70,000. In North 

 Carolina, on the contrary, the white and the colored deaths in 

 the towns for which statistics are available each amount to 

 about 4,000 per year. In spite of this, the two diagrams show 

 the same general features. This is highly significant. It 

 shows that in spite of the great outward difference between 

 whites and negroes, the two races are fundamentally alike in 

 their climatic response. The negro does not seem to have 

 acquired any especial adaptation to a hot climate, even though 

 his ancestors lived in Africa for thousands of years. His case 

 is even more striking than that of the Finn, who has lived in 

 a cold climate for many generations. The average tempera- 

 ture in the places where these two races have spent most of their 

 lives differs by about 40. Nevertheless, the temperature at 

 which each is most healthy and energetic differs by no more 

 than 4. Thus it appears that not only the Nordic, Mediterra- 

 nean, and Mongoloid races are alike in their response to cli- 

 mate, but even the negro joins them. It seems scarcely going 

 too far to conclude that all mankind probably shows nearly the 

 same adjustment to one special kind of climate. Men may 

 have black skins to protect them from the heat of the tropics, 

 or fair skins adapted to a cloudy, northern home, but so far 

 as actual temperature and humidity are concerned they are not 

 essentially different. It looks as if man's adjustment to climate 

 were like the temperature of the blood, which is the same in 

 all races, and does not change, no matter in what climate man 

 may live. Perhaps such a universal adaptation to the same 

 climate indicates that the conditions under which man is now 

 at his best are those under which he took the most important 



