ACCLIMATIZATION. 783 



was one hundred and fifteen in 1S(J1 ; the actual deaths have now- 

 been reduced to twenty-two, although a much higher figure would 

 be needed to include invaliding. The terrific annaal loss of one 

 hundred and forty-eight per thousand in Senegal from 1832 to 1837 

 is now reduced to about seventy-three. In this last case, however, 

 one hundred and fifty per thousand are returned for sickness 

 every year.* A large proportion of these would undoubtedly die 

 if not removed immediately. One may indeed be hopeful from 

 such results that, with further advance in the science of preven- 

 tion, these figures may be yet further reduced. The system of 

 vacations,! of strict regulation of diet, the avoidance of excessive 

 fatigue and exposure, and especially of all forms of agricultural 

 labor, and the extension of the hill-station system, will do much 

 in this respect ; so that it is conceded by most candid observers 

 that, with few exceptions, such as Cochin-China and the coast of 

 Africa, robust individuals by great care stand a fair chance of 

 good health in the tropics. Nevertheless, this should never be 

 allowed to conceal the real fact that the English to-day are no 

 nearer true acclimatization in India than they were in 1840. To 

 tolerate a climate is one thing, to become independent of it is 

 quite a different matter. The securing of a permanent footing in 

 the tropics depends upon factors of a totally different nature. 



Fertility. Passing now from the consideration of the indi- 

 vidual to that of the race, the keynote of the matter rests in the 

 much-controverted question of the influence of change of climate 

 upon fertility. For, however well the individual may be enabled, 

 by artificial means or otherwise, to exist, the race will never ac- 

 commodate itself permanently unless the birth-rate exceeds the 

 death-rate. | Here we must first carefully eliminate the effects of 

 ethnic crosses with natives of the tropics ; for a fatal mistake of 

 many observers has been the neglect to distinguish the possible 

 sterility induced by intermixtures of race from that caused by a 

 change of climate and of life conditions; or statements of one 

 have been accepted by tyros as equivalent to the other. It has 

 been confidently asserted for so many years that sterility of the 

 white race ensues after three generations in the tropics that it has 

 become a household word in anthropology.* 



* Revue d'Anthropologie, third series, iv, p. 346. 



f In Cochin China one year in three is the allowance. The improvement in Senegal is 

 largely due to the brief sojourn of the troops, who are relieved at short intervals. This 

 system now prevails also in India, in sharp contrast to the old practice of keeping the sol- 

 diers there for long terms, in the hope of forcing acclimatization in that way. 



\ Vide remarks of Prof. Virchow on this point in Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesell- 

 schaft fiir Anthropologic, 1885, p. 202. 



* Many examples of acceptance of this theory of infertility will be found in popular 

 works. Pearson (National Life and Character, p. 89) bases his whole argument upon it 



