RACE INFLUENCE AND DISEASE. 821 



evidence to support my views on the subject, and I now append a 

 very brief account of what I have found in reference to particu- 

 lar diseases, specific and otherwise. 



Influenza. Isolation for long periods from other races, as in 

 the case of insular populations, causes influenza and similar epi- 

 demics to run a more severe and dangerous course ; witness the 

 cases of St. Kilda and the Society Islands. An epidemic takes 

 place when the infecting visitors are afflicted with apparently 

 only the slightest of colds, while less recent arrivals, if attacked, 

 suffer far more lightly than do the older inhabitants, though more 

 so than the visitors themselves. During my stay at Ascension 

 Island I was told by a resident official that a cold introduced from 

 a passing vessel runs through the island as a severe epidemic, 

 necessitating rest in bed and active treatment for several days. 

 This effect is still more virulent, leading even to fatal results, in 

 the island of Tristan d'Acunha, where the isolation is much more 

 complete, and the people are of British origin. 



Now, sea- water is by no means the only method of isolation, 

 and in earlier ages, situation, feuds, and scanty means of locomo- 

 tion were efficient causes. "When a tendency to a particular com- 

 plaint becomes increased by long periods of isolation, so that 

 heredity is able to accentuate any special proneness, one possible 

 explanation of the origin of pathological racial idiosyncrasies is 

 afforded. 



Dengue. African races incur this disease much less fre- 

 quently than do others, and with them it takes a very mild form, 

 being highly amenable to expectant treatment and simple care. 

 On the other hand, the natives of India suffer in greater numbers 

 and much more severely than do Europeans even, and show a 

 much higher death-rate from it. Now, there are many African 

 immigrants in India, and vice versa, yet this racial law still holds 

 good among them, even after some generations. 



Small-pox. Both the negro and the Arab tribes in the Nile 

 regions of Africa, and also the Aryan races of central Asia, have 

 from time immemorial suffered cruelly from variola. Vaccina- 

 tion has lessened the value of comparative statistics on this point, 

 but the mortality from the disease has been and is positively awful, 

 complete depopulation sometimes resulting in particular valleys 

 or islands. 



Measles as an epidemic has caused terrible devastation among 

 insular races, especially in warm climates, assuming a far more 

 virulent type than that known to Europe, among people less capa- 

 ble of resisting a panic-creating disease. 



Malaria. Here occur the best instances of acclimatization of 

 races. Ethiopians are affected less frequently than are other peo- 

 ples, and with diminished severity. Blonde and blue-eyed Euro- 



