540 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE CONQUEST OF THE TEOPICS. 



By DR. GEO. G. GROFF, Late Major U. S. V., 



ACTING COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, PORTO RICO. 



THE most beautiful and the most fruitful portions of the earth are at 

 the present time in the possession of partially civilized, or barbar- 

 ous and savage races, to the exclusion of the more enlightened Caucasian. 

 Shall he ever remain unable to possess and occupy tropical lands to the 

 exclusion of dark-skinned and inferior races? Will the time never come 

 when he can rear a family of strong and vigorous children, of pure 

 blood, under the equatorial sun? Is it true that the white man re- 

 moving to the Tropics necessarily deteriorates? 



The almost universal belief is that these questions must be an- 

 swered in the affirmative. That, owing to the great heat, and to evil 

 influences operating through the air, the water and the soil, it will al- 

 ways be impossible for white people to live in hot countries permanently, 

 and, at the same time, to retain the physical vigor of temperate lati- 

 tudes, and to rear healthy children. But these persons do not take 

 into account certain recent great discoveries in the domain of science, 

 medicine and hygiene. In the light of these discoveries, it is not wise 

 to say that the white man will never conquer the Tropics. 



White races have, in the past, reached a high degree of civilization 

 in hot countries. Egypt, where the first civilization arose, is a land of 

 tropical heat. The valley of the Euphrates, where arose the civilization 

 of Babylon, and much of Persia, are both tropical or sub-tropical in 

 temperature. The people of Egypt, Babylon and Persia were white. 

 It would seem that to originate a civilization is more difficult than to 

 maintain it. 



Many countries, now most salubrious, were once considered very 

 unhealthful. Health conditions were so bad in England, after the 

 withdrawal of the Eomans, that for nearly a thousand years there was 

 absolutely no increase in the population, and the most dismal accounts 

 of the reign of disease have come down to our times. What was true 

 in England, was in great part true of all of Europe throughout the 

 Dark Ages. Scurvy, rheumatism, fevers and plagues held high carnival 

 in recurring epidemics every few years. If we can believe the reports, 

 it was fully as dangerous then to dwell in the most favorable portion 

 of Europe as it is now in the most dreaded tropical regions. 



New England was at first thought to be a very unhealthful land. 

 The early settlers in Massachusetts wrote to their friends in England 



