WHITE RACE IN THE TROPICS — WARD 573 



seven years. An American Army medical oflicer has stated that 

 the most energetic and stalwart Americans after a year of service 

 in the Philippines lose energy, strength, and amhition. I have 

 a copy of a letter written by an Knglish judge v.lio h:ui long L»een 

 a resident of Ceylon, in which he emphasizes the tragedy of send- 

 ing the children back to England, lie writes. " Surely for us 

 there is no climate like our own. And when all is said, in a tropical 

 climate, even of the best, we live as it were on suti'erance, and the 

 climate tells on the next generation. For every one of us who has 

 his livelihood in Ceylon, there comes the inevitable day when he 

 must part from his children and send them home. This stern neces- 

 sity has been styled a ])rice which we pay for our Eastern posses- 

 sions — and a heavy price it is." 



The second group of writers says, in brief, " The conquest of the 

 Tropics is not yet an accomplished fact, but enough has been done 

 to show that most or all of the disabilities of the climate can be 

 overcome. The Tropics are not unhealthy because of any effects 

 of the climate, but because of the diseases peculiar to the Tropics. 

 Many of these are now preventable; the others will soon be so. 

 With their disappearance, the countries formerly thought deadly 

 for white men and women have actually come to be almost salubrious. 

 Most, if not all. of tlie difficulties are due to such factors as intemper- 

 ance, improper food, sexual indulgence, the proximity of inferior 

 races, and the like. These are handicaps, but they can be overcome. 

 They are secondary and indirect climatic effects, and will disappear. 

 The acclimatization problem is rapidly nearing its natural solution." 



Such optimism seems, to me at least, beyond the bounds of rea- 

 son. That the elimination of some tropical diseases has made a 

 tremendous change for the better in certain parts of the Tropics 

 no one will deny, but that effects of tlie physiological disturbances 

 remain, and the happy future forseen by these enthusiasts is not 

 yet in sight, is equally true. 



The views of the third group are intermediate between those of 

 the first two categories. There is, in the minds of most writers on 

 acclimatization, the conviction that even if all tropical diseases could 

 conceivably be eliminated from the picture, there would still remain 

 those insidious physiological effects of the tropical sun, the heat ami 

 the humidity already referred to; the general physical, mental, and 

 moral deterioration; the neurasthenia; the inability to maintain full 

 bodily and mental vigor. In the present stage of our knowledge, 

 true acclimatization is considered impossible, and while, with proper 

 precautions, individual white men can live in the Tropics, the race 

 can not persist. This thought, Dr. Andrew Balfour, director of the 

 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has recently 



