﻿ATMOSPHERE IN RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE AND HEALTH. 83 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL QUALITIES IN RELATION TO CLIMATE. 



Distinguislied observers ^ maiiitain that the white man can not flourish 

 in the tropics, and will not work where an inferior race works; that 

 in Ecuador and Brazil the white race dies out in the third genera- 

 tion j that in Southern and Central America, north of Uruguay, the 

 colonies break up through fever and climate; that in Panama and other 

 l^arts of Central America the air is so i^estilential that even the Chinese 

 succumb at an enormous rate, and that the most fertile parts of the 

 earth, which are bound to be the most populous, can not possibly be 

 the homes of the Aryan race, or of any higher race whatsoever. There 

 can be no doubt that mental and bodily qualities are very largely 

 affected by the atmosphere, with its various constitution of density, 

 temperature, moisture, cloudiness, fog, wind, and organic pollution. 

 Extended investigation of the effect of climate upon human health and 

 welfare would lead to results of the highest imj)ortance. The inquiry 

 might be directed, in the first place, to an historical examination of the 

 movements of nations, races, tribes, and individuals, and of the effect 

 upon them of change of climate, separating as far as possible the 

 results due to preventable circumstances and change of habits, from 

 results which might be regarded as necessary in the relations of the 

 atmospheric and the human constitution. 



Secondly, the fitness of various races for removal to various climates 

 under modern conditions might be examined, and the effects of tropical 

 highlands be compared with those of lowlands. 



When we recollect the evil reputation of many localities and climates 

 which in the first half of this century were spoken of as deadly, and 

 when we consider that these have lost their bad name solely by the 

 exercise of local and personal hygiene, we can not despair of the power 

 of man for reducing the unhealthiness even of large areas and tropical 

 climates. Last century a troopship, a prison, and a barrack may each 

 habitually have rivaled the worst tropical country in sickness and 

 mortality; to-day they are as healthy as a country village; the prison, 

 indeed, is a model of salubrity. 



The fact has been extensively realized that cultivation and draining 

 may often do for a pestilential tract what cleanliness and ventilation 

 do for an infected building. A scientific inquiry into the results of 

 cultivation, draining, and irrigation in improving or harming the health 

 of districts subject to malaria in various parts of the world would 

 afford information of great value. The nature of the soil, the height 

 of the subsoil water, the microbiology of the soil and of the superincum- 

 bent air, and the- efiect of atmospheric conditions should be tabulated 

 and compared. We already have evidence of the frequent recrudes- 

 cence of malaria through artificial irrigation in India, and in Egypt 



1 Pearson, National Life and Character, Wiener's Perou et Bolivie. Orton's Andes 

 and Amazon, Curtis'e Capitals of South America. 



