THE OCEAN AS THE RESERVOIR OF HEALTH 41 



earthquakes and yolcanic outbreaks, which, however, 

 this wonderful people accept with that calm philosophy 

 which is one of their strongest features. These cosmic 

 disturbances, however, have nothing to do with climate, 

 and the reasons why they are prevalent in one part 

 of the world more than another is one of the mysteries 

 of our earth which remains to be solved. 



South and east of Japan, the vast empire of China 

 claims attention, as being, like its inscrutable people, 

 an anomaly. It alone among nations really owes 

 little to the sea. It is so vast that it possesses all 

 climates within its borders, yet, as has often been 

 noted, its seasonal changes are more regular than can 

 be found anywhere. And it cannot be called unhealthy, 

 since, with a total disregard of all sanitary precautions 

 and an utter defiance of what Westerners understand 

 of the laws of health, its people are the most prolific 

 in the world. But China is the land of paradox, the 

 exception among the nations that must be taken to 

 prove the rule that the health of the land depends 

 upon the healing of the sea. But of the vast outlying 

 islands, such as Formosa and the Philippines, another 

 set of conditions must be noted. Well within the 

 tropics, they are also most favoured with ocean winds, 

 which blow through and through them, and make them 

 teem with vegetable wealth which has hardly been 

 scratched as yet. They cannot be called healthy for 

 the same reasons noted in the consideration of the 

 other East Indian islands and Madagascar, but one 

 day, under the fostering care of a wiser race than now 

 holds them, they will doubtless yield an amazing 

 increase in their contributions to the wealth of the 

 world, and their marvellous advantages in the matter 



