AND ITS INHABITANTS 171 



but it illustrates white deaths instead of colored. It differs 

 from Figure 34, however, because the number of deaths is 

 much greater, being about 921,000. Moreover, the relative 

 importance of different places varies much. For instance, in 

 New York City there are only about 2,500 colored deaths per 

 year, while white deaths number nearly 70,000. In North 

 Carolina, on the contrary, the white and the colored deaths in 

 the towns for which statistics are available each amount to 

 about 4,000 per year. In spite of this, the two diagrams show 

 the same general features. This is highly significant. It 

 shows that in spite of the great outward difference between 

 whites and negroes, the two races are fundamentally alike in 

 their climatic response. Even though his ancestors lived in 

 Africa for thousands of years, the negro appears to have 

 acquired little more than an external adaptation to a hot climate. 

 His case Is even more striking than that of the Finn, who has 

 lived In a cold climate for many generations. The average 

 temperature in the places where these two races have spent most 

 of their lives differs by about 40°. Nevertheless, the tempera- 

 tures at which each is most healthy and energetic differ by no 

 more than 4°. It appears that not only the Nordic, Mediterra- 

 nean, and Mongoloid races are (almost) alike in their response 

 to climate, but even the negro joins them. It seems scarcely 

 going too far to query whether all mankind may not show nearly 

 the same adjustment to one special kind of climate. Men may 

 have black skins to protect them from the heat of the tropics, 

 or fair skins adapted to a cloudy, northern home, but so far as 

 actual temperature and humidity are concerned they may not be 

 essentially different. Possibly man's adjustment to climate is 

 somewhat like the temperature of the blood, which is almost 

 unchangeable, no matter In what climate man may live. Pos- 

 sibly this seeming uniformity in man's adaptation to climate 

 may indicate that the conditions under which he is now at 

 his best are those under which he took the most important 



