2 
; E.—GEOGRAPHY. 141 
sub-committee reported in 1920 as follows: ‘ After mature consideration 
of these and other sources of information embodying the results of long 
and varied professional experience and observation in the Australian 
Tropics, the sub-committee is unable to find anything pointing to the exis- 
tence of inherent or insuperable obstacles in the way of the permanent 
occupation of Tropical Australia by a healthy indigenous white race. 
_ They consider that the whole question of successful development andsettle- 
ment of Tropical Australia by white races is fundamentally a question 
_of applied public health in the modern sense . . . They consider that the 
absence of semi-civilized coloured peoples in Northern Australia simplifies 
the problem very greatly.’ 
' 
45 3.—ImMPROVEMENTS BY PuBLIC SANITATION. 
’ 
The trend of medical opinion to the view that there is no physiological 
reason why the white race should not inhabit the tropics may lead to a 
change similar to that regarding some localities in the temperate zones, 
which were formerly regarded as death-traps and are now popular health 
resorts. The island of Walcheren, on the coast of one of the most densely 
peopled countries in Europe and only thirty miles from so fashionable a 
_watering-place as Ostend, had a century and a quarter ago one of the most’ 
deadly climates in Europe. The largest army which had ever left the 
British islands landed there in 1809. Napoleon did not think it worth 
powder and shot. ‘ Only keep them in check,’ was his order, ‘ and the 
bad air and fevers peculiar to the country will soon destroy the army.’ 
_Napoleon’s judgment was justified. The force of 70,000 men disembarked 
on July 31 and August 1. By October 10, according to Sir Ranald 
Martin, 142 per thousand were dead of disease, and 587 per thousand 
were ill. 
4 Algeria is now a trusted sanatorium. Yet disease annually swept away 
7 per cent. of the French army that conquered it. Sir A. M. Tulloch 
remarked that if the French Government had realized the significance of 
that mortality ‘it would never have entered on the wild speculation of 
cultivating the soil of Africa by Europeans, nor have wasted a hundred 
_ millions sterling with no other result than the loss of 100,000 men, who have 
fallen victims to the climate of that country.’ The same change of view 
has taken place in reference to some tropical localities. The deadliness 
_of the Spanish Main to our armies was described by Samuel Johnson. 
_* The attack on Cartagena,’ hesaid, ‘is yet remembered, where the Spaniards 
from the ramparts saw their invaders destroyed by the hostility of the 
elements ; poisoned by the air, and crippled by the dews ; where every 
_hour swept away battalions ; and in the three days that passed between 
the descent and re-embarkation half an army perished. In the last 
war the Havanna was taken, at what expense is too well remembered. 
May my country be never cursed with such another conquest.’ Yet 
- Havanna, under American administration, has become one of the healthiest 
cities in the world. 
Sir John Moore, when Governor of St. Lucia (1796), wrote home that 
it is not the climate that kills, but mismanagement. His insight has been 
demonstrated in the same region. The French attempt to build the 
Panama Canal was defeated by disease. Discovery of its nature enabled 
