E.—GEOGRAPHY 85 
oceanic islands, which as a rule are decidedly healthy. He would, if 
he were wise, consider that the Steppe deserts were healthy zones ; but 
probably he would decide that the temperate zone as a whole, provided 
it is not too far from the sea, is the healthiest belt of the world for man. 
It is almost certain that he would entirely forget that the polar regions 
are definitely the most healthy segments of the earth’s surface, for the 
simple reason that the ordinary disease-bearers, whether they be rodents 
or insects or minute bacilli, find the conditions either impossible for 
existence or inhibitive. 
But we are not concerned here so much with the healthiness of the 
zone as with its value from a remedial point of view, for we are certainly 
not going to migrate in millions to the Arctic just because we cannot there 
contract the diseases of our own lands. But what we may well pay 
attention to is the corollary to that healthiness, namely that many, though 
not all, of the diseases contracted in temperate climates can be cured by 
residence in the polar regions. 
I am aware that it is more than dangerous, indeed provocative in the 
highest degree, for anyone outside the medical faculty to say how far 
special diseases are curable by residence in a pure air and a cold one. 
It seems, however, from the experience of sanatoria in the Alps, etc., 
that it is the sufferers from pulmonary diseases who are most likely to 
get benefit from such residence. The question will at once be asked as 
to what the polar regions can supply which is not already obtainable, 
say, in the Alps. For an answer to this question we must look to the 
doctors ; but it does seem likely that residence in a vast territory free 
from germs or the conditions for their transport must, prima facie, be 
better than residence in an alpine region which is surrounded by, and is 
merely above, zones teeming with possibilities of disease. If this thesis 
is correct, and it is one which a small period of research could easily con- 
firm or refute, then surely we are neglecting an aspect of the polar regions 
which is of major importance to mankind, more valuable than all the 
industries they will ever support. 
If it be true, as I believe, that the greatest gifts of science to mankind 
lie in the realms of preventive and remedial medicine, then surely here is 
an investigation which should not be left as merely a pious hope in a 
_ presidential address, but deserves promulgation and action. 
To test the value of the suggestion there is needed some research and 
experiment, most appropriately to be carricd out under the auspices of 
one of those international bodies such as the Rockefeller Foundation, which 
has already done so much for remedial medicine. For assistance in 
carrying out this research there is needed the sympathy of governments, 
especially that of Norway, in whose care is the most promising territory 
in the Arctic for that purpose, namely, Svalbard or Spitzbergen. 
Let us remember too, before we allow hands of horror to be raised at 
the expense of such research, that in the past sums of money have been 
spent in Spitzbergen itself for the erection of an airship hangar and pro- 
vision of the airship itself for a few hours’ flight to the Pole, which would 
be sufficient to erect a hospital and run it for many years in an experiment 
which might be of permanent value to the world. We must be properly 
