Medical Notes. 613 



pass their existence, whether in suffering or in robust 

 health. 



In looking at tropical populations, it will be noticed, es- 

 pecially in Tropical America, that, though the Anglo-Saxon 

 enjoys a fair sliare of health, the Spanish and Portuguese 

 races seem to be the natural man -animal of these coun- 

 tries, appearing even more self-sustain ii]g than the Indian 

 himself, not only by an intellectual development, but by a 

 power of physical resistance to climatal depressions. And, 

 in accounting for this adaptation of these races to the tier- 

 ras calieiiteSjOV lowlands, of the tropics, it appears to me 

 that the following suggestion of an ingenious French 

 medical writer might very well be worthy of attention. 

 After showing that the blood of the southwest peninsula 

 of Europe is the complex resultant of numerous Indo- 

 European bi'anches allied with the primitive Iberian, 

 which probably first came from Chaldea, with the Semitic 

 about Carthage, and with the Moors of Africa, he goes on 

 to say, " Par ses origines, on peut affirmer que le sang 

 africain a ete par trois fois largement infuse dans les 

 veines espagnoles, et que la temperature elevee de cette 

 peninsule a du conserver a ce sang sa facile adaptation 

 aux climats tropicaux. Ne doit-il pas aussi a ces sources 

 africaines uneentente plus cordiale avec le n^gre?" * * * 

 It is not impossible that the gradual colonizing of the 

 Amazons basin by the Anglo-European or North Ameri- 

 can will, in time, give rise to a cross with the. mestizo or 

 the tropical Latin, which will still further continue to bet- 

 ter the future of these intertropical jungles. It is true, 

 probably, that rapid migrations can not be durable or 

 prosperous where the colonists come from a different 

 isothermal zone and retain tlieir blood intact; but cross- 

 ing with tlie natives, all things being equal, will favor 

 and accelerate acclimation. 



