INFLUENCE OF PHILIPPINE CLIMATE ON WHITE MEN. 



461 



Table XXIX. — Relative admission rates for insanity and for nervous diseases in 

 the Army serving in the Philippines and in the United States, 1903 to 1909. 



Calendar year. 



Admission rate per 1,000. 



1 



Insanity. 



Nervous diseases. 



Philip- 

 pine 

 Islands. 



United 

 States. 



Philip- 

 pine 

 Islands. 



United 

 States. 



1903» - - 



1904 



1905 



1906 - 



1907 



1908 - - - 



1909 - 



1.05 

 1.75 

 1.45 

 2.02 

 1.88 

 1.09 

 1.56 



1.02 

 1.71 

 1.61 

 1.33 

 1.79 

 1.58 

 1.63 



22.67 

 20.34 

 20. 53 

 19..% 

 19.32 

 19.30 

 16.82 



21.77 

 22.10 

 19.49 

 19.47 

 20. 15 

 18.44 

 16.61 



» Figures for the Philippines in 1903 include also those for troops serving in China. 



These figures show that there is no constant or essential difference 

 between the admission rates for insanity and nervous diseases in the 

 United States and in the Philippine Islands. In maji}^ instances the 

 ratio is higher in the United States. Tables XXI, XXII, and XXV 

 indicate how small a part neurasthenia now plays in the morbidity of 

 Americans in the Philippines. Yet the sunlight is the same as in the 

 period from 1898 to 1902, but the hardships, the bad sanitation, the 

 poor food, the isolation, and the nostalgia have been largely remedied. 

 As stated before, we believe that the most of the neurasthenia here is 

 among the women, who rarely go out in the sun. Among the cases of 

 insanity classified in Table XXV, a very large proportion were considered 

 to have existed at date of enlistment, and not to have been due in any 

 way to the climatic influences of the Philippines. 



GENEEAl SUMMARY. 



It is well known that heat and humidity in an experimental chamber, 

 and in the absence of light, can produce sjmiptoms similar to those 

 occurring in milder degree among residents of the Tropics. We think 

 it probable that these two factors, combined with infections, nostalgia, 

 and monotony, account for most if not all of the injurious effects seen 

 in tropical lands. To explain the conditions met with in the Philip- 

 pines there seems to be no need for invoking the aid of the actinic rays 

 of the solar spectrum. Protection against these rays by orange-red 

 clothing was of no benefit. It is by no means proved that pigmentation 

 per se is beneficial in the Tropics. In our investigations of blonds and 



