THIS NUMBER CONTAINS PAPERS READ AT THE FIRST BIEN- 

 NIAL MEETING OF THE FAR EASTERN ASSOCIATION OF TROPICAL 

 MEDICINE, HELD AT MANILA, MARCH 5 TO 14, 1910. 



THE PHILIPPINE 



Journal of Science 



B. Medical Sciences 



Vol. V FEBRUARY, 1910 No. 1 



THE TROPICAL SUNLIGHT. 1 



By Paul C. Fbeer. 

 (From the Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I have chosen my topic for discussion, not only because I knew that 

 an audience, every one of whom has had a more or less extended ex- 

 perience in the Tropics, would be vitally interested in it, but also, 

 because in the past decade differences, more especially of insolation, in 

 portions of the globe showing contrasts in climate have been the subject 

 of extended monographs and papers appearing in scientific publications 

 and journals. For the greater part, this literature has especially to do 

 with the objective manifestations of the effects of equable tempera- 

 tures, possible humidity, and supposedly intense sunlight upon the 

 conditions of life of human beings and their response to their environ- 

 ment. Considered in this aspect, there always enters an element of 

 uncertainty owing to the absence of absolute means of measurement 

 and the variability of other hygienic surroundings. The people of the 

 Tropics, by reason of their mode of life, their food, their backward- 

 ness in scientific procedures and their superstitions, are exposed to 

 many infections and causes of disease which modify any conclusions 

 which may be drawn, and these effects, because of their omnipresence, 

 reflect themselves upon the modern European intruders. Experiments 



1 Address of the president at the first biennial meeting of the Far Eastern As- 

 sociation of Tropical Medicine, held at Manila, March 5, 1910. 

 94620 



