292 THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — PHYSICAL 



the southern part of the West Coast of Africa — the 

 coast of Lower Guinea. Around the Bights cf Benin 

 and Biafra (country of the Cameroons and of the 

 Gaboon), as well as in the adjoining island of St. Thomas, 

 it appears from the entirely tmstworthy writings of 

 Daniell, that phthisis is widely prevalent and very 

 malignant among the negroes. As regards the French 

 settlements on the Gaboon coast, that statement is 

 fully borne out by the French medical practitioners; 

 and we have an account to the same effect regarding 

 its occurrence on the island of Fernando Po." — Hirsch, 

 vol. iii. pp. 189-90. ' 



"In the Western Hemisphere the inhabited regions 

 within northern latitudes, and with an Arctic climate, 

 offer a marked contrast to the corresponding territories 

 of Europe, in respect to the great frequency of phthisis 

 in them. In North Greenland that disease is one of the 

 commonest causes of death. At a trading station on the 

 northern shore of Hudson's Bay phthisis is prevalent 

 among the scanty population to an enormous extent, 

 according to the evidence of a practitioner who had 

 been five years on the station ; and there are reports to 

 the same effect from New Archangel and the Aleutian 

 Islands (Alaska). It is common also in Newfoundland, 

 New Brimswich, and Canada, in the last particularly 

 among the native Indians (Stratton)," — Ibid. pp. 192-3. 



Just as regards malaria, so as regards tuberculosis, 

 the resisting power of any race is exactly proportionate 

 to its familiarity with the disease. The English, who 

 have long dwelt under conditions most favourable to 

 the bacilli, are more resistant than Hindoos, who have 

 dwelt under conditions less favourable. Hindoos are 

 more resistant than Africans, who, though they have 

 lived in contact with the races of Europe and Asia, 

 have dwelt under conditions very adverse to the disease, 

 Africans are more resistant than the races of the New 

 World, who, while dwelling under conditions equally 



