GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



The Effects ot Tropical Light on White 



Men. By Major Chas. E. Woodruff, 



Surgeon U. S. Army. Pp. 358. 



New York and London : Rebman 



Company. 1905. 



Dr Woodruff advances here a start- 

 ling theory that light is a curse. He is 

 keenly aware that he is antagonistic to 

 all the teachings of the medical profes- 

 sion. Hence he girds on his scientific 

 armor in the first part of his volume, 

 and treats very technically of the 

 effects of light upon life, both plant and 

 animal, finally reaching the basis of his 

 thesis, that the color of man's skin is 

 directly proportioned to the "intensity 

 of the light of the country to which 

 his ancestors approved their adjust- 

 ment by centuries or millenniums of 

 survival in health and vigor." Thus 

 we find all gradations of color, from the 

 black in the tropics to the blonde in 

 northwestern Europe. It is nature's 

 method to guard against the destruc- 

 tive rays of the sun by layers of pig- 

 ment over the body. 



Having found his hobby, he rides it 

 hard. Life in cities is injurious, not 

 because of little light, as we have been 

 generally taught, but because of the re- 

 flection from the walls and pavements. 

 The farmer is guarded by the trees and 

 vegetation. We are fanatics demand- 

 ing so many windows in our school 

 rooms. The less light, the less deaths 

 from Florida to Vancouver. Instead of 

 swearing at the clouds and rain, the 

 people on the North Pacific coast of our 

 land should thank God that they are 

 protected from His sunshine. 



( )f the four great races, black, yellow, 

 olive, and blonde, each has its zoological 

 zone. Only death awaits the one that 

 crosses its boundaries, northward or 

 southward, but they can migrate along 

 the parallels of latitude as they desire. 

 Armed with his theory, Dr Woodruff 

 confidently solves the greatest prob- 



lems. The half-breeds disappear be- 

 cause they are too dark for the upper 

 latitude and not dark enough for the 

 lower ones. There is no need for 

 alarm over the race issue among us, as 

 the negro is doomed to extinction. The 

 same sad fate awaits the white people 

 who go too far southward. It is an 

 absurdity to speak of whites being ac- 

 climatized in the tropics, as they can 

 never fit themselves to the warmth of 

 those regions. His explanation of our 

 nervousness as compared with Europe 

 is very pat. We have got too far south- 

 ward of our original home, and are thus 

 leading an existence unnatural for us. 

 We shall all become brunettes unless 

 constantly infused with the blonde from 

 Europe. Our mothers and those in 

 New Zealand cannot nurse their babies, 

 because our race is degenerating, pay- 

 ing the penalty for migrating toward 

 the equator. 



But Dr Woodruff looks deeper than 

 the skin. With him difference of color 

 carries grades of intellect. The blondes 

 are the brainiest, as they developed un- 

 der the harsher natural conditions that 

 would produce the best type by selec- 

 tion. It was early waves from that 

 dark corner in Europe that made 

 Greece and Rome the pagan stars of 

 antiquity, and those nations declined 

 when the masterful northerners became 

 extinct under the fiercer rays of the 

 sun. They have kept up this spirit, 

 and today rule large stretches of the 

 tropics, but can never exterminate those 

 black and brown subjects, as the heat 

 there saps the blonde vitality in three 

 generations. These later blondes are 

 largely Protestants, because that sys- 

 tem means independence of thought, 

 while southern Europe is Catholic and 

 brunette. The United States is in the 

 Semitic or olive belt, and we shall be- 

 come mostly brunette, but the superior 

 blonde will always be our captains. 



