788 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 
Mr. Anderson, assistant of Mr. Clement Wragge, has kindly 
given me the mean temperature for the eight hot months of the 
North Queensland stations ; in each it borders on SO degrees. 
In the tropics the white race has two irreconcilable enemies — 
anmmia , a condition in which is lessened the important agents that 
give redness to the blood ; and malaria, a soil disease of parasitic 
generation, and an semi a’ s close ally. 
Oxygen is the vital principle of air. While life exists, heat and 
force, both mental and physical, are produced ; as heat to boil the 
kettle, and steam to drive the engine, are obtained from the union of 
oxygen with wood and coal, so the body’s heat and force result from 
the chemical contact of inspired oxygen with the carbon of the system. 
So, having the carbon, to obtain a desired quantity of heat and 
force, the supply of oxygen must be sufficient. 
In the living man if oxygen be deficient then combustion is 
retarded. A proper bulk may be wanting from two causes — either a 
diminished percentage of this gas in the atmosphere or a reduction in 
the number of the corpuscles designed to convey it along the 
sanguineous stream. 
How does the first cause operate? Each rise of 1 degree in 
temperature increases the expansion of air by part of its volume, 
so that air at 80 degrees Fah. would be rarer by than air at GO 
degrees Fah. Taking the respirations at fifteen or sixteen per minute, 
the loss of oxygen every twenty-four hours in the higher temperature 
is a very appreciable amount. 
It has been calculated by Rattray that in India the adult uses 
nearly 87 cubic feet less of air daily than he would in England. 
Oxygen is lessened, the army of its red carriers is reduced to a 
tropical footing, thus lowering the power of resistance to heat, of 
endurance of fatigue, weakening the defences against disease, and 
preparing the tissues for premature decay. 
And malaria, whether insidiously insinuating itself in the form of 
continued fever or brazenly seizing and striking down its victim with 
virulence in ague, stands out as a destroyer of red corpuscles. It is 
universally agreed that long after removal from its habitat, an unsus- 
pecting subject of its dormant influence may develop active symptoms 
from a lengthy incubation. 
Then, as well-aerated blood is necessary for the proper nourish- 
ment of all parts of the body, and since, even in the uncomplaining 
apparently healthy individual, tropical heat interferes with this accom- 
plishment, we have impaired digestion and a lowering of nerve vigour. 
The skin is an active eliminator, leaving the lungs much less to do, 
consequently the chest of the child is not developed to its full extent. 
This becomes a hardship and a danger if in adult life a change to 
colder climates should be necessary or desirable. 
In the words of Lauder B run ton, u certain organs of the imported 
European are manifestly called upon to exert themselves less than 
formerly, while others are worked beyond their wont. The thoracic 
viscera are spared, but the liver, spleen, intestines, and skin, which 
have functions to perform in excess of those thrown upon them in a 
temperate climate, are particularly liable to undergo pathological 
changes and to suffer from actual disease upon the occurrence of any 
exciting cause.’* 
