Arizona republican., 1898-07-19

that this will soon be changed Uorto Philippines are all tropical islands, and if they, one and all, come under our flag, doubtless many Of our citizens will go thither to seek their fortunes, and the question of standardization will at once become most practical one.
 We find in the British Medical Jour- nal of April 30 an interesting account of what is therefore for us a most timely discussion on this topic. The discussion took place in the rooms of the Royal Geographical society, in the presence of many of the best known authorities on tropical pathology. Most of those taking part in the debate held that there is no reason whatever why the white man should not be able to adapt himself to the new conditions of life in the tropics and protect himself against the diseases that prevail in those regions. The popular belief that the white man cannot successfully col onize the tropics is disproved by the fact that he has done so It is un- doubtedly true that many northerners who go to the equatorial regions con- tract disease there and die, but in the majority of such cases the man is the victim of his obstinate unwillingness to change his habits in respect to eat ing. drinking and clothing and to con- form his mode of life to the new con- ditions.
 The chief diseases. both acute and chronic. of tropical countries-those which formerly caused such ravages among the white settlers and gave rise to the prevalent theory that Europeans could live only in the temperate zone are all microbic in origin and conse- quently preventable in great measure. we cannot, Of course, expect to see them absolutely wiped out of exist ence, at least this side of the sanitary mlllenlum, but their sting. like that of smallpox, can be extracted by means or an improved public hygiene and other prophylactic measures. A con- Darlson of the healthfulness of the west India islands under enlightened British rule with that of the two until recently under Spanish misrule shows what can be done by sanitation to con- vert pest hole into a paradise. h. oeed, as Dr. L. Sambon, in opening the discussion above referred to, we'll said sanitation has within the last few decades wrought wonderful changes in all tropical countries, as regards health conditions, and the changes have been so great in some places that regions which were once considered most dead ly are now even recommended as health resorts
 Dr. Patrick Manson. than whom there is no greater authority on the pathology Of equatorial regions. began ms remarks with the confession that Tn former years, under the influence or early teaching, he shared in the pes- slmistic opinions then current about tropical colonization by the white races. In recent years, however. his views on this subject had undegone a complete revo1ution-a revolution that began with the establishment of the germ theory of disease He now firm ly believed in the possibility of tropi- | cal colonization by the white races. Heat and moisture, he contended. were not in themselves the direct cause of any important tropical disease. The direct causes of 99 per cent of these diseases are germs. When these germs and their habits are known fully. yic- tory will be within mans grasp. Most mlcro-parasites when they are once within the body are fairly safe. But these same parasites, in order that their respective species may keep in existence by spreading from one host to another, must at some time or an- other leave the human body. and dur- ing this necessary extra corporeal state they are eminently vulnerable. To kill them is simply matter of knowledge nf that is to say, sanitary science and
 anitation-Journal of the Military Service Institution.