Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-14
CONQUEST OF THE TROPICS
TT Is NOT AT ALL AN IMPOSSIBLE
TASK.
People Who Inhabit Tropical Lands
Are Themselves to Blame for
Bad Existing Conditions.

DR. George G. Croft. in Appleton's Popular Science
Monthly.
The most beautiful and the most fruitful
portions of the earth are at the present
time In the possession of partially civilized,
or barbarous and savage races, to the ex-
cluson of the more enlightened Caucasian.
Shall he ever remain unable to possess ana
occupy tropical lands to the exclusion OF
dark-skinned and inferior races? VIII the
time never come when he can rear fam
lily of strong and vigorous children, of pure
blood. under the equatorial sun? Is it true
that the white man removing to the
tropics necessarily deteriorates?
The almost universal belief is that these
questions must be answered in the affirma-
tive. That owing to the great heat ana te
evil influences operating through the ar
the water and the soil IL will always be
impossible for white people 10 I'VE III not
countries permanently, and at the same
time. TO retain the physical Vlgor OF tenn
perate ATTITUDES, and to rear neditnS Gun
JIren But these persons do not take into
account certain recent great discoveries IN
the domain of science, medicine ana ny
giene In the light of these discoveries II
Is not wise to say that the white man will
never conquer the tropics.
Powerful Precedents.
White races have, in the past, reached
high degree of civilizat alton in hot countries
Egypt. where the first civilization arose, Is
n land Of tropical heat The valley OF the
Euphrates. where arose the civilization OF
Babylon, and much of Persia. are both
tropical suDtropical in temperature. me
people of Egypt. Babylon and Persia We're
white. 1t would seem that to originate
civilization is more difficult than to main
tain it
MANY countries now most salubrious,
were once considered very unhealthful.
Health conditions We're so bad in England.
after the withdrawal of the Romans. that
for nearly thousand years there was alb
eolutely no increase in the population, and
the most dismal accounts of the reign Of
disease have come down to our times.
What was true in England was in great
part true of all of Europe throughout the
bark ages Scurvy, rheumatism, fevers and
plaques held high carnival in recurring cpl
denies every few years. II We can believe
The reports. 1t was fully as dangerous then
Europe as It is in the most dreaded
tropical regions.
New England was al first thought to be
\ very unhealthful land. The early set
Tiers in Massachusetts, wrote TO their
friends in England imploring shipments Of
Die and beer. because the water was
'wholly unfit TO drink" What held con-
Rerning New England was doubtless MAIN
fained about every other portion of the
sentiment settled by the English, and. in
Dome cases. these views prevailed until re-
senJ times.
1t is well known that our ancestors
thought IL would never be possible for
white people. or, indeed for any people. to
live on the treeless praries of the great
west The earliest settlers always &C.
eupled the wooded belts, and only seventy
years ago the prairies, which now sustain
millions Of happy and healthy whites were
looked upon probably in much the same
way as we regard the plains of the ANA
Eon. of the Orinoco. or even the Sahara OF
Africa.
Many persons yet living can recall the
terrible struggles with disease which the
first settlers passed through in Ohio. In
eiana, Illinois. Missouri and even in salubri-
gus California. The early settlers in these
States were doubtless sallow. cadaver-
BUS looking, and with as little prospect of
leaving vigorous descendants as the present
white Inhabitants In Cuba, Porto Rico or
fhe Philippines The regulations of Flor
Ma, Louisiana and Texas were no better.
Can Live In Good Health.
Adults can live without deterioration In
Me tropics. This has been proven by En-
gLsh and Dutch officers In India, Ceylon
lava. Sumatre and elsewhere In the West
indies are men from the United States and
kon all the countries OF Europe, who have