The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-29
WHITE MEN IN THE TROPICS.

The effect of the tropics upon indl-
vi6,sals varies in proportion to the ex-
ercise taken and the quantity and va
riety of food consumed. There is moth
ing in warm weather, providing that
the air is not unduly damp. and that
dwelling places are sanitary, which is
worse for the system than cool weather.
The human race had its cradle In
serni-tropicaI region; and those of it's
subdivisions that are native to the
/ tropics live as long and enjoy as good
health as those that are native to the
| temperate zone. For instance, the equa-
torial negro is as sound man as the
| North American Indian. These races
have, in their primitive states, adapted
themselves to their surroundings. Their
dwellings, their foods and their activi-
ties are all precisely what long exper-
fence has taught to be best for them;
and ii is only when civilization has
forced customs upon them inimical to
these, that they have begun to decline
and die.
The civilized man who brings in these
customs and lives up to them, soon
complains Of the climate, especially the
tropical climate But the trouble is
rot due to the sunshine so much as it
is to him. He insists, in warm coun-
tries, upon eating the same foods and
as much of them, as he did in cold
countries, and at the same time he
relaxes in the matter of the exercise
through which, in a northern climate,
he was able to digest his three or four
stout meals per day. 1t is easy to see
what happens His liver gets .clogged,
mis- muscles soften, the blood begins to
gun sluggishly and he cites himself as
another example of the fact that a
white mafr-Sand the tropics cannot
agree. But he is mistaken. They can
agree perfectly if he viii only let them.
Honolulu boasts, now and then, of its |
young white men who are taking athz
letic and scholastic honors at main |
land schools; and the clogged and sur
feited elders. who eat plenty of beef and
pork and always ride when they might |
better walk, say that it merely shows
how much better it is for the young |
man to be in a cooler climate. But it |
happens that all these young fellows |
were put into condition here to compete |
in tests of mind and body abroad. They /
prepared by ample and varied exercise
and light delight as compared
with what young men eat in the States
for the competitions ahead. Their
and minds were built up here
in the first place; they did not lie fall
low until awakened and invigorated by
a breath of cold air.
What the youngsters do the oldsters
may safely adopt. Not that the latter
need go so far as the former in the
of sports: for, as Lord
Rosebery points out, man after forty
may easily override. But regular ex-
ercise, including walking and, if pos
sible. swimming; a rigid adhesion to,
the '.no-breakfastn fuleI a distinct
leaning towards the foods of the coun-
try and away from the heat-producing
foods OF the north, will soon convince
any one that sanitary life in the
tropics is as productive of sound con=
stitutions and longevity as a sanitary
life in the temperate zones. As mat
ter of fact one ought to thrive better
OF trade wind island like Oahu.
where the temperature keeps at about |
the same degree of warmth the year
around, than in any country where the
system is subjected to the strain of |
constantly rising and falling thermom-
meter and barometer and where one
mas to live through, in the course of a |
twelvemonth, four sharply accumulated |
seasons.