The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-17
Tho White Man In tho Tropics,

inc Wn1to MAN In tho -
Mr.. ARCHIBALD r. CoLoUHoUN in his
Mastery Of the Pacific, in urging Eng
lishmen to oolonize and develop Canada
and British Columbia, says that they will
40 doubt turn their attention In that
direction when the glamour Of Africa
has faded and they decide to sacrifice no
more valuable lives "in a vain attempt
to surmount climatic difficulties"
This idea that the white man cannot
aoclimate himself in some parts Of the
tropics runs through most of the eco
nomio literature that deals with the
lands Of the brown and the black men.
The theory has even been advanced
that the white men will ultimately be
overwhelmed and subjugated in their
own countries by the dark hued races
because these thrive In the white mans
country as well as in their own. But
there is n high authority on the treat
ment OF tropical diseases-perhaps the
highest, judged by his achievements
who believes that the white man can
surmount the climatic difficulties Of any
tropical country, reside, flourish and do
the days work there, whether it be
empire building or canal digging. That
eminent authority is Colonel WILLIAM
G. GoRGAs Of the United States Army,
who banished yellow fever from Havana
and made the terrible Canal Zone habi-
table. In his address at the graduation
exercises of the Cornell University Medi-
cal Nollaoa IN WaIpaadny Loot Colona1
GoRdAs, looking into the future, held
out the promise Of the supremacy Of the
white mans civilization in the tropics:
I Am inclined to think that tho advances made
In recent years in tropical sanitation will have a
much widsr and more far reaching effect than
freeing Havana from yellow fever or enabling us
70 build the Panama Canal. ] think that santa.
tIon can now show that any population coming into
the tropics can protect itself against disease by
measures that are both simple and ine1pensive;
that hfe In the tropics for the Anglo Saxon will be
more healthfll than In the temperate zones. and
that gradually within the next two or three cen.
turtles tropical countries. which ofIer . much greater
return for mans labor than DO the temperate zones,
will be settled by the white races, and that again
the centres OF wealth. civilization and population
will be In the tropics. as they were 10 the dawn Of
mans history. rather than In tho temperate zones
as Of present"
We should like to hear from that other
eminent parasitologist, Sir PATRICK MAN
SON, on this fascinating subject. He has
labored in a field perhaps more deadly
than is the Isthmus OF Panama, and his
researches and experiments have been of
yoo1os,1ah1o 1,o1t,o 20 ,o;oroo IL -.
not, however, had the opportunities to
organize health In the tropics on an ex-
tensive scale with a generous Govern
ment to support him that have come to
Colonel GoRGAs. What the latter says
about the rapid advances made in recent
years. in tropical sanitation must be
understood as referring chiefly to the
treatment Of disease, with regard to
which the British Tropical School of
Medicine and the German faculty have
made valuable discoveries. The most
fatal and formidable of all tropical dis
eases, the sleeping sickness, which claims
men Of all colors in vast numbers and
until now has deied the of
science, seems likely to yield to a serum
that Is the invention Of a German
doctor. With this horror subdued 1.-THE
field will be fairly won and nothing can
stay the march of sanitation in the
tropics. From the medical mans point
OF view there will remain no more worlds
to conquer, but before the Respondent
dream of Colonel GoRGAs can be realized
by white men a good deal of soldering as
we'll as pioneering will have to be done,
which is another story, and also a story
that only two or three centuries can tell.