ere 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 colonize the
tropics is disproved by the fact that he has done so. It is undoubtedly
true that many Northerners who go to equatorial regions contract 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
eating, drinking, and clothing, and to conform his life to the new
conditions.

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 can live
only in the temperate zone--are all microbic in origin, and consequently
in great measure preventable. We cannot expect, of course, to see them
absolutely wiped out of existence; but their sting may be extracted by
means of an improved public and private hygiene and other prophylactic
measures. A comparison of the healthfulness of the West India Islands
under enlightened British rule with that of the two under Spanish
misrule shows what can be done by sanitation to convert a pest-hole into
a paradise. Indeed, as Dr. L. Sambon, in opening the discussion, well
said, sanitation within the last few decades has wrought wonderful
changes in all tropical countries as regards health conditions, and the
changes in some places have been so great that regions once considered
most deadly are now even recommended as health resorts.

Dr. Patrick Manson, than whom there is no greater authority on the
pathology of equatorial regions, began his remarks with the confession
that in former years, under the influence of early training, he shared
in the pessimistic opinions then current about tropical colonization by
the white races. In recent years, however, his views on this subject had
undergone a complete revolution--a revolution that began with the
establishment of the germ theory of disease. He now firmly believed in
the possibility of tropical colonization by the white races. Heat and
moisture, he contended, are not, in themselves, the direct cause of any
important tropical disease. The direct causes of ninety-nine per cent,
of these diseases are germs, and to kill the germs is simply a matter of
knowledge and the applicat