Effect of Tropical Climates on Health of White show that when people are kept from morning till night in tempera tures of their hearts beat over twenty times per minute more often than when the temperature is This is because the blood must circulate rapidly through the lungs and skin in order that increased evaporation may prevent the temperature of the blood from rising too high. But even with the extra work of the heart the temperature of the blood rises more rapidly than in cooler places if people engage in physical labor. In tropical countries, the white man is permanently under a strain of this sort. The body adjusts itself to the heat and to the absence of the stimulus due to changes, but at the expense of general activity. The effect is like that of lengthening the pendulum of a clock; the mechanism still works, but more slowly than before. People do not feel disposed to work and to take exercise; the various organs such as the liver become clogged; and the mind finds it difficult to think clearly and accurately. This need not prevent northern races from diving in tropical countries and doing good work, provided they work lowly and escape parasitic diseases. The weakened condition of the 0 dy, however, makes it difficult to resist disease, and also makes people careless about preventive measures, such as exercise and sanitation.
Effect of Health upon health of northerners who stay long in tropical countries is often reflected in their character. A man of strong character may retain that character, but in many cases the weak spots become more evident than at home. The weakness may manifest itself in various ways according to individual temperament, for example, in disinclination to work, in an irascible temper, drunkenness, immorality, gambling, untruthfulness. Practically every northerner who goes to the tropics says that at first he works as well as at home and finds the climate delightful, or even stimulating. Little by little, however, he is likely to slow down, and the spirit of ambition pricks him less keenly than before. After a long sojourn it is hard to spur one's self to a moun tain climb, and equally hard to think out the long steps in a chain of rea soning. Young Englishmen of the highest types in the Bahamas say that when they come they think nothing of a walk of twenty miles, but after a few years they dread the thought of two. Such men also say that at first they read solid books in the evening, but within a few years cannot concentrate on anything that requires much thought.
lw The relative prevalence of drunkenness, immorality, gambling, and dishonesty among a certain large group of white men in tropical coun tries is due both to physiological and social causes, but in either case the harmful effect upon business cannot be ignored. For example, even if
liquor is no more abundant in tropical regions than elsewhere, the tired feeling which is common in the torrid zone makes men want something which they suppose will brace them up. The same conditions apply to other weaknesses. Not only do the low standards of tropical coun tries influence the white man who goes there to live, but temptations seem stronger than at home because the climate and the diseases weaken people's power of resistance. This is especially the case because in tropical countries many men are cut off from the social restraints which do so much to make most people upright and useful in their own homes.
Antidotes to Tropical Weaknesses of White this does not mean that the white man cannot successfully carry on business enterprises and maintain high standards of character in tropical coun tries. The men who maintain such standards through a long life in tropical countries are generally those who pay special attention to keeping themselves " fit." Many keep fit by carefully regulating their diet, by refraining from alcoholic liquors, by having work which interests them and keeps them absorbed, and especially by systematic exercise.
Among the native people the same rule holds true. Among those Fili pinos who are partly of European descent, many are being built up physically by the athletics which Americans have introduced. There is probably more need of judicious and systematic exercise in tropical countries than in those where the climate is more bracing.
Such conditions mean that every wise business enterprise in tropical countries must do at least three things: (1) it must spend money freely on the health of its employees; (2) it must give frequent and long vacations so that the employees and their families may go home before they show signs of weakening; (3) it must promote exercise and all sorts of wholesome forms of recreation, especially out-of-doors; and (4) every possible effort must be made to maintain high social standards, and the white men must have their own community as separate as pos sible from the people of the country. Even if men must travel about among the natives they should regularly spend long week ends in a community of northerners. To some people such precautions seem unnecessary and almost unbusinesslike, but the most successful cor porations such as the United Fruit Company are the ones that practice them most fully. They pay in the long run, for the riches of tropical lands are enormous, and the thing that is most needed there is wise, efficient, energetic, sympathetic, and reliable men to manage the native labor. Hawaii, and to a much less extent, Java and Jamaica stand high in this respect.