Tropical Insanity

Congress last week decided to thwart the increasing tendency of U. S. soldiers, sailors and marines to go crazy. The Senate passed a House bill forbidding the three services to keep an officer or enlisted man on duty in the tropics and certain foreign stations longer than two years. Surgeon General Robert Urie Patterson of the Army pleaded before a Senate committee for the two year restriction. About 500 men are being discharged from the Army each year because of mental derangements. Most common cause is dementia praecox. The large majority of cases arise in the Army's overseas departments--the Philippines, Hawaii, Canal Zone. Surgeon General Patterson blames the tropics: "Residence in the tropic regions at or near the sea level is unfavorable to the health of Northern races. Among the things which may exercise deleterious effects may be cited . . . the temperature . . . the humidity . . . exposure to actinic rays . . . absence of normal sources of companionship and amusement, resulting in mental depressions . . . lack of exercise and excessive indulgence in food, alcohol and venery . . . association with natives. ... In my opinion nobody--no white man--lives in the tropics over a long period who does not deteriorate in practically every way." "Children," said General Patterson, "up to a certain age can do fairly well in the tropics, provided you can get a good supply of milk for them, which is always hard to do. But after they reach 8 or 10 they ought not to be in the tropics." Of civilians who work in the tropics the Surgeon General continued: "They do not look vigorous to me. Take Hawaii particularly, which is a delightful place most of the year to live. The people there are pretty well-to-do, the white people who go out there. And very few of them fail to absent themselves for a few weeks to several months every year. In that way they keep up."

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