TROPICAL AUSTRALIA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1725, 16 April 1913, Page 8

TROPICAL AUSTRALIA.

SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS,

SUFFERINGS OF THE WOMEN. _It is a matter of general knowledgo that moist heat is far more enervating than dry heat, and that in tropical countries tig white man has to modify his conditions of life 111 order to live comfortably and keep in- good health. Wet bulb records, which givo the porcentago of humidity' in the atmosphere, t»how ithat Australia, while a ,healthy climato 111 most placog and at mosl; periods of the year, has some .-regions where for three ir.nths in tho year the mean average wet bulb reading is SOdeg. Fahr. As S5 deg. is tho danger point, When the blood is apt to becomo superheated, and heat apoplexy to occur, tho fact is obvious that in these localities, for three months in _ the year, conditions are against whito men working there, and, according to recent, investigations, still more against white women doing so. These regions are in the extreme coastal' \belt' of (tho north-west, the-wet bulb isotherm of 80 for January, 1910, touching tho coast at Cossack, West Australia, again • below Broome, and emerging in the Cambridge Gulf. The area affected had contracted ft little in February of the same year, and in December was in this region contracted sitill further; but tho isotherm touched Port Darwin' in that month, running .along the coast to the gulf, and touching again at Caue York. A mean average 'lmmidity of 80de~g. means some steaming heat. ; • For tho past four years the Commonwealth meteorologist (Mr. H. A. Hunt) has bpen making investigations into the humidity conditions of Northern Australia, and Professor Osborne and Dr. J. W., Barrett have interested themselves in the physiological'side of. the question. . According to Mr. Hunt, the danger of humid- heat is that the air, being charged with moisture, is like" a soaked sponge, and refuses to absorb the perspiration exuded from tho skin. By tho continual absorption of this moisture the temperature of the skin i 9 kept down. ; In such an atmosphere the use of electric fans »is, a 1 source of relief. Curiously enough, tho men of those districts, who work out of <loors, do not .seem to feel the heat as much as the women. 'These unfortunate.souls, cramped it]> "in little iron boxes, over a hot stove," .said Mr. Hunt, are' rarely healthy looking, suffering from anaemia and lassitude. ' I am getting a number of people who are interested in tho subject," continued Mr. Hunt, "to take wet-bulb readings in the houses-where the women work. There is .vary: little doubt that the anaemic look is caused- by tho. conditions in. which they hvo and work."" I "Australia has, in the main, a dry, healthy climate. ; Though it is hotter than either New York or Hong-Kong, there aro very: few deaths from' sunstroke or heat apoplexy.. In New York hundreds of people die every summer with temperatures of OOdeg. or thereabouts. Ia Hong-Kong the mean summer temperature is only 81deg., and the iccord is 97deg., but the climate is awful, on account of the humidity. Tho town is on an island, and so is ■New York, and this accounts in a large for the -humidity-.-white-man," .concluded Mr. Hunt, ;''has /adapted' himself: to life in every part of the globe. In the hot regions he tabes off .most of his clothes, in the cold areas ho puts them' on. • In the mines and in theicanefiolds many men labour stripped to ithe waist. They return to the conditions; of. savagery in this respect, so' that their skins may-bo kept cool by the evaporation which is so slow in these humid {climates. But the women, whose work is at ihomp, suffer. One rarely sees a good complexion in the northern areas of Australia.,. It is all very well for peo>plo to recommend open-air exercise for the women. What chance has the wife of a poor man, with; a. family of small children, to leavo ■ the house ? Some combat the idea that tho climate of tropical Australians not fit to- work in. Well, the men do not,seem, to mind it, but the women c^iplain'ib);..tho heat. h "With'an electric - fan -in a rconi no harm could come ,to one, for-wind has the sanWelfect as dry heat in evaporating tho moisture, cai .tho,skill,'.and thus keeping th? temperature down. It may seem that such an appliance is am impossible luxury m the,northern parts of Australia, but 'windmill the luxury is not so impossible as-it-seems."- ' 1