  We construct a formula for proton-nucleus total reaction cross section as a
function of the mass and neutron excess of the target nucleus and the proton
incident energy. We deduce the dependence of the cross section on the mass
number and the proton incident energy from a simple argument involving the
proton optical depth within the framework of a black sphere approximation of
nuclei, while we describe the neutron excess dependence by introducing the
density derivative of the symmetry energy, L, on the basis of a radius formula
constructed from macroscopic nuclear models. We find that the cross section
formula can reproduce the energy dependence of the cross section measured for
stable nuclei without introducing any adjustable energy dependent parameter. We
finally discuss whether or not the reaction cross section is affected by an
extremely low density tail of the neutron distribution for halo nuclei.
