On Ethno-Climatology; or, the Acclimatization of Man. By JAMES HUNT, Ph. D., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris, Honorary Secretary of the Ethnological Society of London.

[A communication ordered to be printed among the Reports.]

ONE of the most important and practical duties of the ethnologist at the present day is the endeavour to discover the laws which regulate the health of man in his migrations over the world. The generally received opinions on this important subject are, however, vague and unsatisfactory.

From some cause, it is the popular belief that man stands entirely alone in the animal kingdom with regard to the influence exerted on him by external causes. We are told that man can thrive equally well in the burning heat of the tropics and in the icy regions at the poles.

I purpose, therefore, in this paper to examine how far the supposition of man's cosmopolitan power is warranted by an induction from the facts at present known to us. We can gain nothing in Climatology from "à priori” arguments, as it is entirely an experimental science; and hitherto we have not been able to foretell with any certainty the exact effect which any climate would exert on an 'individual or a race. No one who reflects on the important bearings which the question of man's cosmopolitanism introduces will be inclined to doubt the gravity of the question, and its claims to the serious attention, not only of ethnologists, but of all who are interested in the great problemn of man's future destiny. This question then has equal claims on the attention of the philosopher and the statesman. Our data may be at present insufficient to found an exact science of Ethno-Climatology, but I trust to be able to show that there exist the outlines of a great science, which bids fair to prevent that waste of human life which has hitherto characterized the reckless policy of British colonization. Dr. Boudin, who is well known for his researches on this and kindred subjects, has recently called the attention of the Anthropological Society of Paris to the question, and laments the great inattention which public men have hitherto given to such an important and grave subject. He very justly observes, "The problem is certainly one of the most important in the science of ethnology; for it governs the great questions of colonization, of recruiting men destined for distant expeditions, and of fixing the duration of the sojourn of foreign troops at certain stations, so as to render them effective in war. This question touches public health and social economy." Nor will it be necessary for me further to ask attention, when it is considered how largely the British nation is practically interested in having a correct and physiological system of colonization. I therefore bring this subject under your consideration with a desire of calling public attention to the powers of acclimatization possessed by the races of man in general, and by Europeans in particular. It is asserted that to man belongs the exclusive privilege of being the denizen of every region; for that with plants and animals such is not the case. This explanation has as often been accepted as satisfactorily showing that man enjoys privileges over the animal and vegetable kingdoms. That races of men are found in every climate is perfectly true; but a slight examination into the differences and peculiarities of the races of men will show that this argument is not so forcible as at first sight it appears. Theorists have often indulged in boasting of the superiority of man over the animal kingdom in his migrations over the world; but these writers have forgotten that it is civilization which greatly aids man to adapt himself (for a time) to every climate. We have heard much, too, of the acclimati1861.

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zation of animals; but there has been great exaggeration as to what has been really effected.

No one will attempt to deny that, physically, mentally, and morally, there does exist a very considerable difference between the denizens of different parts of the earth; and it is not proposed to inquire whether the various agents which constitute climate, and their collateral effects, are sufficient to produce the changes in physique, mind, and morals which we find; but, simply taking the various types of man as they now occur on the earth, we have to determine whether we are justified in assuming that man is a cosmopolitan animal, and whether the power of acclimatization be possessed equally by all the races of man known to us.

The conditions which prevent or retard the acclimatization of man are physical, mental, and moral. It is, however, impossible to discuss the effect of climate only on man, because we find that food is inseparably connected with climate, and that both are modified by the physical conformation of the districts inhabited. The exercise or neglect of mental culture must also be considered. It is therefore nearly impossible to decide to which class we must ascribe certain effects; but there can be little doubt that all these causes act in harmony, and are insensibly bound together. In speaking, therefore, of climate, I use the word in its fullest sense, and include the whole cosmic phenomena. Thus, the physical qualities of a country have an important connexion with climate; and we must not simply consider the latitude and longitude of a given locality, but its elevation or depression, its soil, its atmospheric influences, and also the quantity of light, the nature of its water, the predominance of certain winds, the electrical state of the air, &c., atmospheric pressure, vegetation, and aliment, as all these are connected with the question of climate.

Now we find man scattered over the globe, and existing and flourishing under the most opposite circumstances. Indeed, there seems no part of the earth in which man could not, for a period at least, take up his dwelling. When Capt. Parry reached 84° of north latitude, it was the ice, and not the climate, which prevented him from reaching the pole. Man may live where the temperature exceeds the heat of his blood, and also where mercury would freeze; so man may exist where the atmospheric pressure is only one-half of what it is at the level of the sea. Men have been found permanently residing 12,000 feet above that level.

There is a difference between the climate of the N. and S. hemispheres under apparently the same circumstances. Thus, the European cannot live for any time at any great elevation in the northern hemisphere. The highest inhabited place of Europe has generally been considered to be the Casa Inglese, a small building of lava on Mount Etna, near the foot of the uppermost crater, 9200 feet above the level of the sea. There is, however, a house in the Theodal Pass, between Wallis and Piedmont, at an elevation of 10,000 feet*. These buildings are, however, only inhabited during the summer months. In the southern hemisphere there are permanent inhabitants in regions from ten thousand five hundred feet to twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea. Dr. Tschudi, who has himself resided in these regions, describes what is known as the "Puna sickness," which is what may be called a mountain-sickness, and very much resembles sea-sickness. The Peruvians live and thrive well at elevations of from seven to fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea-heights said by some observers to be often destructive to the whites. This difference between the north and south hemispheres is caused, perhaps, by the difference in attraction at the north Perty, Vorschall der Naturwissenschaften, 1853.

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pole. In the northern hemisphere the ascent of a high mountain causes a rush of blood to the head, and in the southern there is an attraction of blood to the feet; hence the cause of the sickness.

An examination of the human race shows us that every family presents different modifications, which are doubtless connected in some way with the nature of the cosmic influences by which they are surrounded. We know that some plants and animals are peculiar to certain regions, and that if transplanted to other climates they degenerate or die; such is the case with man. In every climate we find man organized in harmony with the climate; and if he is not in harmony, he will cease to exist. The general scale of power for enduring change is in certain respects in unison with the mental power of the race, and is also dependent on the purity of blood. Uncivilized and mixed races have the least power, and civilized pure races the greatest. Every race of man, however, has certain prescribed geographical salubrious limits from which it cannot with impunity be displaced. Such, at least, is the lesson I have drawn from existing data. It is civilization which chiefly enables the European to bear the extremes of climate. Indeed, a people must be civilized to some extent before they desire to visit distant regions. The Esquimaux, for instance, is perfectly happy in his own way, and has no desire to move to a warmer climate. His whole body and mind are suited for the locality; and were he moved to a warm climate, he would certainly perish. The whole organism of the Esquimaux is fitted solely for a cold climate; nor is such a supposition problematical and inexplicable by known physical laws. On the contrary, the physiological explanation of such a phenomenon is quite simple. Thus, the European going to the tropics becomes subject to dysentery; and the Negro coming to Europe, to pulmonary complaints. Europeans who have recently arrived at the tropics are instantly known by their walk and general activity. This, however, soon subsides, the organic functions become disturbed, the pulse and circulation are more active, the respiration less so, while the muscular fibre loses its energy; the stomach also becomes very weak. The action of the skin becomes abnormal, while the heat acts on and excites the liver.

It is often stated that tropical climates stimulate the organs of generation, but this is contrary to experience. That there is a low state of morality, and that the inhabitants of these regions are essentially sensual, cannot be denied; just as the cold region is distinguished by the gluttony of its inhabitants, and temperate regions by increased activity of brain.

The geography of disease has a most important bearing on this subject. It is somewhat strange that man suffers more from epidemics than animals, and this is probably owing to his neglect of the laws of diet, which require to be adapted to every climate. Thus we find that the temperate zone, which ought to be by far the healthiest, has more diseases than either the hot or the cold zones. The cold zone has but a small number of diseases; and in the torrid zone the number is not large, although the diseases are generally very malignant. Attempts have been made to classify diseases into three categories-those of hot, cold, and temperate regions. Such a classification is, however, arbitrary and most unsatisfactory; for the same climate may be found in each of the three regions. In the tropics there are temperate and cold regions, just as there is equatorial heat in the temperate zone. Dr. Fuchs* distinguishes these three regions of disease. The first he calls the Catarrhal region. This is so denominated because catarrh of the respiratory organs predominates in it. "Catarrh," he says, "is the com

• Medicinische Geographie. By Dr. C. Fuchs, 1853.

mon cause of disease in the north temperate zone, between 1300 and 3000 fect above the level of the sea; in the central temperate zone, between two and seven thousand; within the tropics, between seven and fourteen thousand feet; in the cold zone, near the level of the sea." The other two regions he calls the Entero-mesenteric region, in which gastric complaints predominate, and the Dysenteric region, in which there is no scrofula or tubercular disease. Without entering into the value of this classification, medical statistics seem to prove that there are three zones:-1st, the cold or catarrhal zone; 2nd, the tropical or dysenteric zone; and 3rd, the temperate or gastric and scrofulous zone. This last zone, however, seems to be subject to the diseases of the other two zones, which prevail respectively according to the seasons. The scrofulous zone ceases at an altitude of two thousand feet above the level of the sea; here there is no pulmonary consumption, scrofula, cancer, or typhus fever.

It has been suggested that the perfection of the races in the temperate zone depends on the conflict to which they are subjected by the irruption of diseases from the other zones,-the unfavourable climatic conditions producing a human organism capable of resisting them. Dr. Russdorf* says, "The climatic conditions of the temperate zone act in the formation of blood in such a manner that a large quantity of albumen is present in it. This richness in albumen is manifestly requisite to produce and nourish the powerful brain which distinguishes the Caucasian race; for the brain mainly consists of albumen combined with phosphorated fatty matter." "It is the brain of the Caucasian which determines his superiority over the other races; it is the standard of the power of the organism; it might be termed the architect of the body, as its influence upon the formation of matter is paramount. The effect of the atmosphere upon the formative activity of the organism and upon the metamorphosis of matter is so great, that it is, for instance, on the influence of the oxygen absorbed by the skin and the lungs that the metamorphosis of the albumen into muscle, &c., directly depends. The atmosphere of the temperate zone favours such a change of matter that the blood remains rich in albumen, so that a large brain can be nourished. But this richness in albumen is also the cause of many characteristic diseases, when this substance, under the process of inflammation, is morbidly excited in the tissue of the organs and destroys their anatomical structure or organic mechanism. That general condition, in which the consumption of the albumen by the organic metamorphosis is deficient, is well known as the scrofulous predisposition of the European, which is unknown among the inhabitants of the tropics and the cold zone."

Two questions then await a solution: 1st, Can any race of men flourish, unchanged both mentally and physically, in a different ethnic centre from that to which it belongs?

2nd, Can any race of men move from its own ethnic centre into another, and become changed into the type of that race which inhabits the region to which it migrates?

Now, races of men moving from one region to another must either degenerate and become extinct, or flourish with the same distinctive characters that they have in their own regions, or they must gradually become changed into new types of men suited to their new positions.

That new races of men are being formed at this time is highly probable, as where, for instance, we have in a particular region a class of men with the same temperament and character. This may, as in the case of America,

* Vorträge zur Förderung der Gesundheitslehre (The Influence of European Climate). By Dr. C. von Russdorf, 1854. Berlin.

give rise to a new race, but still belonging to the European type, just as we have in this country the distinctive class of the Quakers, &c. But this change in the so-called Anglo-Saxon race could have been effected without removing them out of their own region. If these men had congregated together in Europe, we should have had a group of men with different feelings and opinions from our own. The congregation of a number of men and women of similar character would always tend to increase or intensify the special characteristics of the descendants of such people. Some writers, in their anxiety to prove that climate has nothing to do with the varieties of man, deny that there is any change in the European inhabitants of America; but recent events have given strong proof that there is a change, both in mind, morals, and physique; and while this change is not to be entirely ascribed to the climate, there still is good presumptive evidence that the Europeans have changed in America, especially in North America. In the children of the colonists there is a general languor, great excitability, and a want of cool energy. As they grow up, they neglect all manly sports. This general excitability and want of coolness and energy are also seen in the whole Yankee race. The women become decrepit very early, and consequently cease to breed while still young. It is also affirmed that the second and third generations of European colonists have small families. Some fifteen years ago, Dr. Knox stated publicly that he believed the AngloSaxons would die out in America if the supply of new blood from Europe was cut off. Such an assertion was, indeed, startling for any man to make; it seemed to bear on the face of it a palpable absurdity. But, as time has passed on, this statement certainly became less baseless, and is now, at least, an hypothesis as worthy of our attention as any other explanation of this difficult question. Emerson has recently remarked on this extraordinary statement of Dr. Knox, that there is more probability of its truth than is generally thought. Emerson says, "Look at the unpalatable conclusions of Knox-a rash and unsatisfactory writer, but charged with pungent and unforgetable truths." He continues, "The German and Irish millions, like the Negro, have a deal of guano in their destiny. They are ferried over the Atlantic, and carted over America to ditch and to drudge, to make corn cheap, and then to lie down prematurely to make a spot of green grass on the prairie."

I do not purpose to give any categorical answers to the queries suggested, but simply to bring forward some facts, and to give the opinions of some men who have paid attention to this and allied questions. Thus I trust to lay a basis for further investigation, and induce more labourers to enter the field for the purpose of developing this important question.

We must not take latitude simply as any test of climate; for the general climatological influences are very different in various regions. Thus, it has been noticed that the west coast is colder than the east in the southern hemisphere, while in the northern the east is colder than the westt. In the French Antilles, the temperature is between 62° F. to 77° F. on the shore, and descends to 55° F. or 60° F. at eight hundred metres above the level of the sea. At Fernando Po, the greatest heat known was from 83° to 100° F.; generally it is about 73° F. So French Guiana is said not to have a higher temperature than Algeria. Some parts of Australia and New Zealand are nearer the equator than Algiers, and yet the temperature and salubrity are very different. The effect of light is also most important, and

* The Conduct of Life. By R. W. Emerson, p. 10.

† See what Darwin says respecting the fig and grape ripening in South America much better on the cast than on the west coast.