CLIMATE IN SOME OF ITS RELATIONS TO MAN 259 



breaks, or in the case of protection against frost by the use of 

 " smudges," or screens, or fires, or by erecting lightning rods to guard 

 buildings against the danger of being struck. Man can not make it 

 rain; nor can he prevent hail from falling, nor can he change his 

 climate by planting forests. No such modification is possible in man's 

 climatic environment as has been accomplished on the surface of the 

 land under human agency. The atmosphere is as essentially unalterable 

 as it is all-pervading. 



Some Old Views Regarding the Effects of Climate on Man. — It is, 

 however, easy to go too far in calling upon climate to explain certain 

 phenomena which we may otherwise find it difficult to account for. 

 This was the mistake formerly made by many writers on this subject. 

 The broad generalizations of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Hume, Buckle 

 and others, furnish interesting reading, and contain much that is sug- 

 gestive and instructive, but they usually carry us well beyond the range 

 of reasonable probability. Even Hippocrates's observations on cli- 

 matic controls are not without value to-day. 



Factors in the Problem other than Climate. — To most of these 

 older writers, climate meant more than it does to-day. It included 

 much of what is now termed our whole physical environment. We 

 must remember that we are dealing here with large, highly complex 

 phenomena. Man moves readily from place to place, from climate to 

 climate. His food, drink, habits, occupations; to some extent his 

 physical and mental characteristics, change in consequence. Inherit- 

 ance, intermarriage, environment, opportunities, soil and many other 

 factors enter in to determine what changes individual man and the race 

 as a whole shall undergo. Time is a very important element in the 

 final result, for in time a gradual adaptation to new conditions takes 

 place. Climate is but one of many controls, albeit a most important 

 one, for it largely determines what many of the other factors, such as 

 diet, customs and occupations, for example, shall be. The task of giv- 

 ing climate its proper place as a factor controlling the life of man as 

 a whole is a difficult one, which can not be definitely and satisfactorily 

 solved to-day — or to-morrow. 



Climate and Habitability. — Climate determines where, as well as 

 how, man shall live. It classifies the earth's surface for us into the so- 

 called habitable and uninhabitable regions. The deserts of sand and 

 the deserts of snow and ice, whether the latter be near sea-level or high 

 up on mountain tops, are alike climatic, the former because of aridity, 

 the latter because of cold. The only non-climatic deserts are recent 

 lava flows. Where a soil is present which is not frozen much over half 

 the year, and where there is reasonable temperature and sufficient rain- 

 fall, plants and animals are found, ranging from few and lowly forms 

 where conditions are hardest and where all life has to be especially 



