592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of agriculture? Why are the Negroids more advanced in culture than 

 the true blacks ? Why are the Thibetans pastoral ? Why did the Incas 

 represent a superior American type ? How have peoples been influenced 

 by the presence of a great river, a vast desert, a yielding mountain, a 

 tundra waste? These questions, and many others relating to man's 

 habits and culture, occupations and history, are intimately associated 

 with geographical considerations. 



In the history of medicine and hygiene one can trace, likewise, an 

 interesting connection. Where do bacteria flourish? Where have de- 

 veloped the malignant fevers? The amount of ozone in the air, the 

 amount of moisture, which lessens or raises the rate of evaporation of 

 the body, thus tending to raise or lower the temperature of the blood, is 

 a relevant consideration here. In hot climates bodily activities are 

 lessened because less internal heat is required to maintain the blood at 

 its normal temperature ; tissue changes go on at a much slower rate, and 

 these include processes of nutrition. The amount of perspiration, the 

 color of the blood, the color of the skin, have geographical significance, 

 because of the varying action of the liver in various localities. 



The relationship of geography to thought can, likewise, be but briefly 

 touched upon here. Psychology, according to James, " deals with states 

 of consciousness as such " — with all states of consciousness — that of the 

 child, the criminal, the lover, the workman, the poet; and in so far as 

 geographical conditions may affect a state of consciousness, to that 

 extent does the geographical factor have a bearing upon psychology. 

 And indeed this factor is quite as important in certain respects as other 

 factors of heredity, physiological constitution, immediate environment. 

 James says : " Mental facts can not be studied apart from the physical 

 environment of which they are cognizant." Strachey writes : " By the 

 influence and study of external nature are found and developed man's 

 emotional, intellectual and moral faculties. The emotions created in 

 the mind by the vast extent of the ocean, the ever-moving surface, the 

 broken outlines of land and sea, the richness and luxuriance of the vege- 

 table clothing of the earth, the never-ceasing transformation of the clouds 

 as they float overhead, the large serenity of nature at rest, and the over- 

 whelming violence of her convulsions, are, even though not consciously, 

 the source of many psychological attitudes." Indeed, the states of 

 consciousness of peoples may be viewed, in a way, according to geo- 

 graphical conditions. At the sea, mountain dwellers, peoples living in 

 fertile valleys, people inhabiting regions of volcanic or atmospheric 

 disturbances, the desert tribes, or peoples on beautifully luxurious lands 

 — we find their psychological attitudes individually stamped. If typical 

 individuals from such localities were examined, what a range we should 

 find in imagination, optimism, attention, superstition, emotion, habit — 



