140 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



qoently, that but little advance has apparently been made in practical results, from this 

 long course of study and observation. It has seemed advisable to me, therefore, at this 

 time, to confine myself to what is in some respects an accidental branch of the subject, 

 and yet one which, in its practical bearings upon the work of this Society, seems to me 

 important and worthy of study. I refer to " the influence which man has had, or may 

 have over climate, by the changes produced by them, especially with reference to the 

 prairie regions of the West. In presenting this subject, let me say, I can in no wise lay 

 claim to the office of an original observer, and only aim to put the results of others' 

 labors in a more concrete form, and to apply them to the region just mentioned. It is 

 an old and common observation that " climate changes man ;" that he is, in some 

 respects, the creature of it ; that though, owing to his house-building and clothes-wear- 

 ing propensities, he occupies a wider range of latitude than any other animal, yet that 

 climate does not fail to take its revenge on him, and write its influence in unmistakable 

 characters on both mind and body. Long continued and severe cold, compelling enor- 

 mous consumption of the most heat producing food, dwarfs the body, enfeebles the 

 intellect, and we have the Esquimaux. Excessive heat, with its enervating effects upon 

 both mind and body, taking away all desire aud motive for continued exertion, by its 

 stimulating effect upon vegetation, aud by the few imperative wants which man feels in 

 consequence, has nearly the same effect ; as witnessed in the islands of the Pacific, in the 

 central regions of Africa, etc. But I need not dwell upon this. It is acknowledged by 

 all. In a slight degree we may see its effects in our own country : the burly, bluff John 

 Bull, from the moist and generous climate of Britain, becomes in New England, in a 

 dryer climate, the Yankee, with less rotundity of body, Avith firm, hardened and tough- 

 ened muscles, with voice less rich and broad, but higher pitched and nasal. In the West 

 and South he becomes more lank of form, more bilious of aspect, with flattened articul- 

 ation, with perhaps more nervous energy, and yet with less reserved force. And thus it 

 has ever been. 

 As Prof. Draper, in his intellectual development of Europe, says : 



" Variety of natural conditions, gives rise to different national types, artificial inven- 

 tions occasion renewed modifications. Where there are many climates, there will be 

 many forms of men. 



Would any one deny the influence of rainy days on our industrial habits, and on our 

 mental conditions, even in a civilized state ? With how much more force, then, must 

 such meteorological incidents have acted on the ill-protected, ill-clad, ill-housed barba- 

 rians ? 



Would any one deny the increasing difficulty with which life is maintained, as we pass 

 from the southern peninsulars to the more rigorous climates of the north ? .There is a 

 relationship between the mean annual heat of a locality and the instincts of its inhabi- 

 tants for food. The Sicilian is satisfied with a light, farinaceous repast, or a few fruits ; 

 the Norwegian requires a strong diet of flesh ; to the Laplander it is none the less accept- 

 able, if grease of the bear, or train oil, or the blubber of whales be added. Meteorology 

 to no little extent, influences the morals ; the instinctive propensity to drunkeness, is a 

 function of the latitude. Food, houses, clothing bear a certain relation to the isother- 

 mal lines. For a similar reason, the inhabitants of Europe, tend each year to more com- 

 plete homogeneousness." Draper's Tntelh dual Development of Europe, page 20. 



But it is only of comparatively recent date, that it has been shown that man is not the 

 passive recipient of even mighty climatic influences, but in his turn reacts upon them 



