220 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



more efficient than the beaver or the mound-building ant, he drains the 

 swamp, irrigates the desert, tunnels the mountain, bridges the river, 

 digs the canal, conditions the air in home, factory, and office. 



As a matter of fact, adjustability to environment is accomplished 

 more by controlling surroundings than by modifying internal organs 

 or essential functions of the body. When we ascend with Major 

 Stevens into the stratosphere, or dive wdth Dr. Beebe 500 fathoms 

 deep off Bermuda, or live with Admiral Byrd through the long night 

 of Little America, we take along with us a sample of sea-level atmos- 

 phere and temperate climate that is our real environment in a situa- 

 tion otherwise unbearable. Fur-lined parkas and tropical linen suits 

 are but a medium for ensuring an immediate environment as nearly 

 as possible like that of middle latitudes when living in polar or 

 equatorial surroundings. 



But regardless of interpretation of procedure, the result is clear. 

 Man has placed himself in control of external conditions to an extent 

 immeasurably greater than any other creature. He has practically 

 "drawn the teeth" of environment. 



Although we know little of the details, it is certain that most of 

 the creatures of the past, who "have had their day and ceased to be," 

 were forced into extinction by changes of one sort or another in their 

 environment, changes which came with such relative speed that they 

 were unable to make adjustment to them in time. Man need have no 

 fear on that score. 



IV 



It is, however, immediately apparent that man's conquest of his 

 surroundings has resulted from his clever use of things. Unless there 

 is a ceaseless flow of cotton, flax, and wool, of coal, iron, and petro- 

 leum, of copper, lead, and tin, from ground to processing plant to 

 consumer, he becomes a puny weakling. It is because he uses certain 

 resources provided by his environment that he is freed from slavery 

 to his environment. Are these resources adequate to keep him sup- 

 plied with what he needs to maintain indefinitely the sort of existence 

 to which he has accustomed himself? 



There are two fundamental sources of the goods and the energy 

 that man uses in the grim business of obtaining the sort of living 

 that he apparently desires. On the one hand there is the farm 

 and the waterfall, on the other there is the mine and the quarry. 

 Things which grow in the field or forest, and power produced by 

 falling water are in the category of annual income. Now that scien- 

 tific research has made available the limitless quantity of nitrogen 

 in the air for use as fertilizer, the resources of the plant and animal 

 kingdoms are renewable; we use them, but we need never use them 



