CHAPTER XI 



THE CHANGE OF HUMAN CHARACTER 

 BY ENVIRONMENT 



1 . Climate and mankind 



Sorensen (84) has concluded from his experimental results that 

 proteins in biological fluids are composed of a variety of components in 

 a state of equilibrium depending upon the environmental conditions, 

 and that this equilibrium is shifted reversibly and readily through 

 changes in the composition of the solution. According to the writer's 

 concept, organisms by themselves are such systems of protein com- 

 ponents, their state of equilibrium changing reversibly through the 

 alteration of the environment. On the other hand, as the state of 

 protein comlexes in organisms is governed by the genes, it can be 

 considered that changes of organisms are induced by the genes chang- 

 ing reversibly in response to the varying state of environment. 



Of such environmental factors, climatic ones appear to be of the 

 most importance for us humans, for we are on all occasions exposed 

 to the climatic factors which are always changing, and accordingly our 

 genes are expected to be always changing with them. In the extensive 

 investigation into the relation between civilization and clim.ate, Hunt- 

 ington concluded that a stimulating climate is the main condition 

 which promotes civilization. 



His contention, as set out in "Civilization and Climate" is that 

 a certain type of climate, now found mainly in Britain, France and 

 neighbouring parts of Europe, and in the Eastern United States, is 

 favourable to a high level of civilization. This climate is characterized 

 by a moderate temperature, and by the passage of frequent barometric 

 depressions, which give a sufficient rainfall and changeable stimulating 

 weather. Now it is well known that the great centers of civilization 

 in the past lay in more southernly latitudes than those of to-day, begin- 

 ning in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Eastern Mediterranean and then 

 passing to Greece and Roma. Huntington attributes these changes of the 

 centre of civilization to climate change associated with the northward 

 shifting of the belt of cyclonic activity. In this connection, he stated 

 as follows in "Principles of Human Geography" : 



