362 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



to invention than climate ? May it not be that free white labor 

 in the south would have made it a thousand times more fruitful 

 in invention than it has been ? 



Mr. Churchill. — The cause of invention is not merely neces- 

 sity, but necessity in the presence of a remedy. History seem- 

 ed to show that many important inventions originated in hot 

 climates ; such as paper and the science of hydraulics, which 

 came from the Nile. In working metals, in cutting diamonds, in 

 irrigation in India and China. 



Prof. Mason said that such inventions came from races who 

 had come from cool climates, and that the arts and sciences would 

 not remain flourishing in a torrid climate. 



Mr. Garbanati. — One city produces cottons, another steel, 

 another pottery. A certain district of France has embarked 

 in the raising of essences. This is not in consequence of any 

 peculiarity of climate or adaptation ; but the first invention is an 

 incentive to others, just as business or trade is better where a 

 number engage in it. Thus trade in this city is now rushing up 

 town; the leading men go, and others follow to catch the trade. 

 Mr. Fisher remarked that there was no real invention in Egypt; 

 but when art went into Greece, there arose splendid inventions. 



Mr. Rowell said that a hive of bees being sent to California, 

 laid up a hive- full of honey the first summer; but never did it 

 afterwards. 



Mr. Seely. — The archeological evidence is that in this 

 country the tropics were once the centre of the civilization of 

 the continent and of the cultivation of art. In the time of Julius 

 Caesar, the Britons, and the inhabitants of Germany were barba- 

 rians, and all the civilization and refinement were in the south. 

 The line of civilization and art seems to have been traveling 

 northward for the last two or three thousand years. Institutions 

 seem a better explanation of our condition than climates. Were 

 it not for slavery, there might be manufacture and invention down 

 to the Gulf. 



Mr. Stetson said that probably some of the hardest work ever 

 done by Anglo Saxons was done in California during the heat of 

 the gold excitement. The climate was the hottest ever known ; 

 and yet the Anglo Saxons out-worked the negroes, Irishmen, and 

 everybody else that could be found. As to the northern extreme 

 of invention, upon inquiry with regard to patenting a sewing 

 machine in Sweden last year, he had been astonished to learn 



