358 



NATURE 



[June 29, 19 16 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1902 

 more than iioo students of the average age of 

 i8"2. It is childish to talk of "enemy students 

 in British schools " when in one German technical 

 high school alone, that of Karlsruhe, there were 

 in 1902 283 foreign students, whilst it is well 

 known that in the camp at Ruhleben a large num- 

 ber of interned men are young English students 

 who had gone to Germany to complete their 

 studies.^ 



It is gratifying to find that at the annual meet- 

 ing of the Association of Education Committees 

 held on June 8 the appeal for a comprehensive 

 review of the whole educational work of the 

 country at the hands of a Royal Commission or 

 some equally authoritative body met with such 

 significant support, nor can we read unmoved the 

 appeal in the Educational Supplement of the Times 

 for June or the strong demand in support of 

 it of the Royal Society, the British Science Guild, 

 and the Teachers' Guild. All through the 

 country it is felt on the part of educationists, of 

 men of science, and of the leaders of industry that 

 important and speedy changes in our system 

 and methods of education are imperative, 

 not only in the interests of industry and 

 commerce, but in all that makes for en- 

 lightenment and good government, and that 

 nowhere is it more necessary than in the sphere 

 of general education, if scientific research and its 

 application to the nation's needs are to be made 

 effective. We want "freedom, variety, and elas- 

 ticity," with the minimum of routine control, and 

 we must needs adopt such measures as will ensure 

 the adequate education of all the children of the 

 nation and the easy passage of the gifted to the 

 highest facilities of learning the nation can offer. 



THE MOULDING OF HUMANITY. 

 Civilisation and Climate. By Ellsworth Hunting- 

 ton. Pp. xii + 333. (New Haven: Yale Uni- 

 versity Press ; London : Oxford University 

 Press, 1915.) Price 105. 6d. net. 

 T^HE effect of climate on civilisation is a 

 -■- fascinating subject ; there is something 

 hazardous in trying to define either of them. Both 

 have a chequered past, and to bring the two into 

 relation, historically and therefore prospectively as 

 well, is an elusive but exciting pursuit. Mr. 

 Huntington states his own position thus 

 (p. 269) :— 



"The two phases of our climatic hypothesis are 

 now before us. In point of time, though not of 

 presentation in this book, the first step was a study 

 of the climate of the past. Ten years of work 



1 In 191 1 the number of full-time day students in the universities of the 

 United Kingdom was about 20,000, in comparison with 55,000 in German 

 universities. In our technical institutions the day students were about 2000, 

 compared with 16,000 in the German technical high schools, with no adequate 

 comparison on our part in respect of age, attainments on entrance, or duration 

 of study. 



NO. 2435, VOL. 97] 



along this line have led to the hypothesis of pulsa- 

 tory changes, and finally to the idea that the 

 changes consist primarily of a shifting of the belt 

 of storms. After this conclusion had been 

 reached a wholly independent investigation of the 

 effect of present climatic conditions upon human 

 activity led to two conclusions, neither of which 

 was anticipated. One was that under proper con- 

 ditions a relatively high temperature is not par- 

 ticularly harmful provided it does not go to undue 

 extremes. The other was that changes of tem- 

 perature from day to day are of great importance. 

 On the basis of these two conclusions it at once 

 becomes evident that the stimulating effect of 

 climates in the same latitude and having the same- 

 kind of seasonal changes may be very different. 

 It also becomes clear that the distribution of 

 civilisation at the present time closely resembles 

 that of climatic energy. From this the next step 

 is naturally back to our previous conclusion that 

 changes of climate in the past have consisted 

 largely of variations in the location of the storm 

 belt. If this is so, evidently the amount of climatic 

 stimulus must have varied correspondingly. Thus 

 we are led to the final conclusion that, not only 

 at present, but also in the past, no nation has risen 

 to the highest grade of civilisation except in 

 regions where the climatic stimulus is great. This 

 statement sums up our entire hypothesis." 



So far as the book is concerned with the study 

 of the variations of climate in historic time or . 

 recent geological time, it is a resume and con- 

 tinuation of previous work by the same author, 

 and arrives at the conclusion that both in Europe 

 and America "the location of storms shifts in 

 harmony with variations in the ' activity of the 

 sun " ; and thus we are invited to consider climatic 

 changes as fluctuating rather than steadily pro- 

 gressive. One point in this connection invites 

 further consideration — that is, the ultimate fate 

 in this world of the accumulations of blown sand. 

 Are they in process of being cleared away? Do 

 they fluctuate with sunspots, or are they increasing 

 progressively, and will sand ultimately bury 

 modern civilisation in spite of all efforts, as it did 

 the Egyptian yesterday? 



In the study of civilisation Mr. Huntington's 

 book strikes out a new line. We have, first of all, 

 measures of the activity and efficiencies of workers 

 in relation to various elements of climate and to- 

 the seasonal and casual variations of weather, 

 from which it appears that in determining efficiency 

 the fluctuations of weather are more important 

 than the uniformities of climate. These studies 

 are not always quite easy to follow. When, for 

 example, one thinks of the output of work in Con- 

 necticut in relation to temperature one might havt 

 in mind the temperature of the workshop or of th( 

 habitation, and only in the third place of the un-J 

 mitigated open air which makes climate. Indeed, 

 in another part of his book Mr. Huntington him- 

 self suggests that warm climates may hereafter be 

 mitigated by special measures for cooling houses, 

 and it seems reasonable to regard cold climates as 

 already mitigated by artificial means. 



