132 REPORT— 1861. 



moil cause of disease in tlie north temperate zone, between 1300 and 3000 

 feet above the level of the sea; in the central temperate zone, between two 

 and seven thousand ; within the tropics, between seven and fourteen thou- 

 sand feet; in the cold zone, near tiie level of the sea." The other two 

 regions he culls the Entero-mesenteric region, in which gastric complaints 

 predominate, and the Dysenteric region, in which there is no scrofula or 

 tubercular disease. Without entering into the value of this classification, 

 medical statistics seem to prove that there are three zones: — 1st, the cold 

 or catarrhal zone ; 2nd, the tropical or dysenteric zone ; and 3rd, the tem- 

 perate or gastric and scrofulous zone. This last zone, however, seems to 

 be subject to the diseases of the other two zones, which prevail respectively 

 according to the seasons. The scrofulous zone ceases at an altitude of two 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea; here there is no pulmonary con- 

 sumption, scrofula, cancer, or typhus fever. 



It has been suggested that the perfection of the races in the temperate 

 zone depends on the conflict to whicli they are subjected by the irruption 

 of diseases from the otiier zones, — the unfavourable climatic conditions 

 producing a human organism capable of resisting them. Dr. Russdorf* 

 says, " The climatic conditions of the temperate zone act in the formation 

 of blood in such a manner that a large quantity of albumen is present in 

 it. This richness in albumen is manifestly requisite to produce and nourish 

 the powerful brain which distinguishes the Caucasian race; ibr the brain 

 mainly consists of albumen combined with phosphoi'ated fatty matter." 

 "It is the brain of the Caucasian which determines his superiorit}- over 

 the other races ; it is tiie standard of the power ol' the organism ; it might be 

 termed the architect of the body, as its influence upon the formation of 

 matter is paramount. The effect of the atmosphere upon the formative acti- 

 vity of the organism and upon the nietamorph.osis of matter is so great, that 

 it is, for instance, on the intiuence of the oxygen absorbed by the skin and 

 the lungs that the metamoi'f)hosis of tlie albumen into muscle, &C., directly 

 depends. The atmosphere of the temperate zone favours such a change of 

 matter that the blood remains rich in albumen, so that a large brain can be 

 nourished. But this richness in albumen is also the cause of many charac- 

 teristic diseases, when this substance, under the process of infiauunation, is 

 morbidly excited in the tissue of the organs and destroys their anatomical 

 structure or organic mechanism. That general condition, in which the con- 

 sumption of the albumen by the organic metamorphosis is deficient, is well 

 known as the scrofulous predisposition of tlie European, which is unknown 

 among the inhabitants of the tropics and the cold zone." 



Two questions then await a solution : l.-t. Can any race of men flourish, 

 unchanged both mentally and physically, in a different ethnic centre from 

 that to which it belongs ? 



'ind. Can any race of men move from its own ethnic centre into another, 

 and become changed into the type of that race Mhich inhabits the region 

 to which it migrates? 



Now, races of men moving from one region to another must either dege- 

 nerate and become extinct, or flourish with the same distinctive characters 

 that they have in their own regions, or they must gradually become changed 

 into new types of men suited to their new positions. 



That new races of men are being formed at this time is highly probable, 

 as where, for instance, we have in a particular region a class of' men with the 

 same temperament and character. This may, as in the case of America, 



* Vortiugc zur Forderung der Gesnndheitslehre (The Influence of European Climate). 

 By Dr. C. von llussdorf, 1854. Berlin. 



