ON ETHNO-CLIMATOLOGY. 133 



• 



give rise to a new race, but still belonging to the European type, just as we 

 have in this country the distinctive class of the Quakers, &c. But this 

 change in the so-called Anglo-Saxon race could have been effected without 

 removing them out of their own region. If these men had congregated 

 togetiier in Europe, we should have had a group of men with different feel- 

 ings and opinions from our own. The congregation of a number of men 

 and women of similar character would always tend to increase or intensify 

 the special characteristics of the descendants of such people. Some writers, 

 in their anxiety to prove that climate has nothing to do with the varieties 

 of man, deny that there is any change in the European inhabitants of 

 America ; but recent events have given strong proof that there is a change, 

 both in mind, morals, and physique ; and while this change is not to be 

 entirely ascribed to the climate, there still is good presumptive evidence that 

 the Europeans have changed in America, especially in North America. In 

 the children of the colonists there is a general languor, great excitability, 

 and a want of cool energy. As they grow up, they neglect all manly sports. 

 This general excitability and want of coolness and energy are also seen in the 

 whole Yankee race. The women become decrepit very early, and conse- 

 quently cease to breed while still young. It is also affirmed that the second 

 and third generations of European colonists have small families. Some 

 fifteen years ago. Dr. Knox stated publicly that he believed the Anglo- 

 Saxons would die out in America if the supply of new blood from Europe 

 was cut off. Such an assertion was, indeed, startling for any man to make ; 

 it seemed to bear on the face of it a palpable absurdity. But, as time 

 has passed on, this statement certainly becan)e less baseless, and is now, at 

 least, an hypothesis as worthy of our attention as any other explanation of 

 tliis difficult question. Emerson has recently remarked on this extraordinary 

 statement of Dr. Knox, that there is more probability of its truth than is 

 generally thought. Emerson* says, " Look at the unpalatable conclusions 

 of Knox — a rash and unsatisfactory writer, but charged with pungent and 

 unforgetable truths." He continues, " The German and Irish miUions, like 

 the Negro, have a deal of guano in their destiny. They are ferried over the 

 Atlantic, and carted over America to ditch and to drudge, to make corn 

 cheap, and then to lie down prematurely to make a spot of green grass on 

 the prairie." 



I do not purpose to give any categorical answers to the queries suggested, 

 but simply to bring forward some facts, and to give the opinions of some 

 men who have paid attention to this and allied questions. Thus I trust to 

 lay a basis for further investigation, and induce more labourers to enter the 

 field for the purpose of developing this important question. 



We must not take latitude simply as any test of climate ; for the general 

 climatological influences are very different in various regions. Thus, it has 

 been noticed that the west coast is colder than the cast in the southern 

 liemisphere, while in the northern the cast is colder than the westf. In 

 the French Antilles, the temperature is between 62° F. to 77° F. on the 

 shore, and descends to 55° F. or 60° F. at eight hundred metres above the 

 level of the sea. At Fernando Po, the greatest heat known was from 83° to 

 100° F. ; generally it is about 73° F. So French Guiana is said not to have 

 a higher temperature than Algeria. Some parts of Australia and New 

 Zealand are nearer the equator than Algiers, and yet the temperature and 

 salubrity are very different. The effect of light is also most important, and 



* The Conduct of Life. By R. W. Emerson, p. 10. 



t See what Darwin says respecting the fig and grape ripening in South America much 

 better on the east than on the west coast. 



