Pebkuary 19, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



279 



way. It is a task of no eonunon difficulty, 

 not to be ligMly undertaken, but wortli the 

 doing. 



Another field of effects, much more ac- 

 cessible to the pure geographer is the dis- 

 tribution of population studied in the 

 causal way. Enough practise in statistical 

 method for this inquiry can be readily ac- 

 quired and the results should be most 

 fruitful. Jefferson's recent papers have 

 been suggestive in this field of research, 

 which involves in intimate combinations, 

 physical, economic, racial and social con- 

 ditions. Akin to this study is the classifi- 

 cation of towns and cities, developing the 

 principles of origin, growth and differen- 

 tiation, as in a recent valuable paper of 

 Chisholm. The city as a geographic or- 

 ganism may be freely taken as an inex- 

 haustible theme. 



Another great sphere lies in regional 

 studies, such as states, physiographic units, 

 and countries. The number of such stud- 

 ies, maturely developed, now available may 

 perhaps be counted on the fingers of one's 

 hands. The aim should be not alone di- 

 rected upon the more obvious matters of 

 route and industry, but also upon deep 

 and underlying principles. "What rich and 

 alluring subjects for the intensive student 

 would the state of Pennsylvania offer, of 

 Kentucky, Minnesota or California ! Who 

 will develop for us our coastal plain or 

 piedmont, treating town sites, roads, soils, 

 crops, industries, racial composition and 

 social status ? Who will do a like work for 

 the great Appalachian Valley, that mag- 

 nificent and little understood unit of our 

 east — its trails and roads, its agriculture, 

 towns, migrations and historical signifi- 

 cance in colonial and current life? There 

 is room for more such studies as those of 

 Whitbeck upon glacial and nonglacial Wis- 

 consin and of von Engeln on the effects of 



giaeiation upon agriculture.^^ The latter, 

 indeed, is not regional except as it naturally 

 deals largely with principles as illustrated 

 in our own country. 



Will Mr. Mackinder, or some one else, 

 take up Great Britain, omitting the purely 

 descriptive, as he could not in Britain and 

 British seas properly do, and discuss more 

 fully questions of geographic influence as 

 regards agricultural distribution, the local- 

 ization of industries, the distribution of 

 population in general, and the effect of 

 various factors such as insularity, climate 

 and world position in the development of 

 British character, British political unity, 

 and British social conditions. 



Or in the United States, there are racial 

 compositions, new physical environments, 

 offering new social and economic conditions 

 to population groups as seen in compari- 

 son with conditions in the parent lands of 

 Europe. Finally, there are innumerable 

 beckoning fields, of a small and local sort, 

 out of whose diligent study general prin- 

 ciples will rise and become established. 



Our goal is broad generalization. But 

 the formulation of general laws is difficult 

 and the results insecure until we have a 

 body of concrete and detailed observations. 

 Quoting Brunhes, 



We must then make up our minds to put aside 

 generalities and vague analogies between nature 

 and man. We must make it our business to search 

 for facts of interaction.ea 



Prom Boas also, 



It goes without saying that haphazard applica- 

 tion of unproven though possible theories will not 

 serve as proof of the effectiveness of selection or 

 environment in modifymg types.83 



Detailed investigation of single prob- 

 lems, in small and seemingly unimportant 



61 0. D. von Engeln, ' ' EfEeots of Continental 

 Giaeiation on Agriculture," Bull Am. Geog. Soc, 

 XLVI., 241-64, 336-55. 



62 J. Brunhes, Scot. Geog. Mag., 29, 311. 



63 F. Boas, ' ' The Mind of Primitive Man, ' ' 51. 



