SECT. II.] ACCLIMATIZATION. 129 



finned by the fact, that the English who cannot give up animal 

 food and spirituous liquors, are less able to sustain the heat of 

 the tropics than the more sober Spaniards and Portuguese, 

 whose dark skin and general habits render them better adapted 

 to a tropical climate. The circumstance that (according to 

 Ulloa and Humboldt) persons of and above middle age best 

 support transplantation to a tropical climate, and reach an ad- 

 vanced age, of which the Batavia Courant 1 cites many in- 

 stances, may perhaps be explained by greater attention paid 

 in mature age to the general health. Zimmermann 2 has, 

 in opposition to the view, that the capacity of man for acclimati- 

 zation is increased by his intellectuality, cited the example of 

 the Polar nations, who can sustain themselves, despite the 

 small protection against climatic influences. This, however, 

 proves nothing in favour of their capacity for supporting other 

 climates without injury. We must further bear in mind 

 that the incapacity of bearing a rapid change from one cli- 

 mate into one essentially different, is quite distinct from the 

 incapacity to sustain a gradually progressing acclimatization, 

 which must necessarily have taken place during the migrations 

 of so many tribes through different degrees of latitude. 



Though the circumstances above mentioned, contribute in 

 many instances to exhibit the capacity for acclimatization to 

 be less in savages than in Europeans, we must still be cautious 

 in coming to any conclusion in this respect. We cannot, there- 

 fore, entirely agree with Humboldt, 3 when he attributes to the 

 American Indians a lesser degree of capacity for acclimatization 

 'than to the Europeans, on the ground that the working in mines 

 ds so destructive to the former from the great changes of tem- 

 perature. In some mines the temperature is 6 higher than 



e mean temperature of Jamaica and Pondicherry, so that we 

 may question whether Europeans could without injury sustain 

 such a heat and a sudden change to a low temperature, without 

 injury. It is besides remarkable, when we learn that the 

 mortality among the miners of Mexico is not much greater 



* July 13, 1830. 



2 " Geogr. Gesch. des Menschen," i, p. 53, 1778. 



3 " Neu-Spanien," i, p. 161. 



