Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/596

592 of agriculture? Why are the Negroids more advanced in culture than the true blacks? Why are the Thibetans pastoral? Why did the Incas represent a superior American type? How have peoples been influenced by the presence of a great river, a vast desert, a yielding mountain, a tundra waste? These questions, and many others relating to man's habits and culture, occupations and history, are intimately associated with geographical considerations.

In the history of medicine and hygiene one can trace, likewise, an interesting connection. Where do bacteria flourish? Where have developed the malignant fevers? The amount of ozone in the air, the amount of moisture, which lessens or raises the rate of evaporation of the body, thus tending to raise or lower the temperature of the blood, is a relevant consideration here. In hot climates bodily activities are lessened because less internal heat is required to maintain the blood at its normal temperature; tissue changes go on at a much slower rate, and these include processes of nutrition. The amount of perspiration, the color of the blood, the color of the skin, have geographical significance, because of the varying action of the liver in various localities.

The relationship of geography to thought can, likewise, be but briefly touched upon here. Psychology, according to James, "deals with states of consciousness as such "—with all states of consciousness—that of the child, the criminal, the lover, the workman, the poet; and in so far as geographical conditions may affect a state of consciousness, to that extent does the geographical factor have a bearing upon psychology. And indeed this factor is quite as important in certain respects as other factors of heredity, physiological constitution, immediate environment. James says: "Mental facts can not be studied apart from the physical environment of which they are cognizant." Strachey writes: "By the influence and study of external nature are found and developed man's emotional, intellectual and moral faculties. The emotions created in the mind by the vast extent of the ocean, the ever-moving surface, the broken outlines of land and sea, the richness and luxuriance of the vegetable clothing of the earth, the never-ceasing transformation of the clouds as they float overhead, the large serenity of nature at rest, and the overwhelming violence of her convulsions, are, even though not consciously, the source of many psychological attitudes." Indeed, the states of consciousness of peoples may be viewed, in a way, according to geographical conditions. At the sea, mountain dwellers, peoples living in fertile valleys, people inhabiting regions of volcanic or atmospheric disturbances, the desert tribes, or peoples on beautifully luxurious lands—we find their psychological attitudes individually stamped. If typical individuals from such localities were examined, what a range we should find in imagination, optimism, attention, superstition, emotion,