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Show 400 ACCLIMATION; OR, TilE INFLUENCE OF ] 1arclsbi.ps must await him, and with the certainty of riski.n~ his life in climates that nature never intended !tim for. One gencrat10n never profits by the experience of another, nor the child by that of its parents. Who will undertake to estimate the amount of human life sacrificed, since tho discovery of Columbus, by attempts to colonize tropical climates ? Naturalists have divided the earth into zooloo-ical realms-each possessing an infinite variety of animals and plants, peculiar to it; but this is not the place for details on this head. To the reader who is not familiar with researches of this kind, we may venture a few plain remarks. When Lhe continent of America was disc~vered (with a few exceptions in the Arctic Circle, where tho contments nearly touch), its quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, plants, all were different species from those found in the Old World. lienee the conclusion, that the whole Fauna and Flora of America were here m·eated. If we go on to compare other great divisions of the world, such as Asia, Europe, Afi·ica, Australia, Polynesia, the same general law holds throughout: each division possesses its peculiar animals and plants, having no connection by descent with others; and each group forming a grand and harmonious zoological provinee. Tho question naturally arises-Does man for·m an exception to this t~niversal law? Can he, by any evidence, human or otherwise, be thus separated from the organic world? We think not. In each one of these natural realms, we :find a type of man, whose history is lost in antiquity; and whose physical characters, la11guage, habits, a.nd instincts, arc peculiar ;-whoso organization is in har·mony with the Rtati.on in which he is placed, and who cannot be transfenod to an opposite climate without destruction. Recent researches enable us to trace back many of those types of man, with the same characteristics that mark them now, at loa t 4000 years. In Egypt alone, as proven by her monuments, wet·e seen, in those early times, through the agency of wars and commerce, Egyptians, Berbers, N ubians, Abyssinians, Negroes, Ionians, .1 ews, Assyrians, Tartars, and others,-with the same li noam onts they now pro"Sent, and obeying, no doubt, the same physiological and pathological laws. In fact, so well defined wore the rae s in the time of the early Pharaohs, tlu~t the Egyptians had already classified them into red, white, yellow, and blaclc; and each of the types, then as now, formed a link in a distinct Fauna.31 Let us now ask the reader to reflect on the long chain of facts presented in this and the preceding chapters, and calmly decide whether we arc justified in drawing the following conclusions: 80 Soc :J'ypes of .Afankind; aud M. PuLSZKY's chap. U, itifra. CLIMATE AND DISEASES ON MAN. 401 1. That the earth is naturally divided into zoological realmseach possessing a climate, Fauna, and Flora, exclusively its own. 2. That the Fauna of each realm originated in that realm, and that it has no consanguinity with other Faunas. 3. That each realm possesses a group of human races, which, though not identical in physical and intellectual characters, are closely allied with one anothee, and are disconnected ii·om all other races. We may cite, as examples, the white races of Europe, tho Mongols of Asia, tho blacks of Africa, and the aborigines of America. 4. That the types of man, belonging to these realms, antedate all human records, by thousands of years; and are as ancient as tho Faunas of which each forms an original element. 5. That the types of man arc separated by specific characters, as well marked and as permanent as those which designate the species of other genera. 6. That the climates of the earth may be divided into PHYSICAL and MEDICAL; and that each species of man, having its own physiological and pathological laws, is peculiarly aficcted by both climates. 7. That no race of man can be regardeu as cosmopolite; but that those races which are indigenous to latitudes intermediate between the equator and poles, approach nearer to cosmopolitism than those of tho Arctic or the Torrid Zone. 8. That the assertion, that any one race over has, or ever can be, assimilated to all physical or all medical climates, is a hypothesis unsustained by a single historical fact, and opposed to the teachings of natural history. J. C.N. 26 |
