Human Acclimatization: Perspectives on a Contested Field of Inquiry in Science,Medicine and Geography

Thomson Arthur S. , “Could the natives of a temperate climate colonize and increase in a tropical country and vice versa?”, Transactions of the Medical and Physiological Society of Bombay, vi (1843), 112–38; Felkin Robert W. , “Can Europeans become acclimatised in tropical Africa?”, Scottish geographical magazine, ii (1886), 647–57; Moore William Sir , “Is the colonisation of tropical Africa by Europeans possible?”, Transactions of the Epidemiological Society, x (1891), 27–45; Ward Robert DeC. , “Can the white race become acclimatized in the tropics?”, Gerlands Beiträge zur Geopolitik, xxxii (1931), 149–57.

Freeman T. W. , A hundred years of geography (London, 1965), 14.

See Livingstone David N. , “The history of science and the history of geography: Interactions and implications”, History of science, xxii (1984), 271–302.

Bowman Isaiah (ed.), Limits of land settlement: A report on present-day possibilities (New York, 1937).

See also Gilbert E. W. , “Pioneer maps of health and disease in England”, Geographical journal, cxxiv (1958), 172–83; Howe G. Melvyn , National atlas of disease mortality in the United Kingdom (London, 1963), 7–16 contains a brief historical review of the mapping of disease.

Johnson James , The influence of tropical climates on European constitutions; being a treatise on the principal diseases incidental to Europeans in the East and West Indies, Mediterranean, and Coast of Africa , 3rd edn (London, 1821), 3, 4; Martin James Ranald , The influence of tropical climates on European constitutions, including practical observations on the nature and treatment of the diseases of Europeans on their return from tropical climates , new edn (London, 1856). Johnson, an Ulsterman and founder of the Medico-chirurgical review, authored numerous works including The influence of the atmosphere on the health of the human frame (London, 1818), and The oriental voyager, or descriptive sketches and cursory remarks on a voyage to India and China in His Majesty's Ship Caroline (London, 1807).

See Mayr Ernst , The growth of biological thought: Diversity, evolution, and inheritance (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), 362.

Weiner Douglas R. , “The roots of ‘Michurinism’: Transformist biology and acclimatization as currents in the Russian life sciences”, Annals of science, xlii (1985), 244–60.

See Ripley William Z. , The races of Europe: A sociological study (London, 1899).

Armand de Quatrefages, The human species (New York, 1879), 237. See also Stocking George W. Jr , Race, culture and evolution: Essays in the history of anthropology (Chicago, 1968), 53–55.

Felkin Robert W. , “Uganda”, Scottish geographical magazine, ii (1886), 208–26; idem, “The distribution of disease in Africa”, Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, (1893), Section E, 839.

For his presentation on “Tropical highlands, their suitability for European settlement” to the VIIth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, for example, Felkin included a map of colonization zones drawn by Mill H. R. At the same Congress Clements Markham presented a paper entitled “On the suitability of mountainous regions and of islands in the tropics for European settlement”, Transactions of the Seventh Congress on Hygiene and Demography, x (1892), 178–83.

See Weiner , op. cit. (ref. 8).

Kirk John Sir , “The extent to which tropical Africa is suited for development by the white races, or under their superintendence”, Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress, London 1895 (London, 1896), 526.

This whole episode is discussed in Kass Amalie M. , “Dr Thomas Hodgkin, Dr Martin Delany, and the ‘Return to Africa’”, Medical history, xxvii (1983), 373–93.

See von Zittel Karl , History of geology and palaeontology (London, 1901); Lubbock John Sir , The origin of civilisation and the primitive condition of man (London, 1870); Newbigin Marion I. , Animal geography: The faunas of the natural regions of the globe (Oxford, 1913); Johnson H. H. , British Central Africa (London, 1897).

Chairman's Address, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, i (1832), vii.

Martin , Influence of tropical climates (ref. 6), 1–32.

A general discussion of this from a Marxist perspective is available in Hudson Brian , “The new geography and the new imperialism: 1870–1918”, Antipode, ix (1977), 12–19.

Ravenstein E. G. , Discussion, Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress (ref. 14), 547.

Kirk John , op. cit. (ref. 14), and Dècle Lionel , “To what extent is tropical Africa suited for development by the white races, or under their supervision?”, Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress (ref. 14), 555–9.

Johnston Harry Sir , Discussion, Geographical journal, xii (1898), 603.

von Pfeil Graf , “On tropical Africa in relation to white races”, Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress (ref. 14), 537–44, p. 542.

Cannon Susan Faye , Science in culture: The early Victorian period (New York, 1978), 105.

Martin , op. cit. (ref. 6), 413–33.

Biographical details are available in Lonsdale H. , A sketch of the life and writings of Robert Knox the anatomist (London, 1870).

Knox Robert , The races of men: A philosophical enquiry into the influence of race over the destinies of nations , 2nd edn (London, 1862), 86–87, 98, 103, 106, 107, 108.

ibid., 142, 121–2.

“Man and climate”, British and foreign medico-chirurgical review, li (1961), 1–23, pp. 2, 5, 4.

Nott J. C. , “Thoughts on acclimation and adaptation of races to climate”, American journal of medical science, v (1956), 320–34, pp. 323, 324, 327. Nott did admit the possibility of some acclimatization, especially among children, to temperature. Acclimatization to the endemic fevers of the tropics, however, was altogether different.

Thomson A. S. , “On the doctrine of acclimatization”, Madras quarterly medical review, ii (1840), 69–76, pp. 69, 76.

Thomson Arthur S. , “Could the natives of a temperate climate colonize and increase in a tropical country and vice versa?”, Transactions of the Medical and Physiological Society of Bombay, vi (1843), 112–38, p. 130.

ibid., 137.

Johnson , Influence of tropical climates (ref. 6), 2, 3.

Cullimore D. H. , “On tropical and sub-tropical climates and the acclimatisation of the fair races in hot countries”, The medical press, 31 October 1888, 436–9, 461–4, p. 437.

Cullimore D. H. , The book of climates: Acclimatization; climatic diseases; health resorts and mineral springs; sea sickness; sea voyages; and sea bathing, 2nd edn with a chapter on “The climate of Africa as it affects Europeans” by Parke Surgeon (London, 1891).

Moore William Sir , “Is the colonisation of tropical Africa by Europeans possible?”, Journal of the Epidemiological Society, x (1891), 27–45, pp. 36, 38, 36, 40.

See Prichard James C. , The natural history of man , 2nd edn (London, 1845); Hunt James , “On ethno-climatology; or the acclimatisation of man”, Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, n. s., ii (1863), 50–84; Ripley W. Z. , The races of Europe: A sociological study (London, 1899).

Ripley , Races of Europe, 584.

Ravenstein E. G. , “Lands of the globe still available for European settlement”, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, n. s., xiii (1891), 27–35.

Huntington Ellsworth , “The adaptability of the white man to tropical America”, Journal of race development, v (1914), 185–211, pp. 199, 211. Huntington further pursued the subject in Civilization and climate (New Haven, 1915). Huntington's viewpoint comes through in the work of Griffith Taylor, Environment, race, and migration (Toronto, 1937). Commenting on the temperate zone, Julian Huxley observed, in an essay first published in the Atlantic monthly: “It contains the belt of cyclonic storms - in other words, of rapid and frequent changes of weather. And this type of climate, as Ellsworth Huntington has shown, is the one most stimulating to human energy and achievement.” Huxley Julian , The uniqueness of man (London, 1942), 86.

Williams Philip C. , “On acclimation”, The medical examiner and record of medical science, lxviii (1850), 439–510, pp. 446, 448, 503, 505, 504.

Martin , Influence of tropical climates (ref. 6), 59–63.

Koelsch W. A. , “Robert DeCourcy Ward. 1867–1931”, Geographers: Biobibliographical studies, vii (1983), 145–50, p. 147.

Ward Robert DeC. , “Fallacies of the melting pot idea and America's traditional immigration policy”, in Grant Madison and Davison Chas Steward (eds), The alien in our midst or “Selling our birthright for a mess of industrial pottage” (New York, 1930), 230–6, p. 231.

Ward Robert DeC. , “Can the white race become acclimatized in the tropics?”, Gerlands Beiträge zur Geopolitik, xxxii (1931), 149–57, p. 157.

Berghaus A. , “Adaptation to climate”, Popular science monthly, xxv (1884), 396–9, p. 398.

Felkin Robert W. , “Can Europeans become acclimatized in tropical Africa?”, Scottish geographical magazine, ii (1886), 647–57, p. 648, 650.

Felkin Robert W. , “Tropical highlands: Their suitability for European settlement”, Transactions of the Seventh International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, x (1892), 155–64, p. 162.

Felkin Robert W. , “On acclimatisation”, Scottish geographical magazine, vii (1891), 647–56, pp. 650, 649, 654.

Felkin , “Can Europeans …” (ref. 48), 655.

Markham Clements R. , “On the suitability of mountainous regions and of islands in the tropics for European settlement”, Transactions of the Seventh International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, x (1892), 178–83, pp. 180, 183. Biographical details are available in Markham Albert H. , The life of Sir Clements R. Markham K.C.B., F.R.S. (London, 1917). More generally geographers' interest in the medical effects of highlands is also evident in Dent Clinton , “Physiological effects of high altitudes”, Geographical journal, i (1893), 46–48.

Sambon Luigi , “Remarks on the possibility of the acclimatisation of Europeans in tropical regions”, British medical journal, i (1897), 61–66, p. 61.

Sambon L. Westernra , “Acclimatization of Europeans in tropical lands”, Geographical journal, xii (1898), 589–606, p. 593.

Sambon , “Acclimatization” (ref. 54), 594; idem, “Remarks” (ref. 53), 66.

Sambon , “Remarks” (ref. 53), 65.

Geographical journal, xii (1898), 604–5, 602, 604.

Wallace Alfred Russel , “Acclimatization”, Encyclopaedia Britannica , 11th edn (London, 1910), s.v. The pro-acclimatization stance was also shared by Joseph Deniker, who argued that “the so-called white race appears to have the aptitude of acclimatation in all countries, provided, of course, that it makes the necessary sacrifices for several generations”. Indeed a consequence of “the facility of acclimatation” for Deniker was “the cosmopolitanism of mankind”. Deniker J. , The races of man: An outline of anthropology and ethnography, 2nd edn (London, [circa 1900]), 119.

See McMullin Ernan , “History and philosophy of science: A marriage of convenience?”, Philosophy of Science Association, (1974), 585–601.

Kirmiz J. P. , Adaptation to desert environment: A study on the jeroba, rat and man (London, 1962), 76.

Hatt John , The tropical traveller (London, 1982).

McMullin Ernan , “The rational and the social in the history of science”, in Brown James Robert (ed.), Scientific rationality: The sociological turn (Dordrecht, 1984), 154.

Greene John C. , American science in the age of Jefferson (Ames, 1984), 29.

Editorial, The medical and surgical reporter, v (issue of 9 March 1861), 623–4.

Barton E. H. , Introductory lecture on acclimation (New Orleans, 1837), 11, 12, 16–17.

“Acclimation; and the liability of negroes to the endemic fevers of the South”, New Orleans medical news and hospital gazette, v (1858–59), 78–87, pp. 80, 86.

See Livingstone David N. , Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the culture of American science (University, Alabama, 1987). It is interesting to note that Clements Markham used Shaler's “masterly” treatment to support the claim that descendants of Englishmen have not deteriorated on the verge of the tropics. Markham , “Suitability of mountainous regions” (ref. 52), 180.

Thomson Joseph , “East Central Africa, and its commercial outlook”, Scottish geographical magazine, ii (1886), 65–78, p. 66.

Stanley H. M. , Discussion, Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress (ref. 14), 553.

White A. Silva , “To what extent is tropical Africa suited for development by the white races, or under their superintendence?”, Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress (ref. 14), 549–53, pp. 549, 550.

von Pfeil Graf and Ellguth Klein . “On tropical Africa in relation to white races”, Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress (ref. 14), 537–44, p. 543.

Sambon , “Remarks” (ref. 53), 64.

Wallace , “Acclimatization” (ref. 58), 117. In Wallace's case – at least early on in his career – this did not imply racial equality, for at that stage he distinguished between physical monogenism (the single biological origin of the species) and moral polygenism (multiple derivations of morality). Thus at the 1864 British Association meeting he was reported as saying that “the relation of a civilized to an uncivilized race over whom it rules is exactly analogous to that of parent to child, or of adult to infants, and that a certain amount of despotic rule and guidance is as essential in the one case as it is in the other. The only question is as to the manner in which the ‘paternal despotism’ shall be carried out.” Wallace Alfred R. , “On the progress of civilization in Northern Celebes”, Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, (1864), 150.

Oppler A. , “On acclimatisation”, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, n.s., ix (1887), 690–1.

Nott , “Thoughts on acclimation” (ref. 30), 322.

Lurie Edward , Louis Agassiz: A life in science (Chicago, 1960), 252–66.

I have discussed this in Livingstone David N. , “Preadamites: The history of an idea from heresy to orthodoxy”, Scottish journal of theology, xl (1987), 41–66.

Quoted in Stanton William , The leopard's spots: Scientific attitudes toward race in America 1815–59 (Chicago, 1960), 21.

See Popkin Richard H. , “Pre-Adamism in 19th century American thought: ‘Speculative biology’ and racism”, Philosophia, viii (1978), 205–39.

Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress (ref. 14), 533; Nott , “Thoughts on acclimation” (ref. 30); Oppler , “On acclimatisation” (ref. 74).

Wallace , “Acclimatization” (ref. 58), 118; Kirk , “Extent to which tropical Africa suited for development” (ref. 14), 525.

Platt Isaac Hull , “The problem of acclimatization”, Medical times, xv (1885), 676–8.

Wallace , “Acclimatization” (ref. 58), 117.

Thomson J. Arthur , “Acclimatization”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th edn (1929), 96.

Darwin Charles , The variations of animals and plants under domestication (2 vols, London, 1905), ii, 379.

Sambon , “Remarks” (ref. 53), 66.