Many philosophical writers, notably David Hume and Charles Comte, C.
Montesquieu in his L'Esprit des Lois, and Henry Thomas Buckle in his
HISTORY OF CIVILISATION IN ENGLAND, have dilated upon the influence
which climate exerts over race, and all their forceful opinions are to
the effect that the character of a people is moulded by climatic
conditions. More than this, the same new was entertained by the classic
writers; for we find the philosopher and orator Cicero recording his
belief that "Athens has a light atmosphere, whence the Athenians are
thought to be more keenly intelligent; Thebes a dense one, and the
Thebans fat-witted accordingly." Again, Horace, the poet and satirist,
has given us the famous passage:--" You would swear he (Alexander the
Great) was born in the dense atmosphere of the Boeotians."

But the influence of climate is not confined to ordinary conditions
alone, because without the shadow of a doubt it controls disease as
well. As it is well known, certain diseases are peculiar to, and
confined to, certain regions. And, moreover, a malady will vary in its
type in different zones. Thus the disease known as rickets is
in the old country marked in many cases by bending of the bones, giving
rise to deformities of the limbs, &c. The Australian type of the
disorder, however, is milder altogether, and is of a different
character. The Australian child is straight-limbed almost without
exception, yet the Australian type of rickety disease, as I pointed out
in 1891, is quite a definite affection.

At the Congress of Naturalists and Physicians at Strasburg in 1885 the
great German pathologist, Professor Virchow, called attention to a
sphere of research in which, he alleged, neither the French nor the
English had hitherto accomplished anything of importance, namely, the