Part 1 — APPENDIX

Since the foregoing study was completed, E. Huntington’s stimulating book—vide supra, p. 79, n.—on Civilization and Climate has appeared. He continues what Dexter began. Lack of definiteness in observation, argumentative conviction, reasoned out opinion, are superseded by scientific exactness in ascertaining the action of climate. Chapters 4–7 (pp. 49–147) concern us here. In these chapters he investigates “the exact effect of various climatic factors upon selected groups of people” (p. 49).

Huntington subjects to statistical analysis the daily records of about 550 factory operatives, pieceworkers, employed in three factories in three New England cities. The records, most of them for a complete year, are distributed over the four years from 1910 to 1913 (p. 53).

He computes wage averages. He finds for each working day the average hourly wage for each group of operatives. When the daily averages had been found, they were averaged together by weeks. To give each individual an equal importance, the figures of each group have been reduced to percentages. Finally, the different groups were combined (p. 57). His final computations are represented in curves. A curve, graduated in twelve parts (one for each month), for a given year shows the earnings in percentages at any point and thus reveals the time of the weakness or efficiency of the worker; it shows the time of his 98wages from least to most, thereby indicating the time of his work and energy from poorest to best.

Huntington worked up similarly the records of 65 operatives in a North Carolina factory, of 240 operatives in four cotton mills in South Carolina and Georgia, of 57 carpenters at Jacksonville, Fla., and on a different basis the work of 2700 cigar makers in two cigar factories in Florida. On the first basis he also computed a series of data from a large factory at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, based on the work of about 950 operatives in 1910, of about 750 in 1911, of 69 in 1912, of about 7000 in 1913. He figured the monthly or bi-weekly averages of hourly earnings of these pieceworkers in Pittsburgh.

Discussing the curves in Figure 1 (p. 59), he mentions (p. 61) five features revealed by the curves that show no sign of disappearing. They are: “an extremely low place in midwinter, and a less pronounced low place in midsummer; a high point in June, a still higher point at the end of October, and a hump in mid-December....

“Before we discuss the causes of the variability of the summers let us consider the meaning of the curves as a whole. In the first place, it is evident that, although details may vary from year to year, the general course of events is uniformly from low in the winter to high in the fall with a drop of more or less magnitude in summer. To what can this be due?...

“We seem forced to search outside of the factories for the reasons for our seasonal fluctuations of wages.... 99There seems to be no recourse except to ascribe the fluctuations of the curves to climate [pp. 64–5].

“The verity of the conclusion just reached is strongly confirmed by comparison with other regions and other types of human activity.... The curves [in Figure 2, pp. 66–7] range from the Adirondacks in northern New York to Tampa in southern Florida and include one from Denmark. With them I have repeated some of the curves of Figure 1 for the sake of comparison. The most remarkable feature of this series is that although there is great diversity of place and of activity, all the curves harmonize with what would be expected on the basis of Figure 1 [p. 65].

“The general form of the curves for Pittsburgh and Connecticut is obviously the same....

“The agreement between the curves for Connecticut and Pennsylvania is far too close to be accidental [p. 76].

“We have now seen that from New England to Florida physical strength and health vary in accordance with the seasons. Extremes seem to produce the same effect everywhere. The next question is whether mental activity varies the same way” (p. 77).

Huntington uses the marks of “about 1900 students for a single year” in mathematics (weekly averages at Annapolis and daily averages at West Point) and in English (at Annapolis). From these data he compiles the curves in Figure 3 (p. 80). He says (p. 81), “The curves of mental activity all resemble it [the average curve of physical work] in having two main maxima, 100in fall and spring.... At Annapolis, just as at West Point, the time of best work is when the mean temperature is not far from forty degrees [Fahrenheit].

“Summing up the matter, we find that the results of investigations in Denmark, Japan, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida are in harmony. They all show that except in Florida neither the winter nor the summer is the most favorable season. Both physical and mental activity reach pronounced maxima in the spring and fall, with minima in midwinter and midsummer. The consistency of our results is of great importance. It leads to the belief that in all parts of the world the climate is exercising an influence which can readily be measured, and can be subjected to statistical analysis” (p. 82).

This is his conclusion in Chapter IV (pp. 49–82), “The Effect of the Seasons.”

Having seen in the fourth chapter “that both physical and mental energy vary from season to season according to well-defined laws,” Huntington investigates in the fifth chapter (“The Effect of Humidity and Temperature,” pp. 83–110) “the special features of seasonal change which are most effective” (p. 83). Explaining the curves of Human Activity and Mean Temperature (p. 99), he says (p. 98), “With the exception of the last two, which are distinctly the least reliable, the physical group all reach maxima at a temperature between 59° and 65°. Even the two less reliable curves reach their maxima within the next 101four degrees. All the curves decline at low temperatures, ..., and also at high.

“Another point brought out by the curves [on p. 99] is that as we go to more southerly climes the optimum temperature of the human race becomes higher. It is important to note, however, that the variation in the optimum is slight compared with the variation in the mean temperature of the places in question. For instance, in Connecticut the optimum seems to be about 60° for people of north European stock. This is about ten degrees higher than the mean temperature for the year as a whole. In Florida, on the other hand, the optimum for Cubans is about 65°, which is five degrees lower than the mean temperature for the year at Tampa. In other words, with a difference of twenty degrees in the mean annual temperature, and with a distinctly northern race compared with a southern, we find that the optimum differs only about 5° F. This seems to mean that for the entire human race the optimum temperature probably does not vary more than ten or fifteen degrees [pp. 100–101].

“The last thing to be considered in Figure 8 [p. 99] is the mental curve [showing optimum mental work at 38° F.] at the bottom. It is based on so large a number of people, and is so regular, that its general reliability seems great, although I think that future studies may show the optimum to be a few degrees higher than is here indicated. It agrees with the results of Lehmann and Pedersen. Furthermore, from general observation we are most of us aware that we are mentally more active in comparatively cool weather. 102Perhaps ‘spring fever’ is a mental state far more than a physical. Apparently people do the best mental work on days when the thermometer ranges from freezing to about 50°—that is, when the mean temperature is not far from 40°. Inasmuch as human progress depends upon a coördination of mental and physical activity, we seem to be justified in the conclusion that the greatest total efficiency occurs halfway between the mental and physical optima, that is, with a mean temperature of about 50°” (pp. 102–103).

The curves (p. 105) on Mean Temperature and Vital Processes in Plants, Animals and Man show physical energy to be at the optimum at the mean temperature of 60° F., mental energy at 38°, mental and physical energy combined at from 40° to 60°. Of this last mentioned curve he says: “It may be taken as representing man’s actual productive activity in the things that make for a high civilization. The resemblance of the human curves to those of the lower organisms is obvious. In general, the lower types of life, or the lower forms of activity, seem to reach their optima at higher temperatures than do the more advanced types and the more lofty functions such as mentality. The whole trend of biological thought is toward the conclusion that the same laws apply to all forms of life. They differ in application, but not in principle. The law of optimum temperature apparently controls the phenomena of life from the lowest activities of protoplasm to the highest activities of the human intellect” (pp. 109–110).

103In Chapter VI (“Work and Weather,” pp. 111–128), he interprets the curves he plotted showing especially the influence of changes of temperature from day to day, and of the character of each day and its relation to storms. In the very interesting Chapter VII (pp. 129–147) he discusses “The Ideal Climate.”

In the closing paragraph of his book, he says, “If our hypothesis is true, man is more closely dependent upon nature than he has realized. A realization of his limitations, however, is the first step toward freedom [p. 293].

“The hypothesis, briefly stated, is this: Today a certain peculiar type of climate prevails wherever civilization is high. In the past the same type seems to have prevailed wherever a great civilization arose. Therefore, such a climate seems to be a necessary condition of great progress. It is not the cause of civilization, for that lies infinitely deeper. Nor is it the only, or the most important condition. It is merely one of several, ...” (p. 9.)

Huntington mentions (p. 7) Lehmann and Pedersen’s “Das Wetter und unsere Arbeit” and Berliner’s “Einfluß von Klima, Wetter und Jahreßeit auf das Nerven- und Seelenleben,” without the date or place of publication.

104Note: Since the foregoing pages went to press, the following publications have appeared; being too late for inclusion or comment in the text, they are added here for reference:

Douglas W. Johnson, Topography and Strategy in the War, N. Y., Henry Holt & Co., 1917, 221 pp. (Thorough and very illuminating; points out how the surface features of the country influenced military operations in the most important theaters of the war.)

James Fairgrieve, Geography and World Power, N. Y., E. P. Dutton & Co., 1917, 356 pp. (Shows how History has been controlled by Geography.)

Robert De C. Ward, “Weather Controls Over the Fighting in the Italian War Zone,” The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 2 (February, 1918), pp. 97–105. And “Weather Controls Over the Fighting in Mesopotamia, in Palestine, and near the Suez Canal,” ibidem, Vol. 6, No. 4 (April, 1918), pp. 289–304.