Remarks on the possibility of the acclimatisation of Europeans in tropical regions / by Luigi Sambon.

  • Sambon, Louis Westenra, 1865-1931.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the possibility of the acclimatisation of Europeans in tropical regions / by Luigi Sambon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    18/18 page 16
    We have no reason to dread this evolution, it is the out- come of acclimatisation, and when we consider what splendid races (the Sikh of India, for example) inhabit the most favoured tropical regions, we must come to the conclusion that it can only lead to the development of new people, certainly not inferior to the noblest specimens of existing humanity. Nevertheless, when we consider that man, modifying sur- roundings and substituting his selection for that of Nature, has been able to produce endless varieties of domestic animals which would never have come into existence under natural con- ditions, and would soon revert through atavism to the original type (as witness the wild horse), or perish out of their arti- ficial surroundings, we must certainly believe that he can escape many of those influences which irresistibly modify all other organic beings. From the moment when the first skin was used as a cover- ing and the first fire blazed at will, man was no longer a slave to the universal evolution, and advancing civilisation will enable him more and more to keep himself in harmony with Nature—not by bodily changes, but by greater strides in intellectual power.
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