denser, men imbibe at each inspiration a greater volume of oxygen than they would do in a climate where the air is rarefied by heat. In the second place, cold accelerates their respiration, and thus obliging them to inhale more frequently than the inhabitants of hot countries, increases the amount of oxygen which they on an average take in. 35 On both these grounds the consumption of oxygen becomes greater it is therefore requisite that the consumption of carbon should also be greater; since by the union of these two elements in certain definite proportions, the temperature of the body and the balance of the human frame can alone be maintained.36

Proceeding from these chemical and physiological principles, we arrive at the conclusion, that the colder the country is in which a people live, the more highly carbonized will be their food. And this, which is a purely scientific inference, has been verified by actual experiment. The inhabitants of the polar regions consume large quantities of whale-oil and blubber; while within the tropics such food would soon put an end to life, and therefore the ordinary diet consists almost entirely of fruit, rice, and other vegetables. Now it has been ascertained, by careful analysis, that in the polar food there is an excess of carbon: in

34"Ainsi, dans des temps égaux, la quantité d'oxygène consommée par le même animal est d'autant plus grande que la température ambiante est moins élevée." Robin et Verdeil, Chimie Anatomique, vol. ii. p. 44. Compare Simon's Lectures on Pathology, 1850, p. 188, for the diminished quantity of respiration in a high temperature; though one may question Mr. Simon's inference that therefore the blood is more venous in hot countries than in cold ones. This is not making allowance for the difference of diet, which corrects the difference of temperature.

35

"The consumption of oxygen in a given time may be expressed by the num ber of respirations." Liebig's Letters on Chemistry, p. 314; and see Thomson's Animal Chemistry, p. 611. It is also certain that exercise increases the number of respirations; and birds, which are the most active of all animals, consume more oxygen than any others. Milne Edwards, Zoologie, part i. p. 88, part ii. p. 371; Flourens, Travaux de Cuvier, pp. 153, 154, 265, 266. Compare, on the connection between respiration and the locomotive organs, Beclard, Anatomie Générale, pp. 39, 44; Burdach, Traité de Physiologie, vol. ix. pp. 485, 556-559; Carus' Comparative Anatomy, vol. i. pp. 99, 164, 358, vol. ii. pp. 142, 160; Grant's Comparative Anatomy, pp. 455, 495, 522, 529, 537; Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom, pp. 369, 440, 692, 714, 720; Owen's Invertebrata, pp. 322, 345, 386, 505. Thus too it has been experimentally ascertained, that in human beings exercise increases the amount of carbonic acid gas. Mayo's Human Physiology, p. 64; Liebig and Kopp's Reports, vol. iii. p. 359.

If we now put these facts together, their bearing on the propositions in the text will become evident; because, on the whole, there is more exercise taken in cold climates than in hot ones, and there must therefore be an increased respiratory action. For proof that greater exercise is both taken and required, compare Wrangel's Polar Expedition, pp. 79, 102; Richardson's Arctic Expedition, vol. i. p. 385; Simpson's North Coast of America, pp. 49, 88, which should be contrasted with the contempt for such amusements in hot countries. Indeed, in polar regions all this is so essential to preserve a normal state, that scurvy can only be kept off in the northern part of the American continent by taking considerable exercise; see Grantz, History of England, vol. 1. pp. 46, 62, 338.

See the note at the end of this chapter.

the tropical food an excess of oxygen. Without entering into details, which to the majority of readers would be distasteful, it may be said generally, that the oils contain about six times as much carbon as the fruits, and that they have in them very little oxygen; while starch, which is the most universal, and, in reference to nutrition, the most important constituent in the vegetable world, 38 is nearly half oxygen.39

The connexion between this circumstance and the subject before us is highly curious: for it is a most remarkable fact, and one to which I would call particular attention, that owing to some more general law, of which we are ignorant, highly carbonized food is more costly than food in which comparatively little carbon is found. The fruits of the earth, of which oxygen is the most active principle, are very abundant; they may be obtained without danger, and almost without trouble. But that highly carbonized food which in a very cold climate is absolutely necessary to life, is not produced in so facile and spontaneous a manner. It is not, like vegetables, thrown up by the soil; but it consists of the fat, the blubber, and the oil,10 of powerful and ferocious animals. To procure it, man must incur great risk, and expend great labour. And although this is undoubtedly a contrast of extreme cases, still it is evident that the nearer a people approach to either extremity, the more subject will they be to the conditions by which that extremity is governed. It is evident that, as a general rule, the colder a country is, the more

40

"The fruits used by the inhabitants of southern climes do not contain, in a fresh state, more than 12 per cent. of carbon; while the blubber and train-oil which feed the inhabitants of polar regions contain 66 to 80 per cent. of that element. Liebig's Letters on Chemistry, p. 320; see also p. 375, and Turner's Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 1315. According to Prout (Mayo's Human Physiol. p. 136), "the proportion of carbon in oily bodies varies from about 60 to 80 per cent." The quantity of oil and fat habitually consumed in cold countries is remarkable. Wrangel (Polar Expedition, p. 21) says of the tribes in the north-east of Siberia, "fat is their greatest delicacy. They eat it in every possible shape-raw, melted, fresh, or spoilt." See also Simpson's Discoveries on the North Coast of America, pp. 147, 404.

"So common that no plant is destitute of it." Lindley's Botany, vol. i. p. 111; and at page 121, "starch is the most common of all vegetable productions." Dr. Lindley adds (vol. i. p. 292), that it is difficult to distinguish the grains of starch secreted by plants, from cytoblasts. See also on the starch-granules first noticed by M. Link, Reports on Botany by the Ray Society, pp. 223, 370; and respecting its predominance in the vegetable world, compare Thomson's Chemistry of Vegetables, pp. 650-652, 875; Brande's Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 1160; Turner's Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 1236; Liebig and Kopp's Reports, vol. ii. pp. 97, 98, 122.

39 The oxygen is 49-39 out of 100. See the table in Liebig's Letters on Chemistry, p. 379. Amidin, which is the soluble part of starch, contains 53.33 per cent. of oxygen. See Thomson's Chemistry of Vegetables, p. 654, on the authority of Prout, who has the reputation of being an accurate experimenter.

40 Of which a single whale will yield "cent vingt tonneaux." Cuvier Règne Animal, vol. i. p. 397. In regard to the solid food, Sir J. Richardson (Arctic Expedi tion, 1851, vol. i. p. 243) says that the inhabitants of the Arctic regions only maintain themselves by chasing whales and "consuming blubber."

its food will be carbonized; the warmer it is, the more its food will be oxidized. At the same time, carbonized food, being chiefly drawn from the animal world, is more difficult to obtain than oxidized food, which is drawn from the vegetable world.42 The result has been, that among nations where the coldness of the climate renders a highly carbonized diet essential, there is for the most part displayed, even in the infancy of society, a bolder and more adventurous character than we find among those other nations whose ordinary nutriment, being highly oxidized, is easily obtained, and indeed is supplied to them, by the bounty of nature, gratuitously and without a struggle. From this original divergence there follow many other consequences, which, however, I am not now concerned to trace; my present object being merely to point out how this difference of food affects the proportion in which wealth is distributed to the different classes.

The way in which this proportion is actually altered has, I hope, been made clear by the preceding argument. But it may be useful to recapitulate the facts on which the argument is based. The facts, then, are simply these. The rate of wages fluctuates with the population; increasing when the labour-market is under-supplied, diminishing when it is over-supplied. The population itself, though affected by many other circumstances, does undoubtedly fluctuate with the supply of food; advancing when the supply is plentiful, halting or receding when the supply is scanty. The food essential to life, is scarcer in cold countries than in hot ones; and not only is it scarcer, but

"It is said, that to keep a person in health, his food even in the temperate parts of Europe, should contain " a full eighth more carbon in winter than in summer." Liebig's Animal Chemistry, p. 16.

42 The most highly carbonized of all foods are undoubtedly yielded by animals : the most highly oxidized by vegetables. In the vegetable kingdom there is, however, so much carbon, that its predominance, accompanied with the rarity of nitrogen, has induced chemical botanists to characterize plants as carbonized, and animals as azotized. But we have here to attend to a double antithesis. Vegetables are carbonized in so far as they are non-azotized; but they are oxidized in opposition to the highly carbonized animal food of cold countries. Besides this, it is important to observe that the carbon of vegetables is most abundant in the woody and unnutritious part, which is not eaten; while the carbon of animals is found in the fatty and oily parts, which are not only eaten, but are, in cold countries, greedily devoured.

43 Sir J. Malcolm (History of Persia, vol. ii. p. 380) speaking of the cheapness of vegetables in the East, says, "in some parts of Persia fruit has hardly any value." Cuvier, in a striking passage (Règne Animal, vol. i. pp. 73, 74) has contrasted vegetable with animal food, and thinks that the former, being so easily obtained, is the more natural. But the truth is that both are equally natural; though when Cuvier wrote scarcely any thing was known of the laws which govern the relation between climate and food. On the skill and energy required to obtain food in cold countries, see Wrangel's Polar Expedition, pp. 70, 71, 191,192; Simpson's Discoveries on the North Coast of America, p. 249; Grantz, History of Greenland, vol. i. pp. 22, 32, 105, 131, 154, 155, vol. ii. pp. 203, 265, 324.

more of it is required;" so that on both grounds smaller encouragement is given to the growth of that population from whose ranks the labour-market is stocked. To express, therefore, the conclusion in its simplest form, we may say, that there is a strong and constant tendency in hot countries for wages to be low, in cold countries for them to be high.

Applying now this great principle to the general course of history, we shall find proofs of its accuracy in every direction. Indeed, there is not a single instance to the contrary. In Asia, in Africa, and in America, all the ancient civilizations were seated in hot climates; and in all of them the rate of wages was very low, and therefore the condition of the labouring classes very depressed. In Europe for the first time, civilization arose in a colder climate: hence the reward of labour was increased, and the distribution of wealth rendered more equal than was possible in countries where an excessive abundance of food stimulated the growth of population. This difference produced, as we shall presently see, many social and political consequences of immense importance. But before discussing them, it may be remarked, that the only apparent exception to what has been stated, is one which strikingly verifies the general law. There is one instance, and only one, of a great European people possessing a very cheap national food. This people, I need hardly say, are the Irish. In Ireland the labouring classes have for more than two hundred years been principally fed by potatoes, which were introduced into their country late in the sixteenth, or early in the seventeenth century.45 Now, the peculiarity of the potato is, that until the appearance of the late disease, it was, and perhaps still is, cheaper than any other food equally wholesome. If we compare its reproductive power with the amount of nutri

# Cabanis (Rapports du Physique et du Moral, p. 313) says, "Dans les temps et dans les pays froids on mange et l'on agit davantage." That much food is eaten in cold countries, and little in hot ones, is mentioned by numerous travellers, none of whom are aware of the cause. See Simpson's Discov. on the North Coast of America, p. 218; Custine's Russie, vol. iv. p. 66; Wrangel's Expedition, pp. 21, 327; Grantz, History of Greenland, vol. i. pp. 145, 360; Richardson's Central Africa, vol. ii. p. 46; Richardson's Sahara, vol. i. p. 137; Denham's Africa, p. 37; Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. v. p. 144, vol. viii. p. 188; Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, vol. ii. p. 265; Neibuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 45; Ulloa's Voyage to South America, vol. i. pp. 403, 408; Journal of Geograph. Society, vol. iii. p. 283, vol. vi. p. 85, vol. xix. p. 121: Spiz and Martius's Travels in Brazil, vol. i. p. 164; Southey's History of Brazil, vol. iii. p. 848; Volney, Voyage en Syrie et en Egypt, vol. i. pp. 379, 380, 460; Low's Sarawak, p. 140.

Meyen (Geography of Plants, 1846, p. 313) says that the potato was introduced into Ireland in 1586; but according to Mr. M'Culloch (Dictionary of Commerce, 1849, p. 1048), "potatoes, it is commonly thought, were not introduced into Ireland till 1610, when a small quantity was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to be planted in a garden on his estate in the vicinity of Youghall." Compare Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture, p. 845; "first planted by Sir Walter Raleigh on his estate of Youghall, near Cork."

ment contained in it, we find that one acre of average land sown with potatoes will support twice as many persons as the same quantity of land sown with wheat.16 The consequence is, that in a country where men live on potatoes, the population will, if other things are tolerably equal, increase twice as fast as in a country where they live on wheat. And so it has actually occurred. Until a very few years ago, when the face of affairs was entirely altered by pestilence and emigration, the population of Ireland was, in round numbers, increasing annually three per cent.; the population of England during the same period increasing one-and-a-half per cent. The result was, that in these two countries the distribution of wealth was altogether different. Even in England the growth of population is somewhat too rapid; and the labour-market being overstocked, the working-classes are not sufficiently paid for their labour. 48 But their condition is one of sumptuous splendour, compared to that in which only a few years ago the Irish were forced to live. The misery in which they were plunged has no doubt always been aggravated by the ignorance of their rulers, and by that scandalous misgovernment which, until very recently, formed one of the darkest blots on the glory of England. The most active cause, however, was, that their wages were so low as to debar them, not only from the comforts, but from the common decencies of civilized life; and this evil condition was the natural result of that cheap and abundant food, which encouraged the people to so rapid an increase, that the labour-market was constantly gorged. So far was this carried, that an intelligent observer who travelled through Ireland twenty years ago, mentions that at that time the average wages were fourpence a-day; and that even

49

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46 Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, book i. chap. xi. p. 67) supposes that it will support three times as many; but the statistics of this great writer are the weakest part of his work, and the more careful calculations made since he wrote, bear out the statement in the text. "It admits of demonstration that an acre of potatoes will feed double the number of people that can be fed on an acre of wheat." don's Encyclop. of Agriculture, 5th edit., 1844, p. 845. So, too, in M'Culloch's Dict., p. 1048, an acre of potatoes will feed double the number of individuals that can be fed from an acre of wheat." The daily average consumption of an able-bodied labourer in Ireland is estimated at nine-and-a-half pounds of potatoes for men, and seven-and-a-half for women. See Phillips on Scrofula, 1846, p. 177.

་་

47 Malthus, Essay on Population, vol. i. pp. 424, 425, 431, 435, 441, 442; M'Culloch's Political Economy, pp. 381, 382.

4 The lowest agricultural wages in our time have been in England, about 1s. a day; while from the evidence collected by Mr. Thornton in 1845, the highest wages then paid were in Lincolnshire, and were rather more than 13s. a-week; those in Yorkshire and Northumberland being nearly as high. Thornton on Over-Population, pp. 12-15, 24, 25. Godwin, writing in 1820, estimates the average at 1s. 6d. a-day. Godwin on Population, p. 574. Mr. Phillips, in his work On Scrofula, 1846, p. 345, "at present the ratio of wages is from 98. to 108."

says,

49 The most miserable part, namely Connaught, in 1733, contained 242,160 inhabitants; and in 1821, 1,110,229. See Sadler's Law of Population, vol. ii. p. 490.