The “frequent and sudden weather changes of the temperate zones affect man in many ways, as do the larger seasonal changes. The relations between weather and conduct have frequently been investigated. Professor E. G. Dexter has made an extended empirical study of the effects of the weather ... Bertillon has collected data on suicides and seasons in France, ...”[[277]] Dexter studies empirically by means of statistics—plotting certain curves—the relation between temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind, character of the day, precipitation, on the one hand, and the child in school—work, deportment, attendance—, crime, insanity, health—sickness and death—, suicide, drunkenness, attention—errors in calculation made by clerks in banks—, on the other.[[278]] Of his general conclusions[[279]] the first is: “Varying meteorological conditions affect directly, though in different ways, the metabolism of life”; the second: “The ‘reserve energy’ capable of being utilized for intellectual processes and activities other than those of the vital organs is affected [effected, in the original] most by meteorological changes”; the third: “The quality of the emotional state is plainly influenced by the weather states”; the fourth: “Although meteorological conditions affect the emotional states, which without doubt have weight in the determination of conduct in its broadest sense, it would seem that their effects upon that portion of the reserve energy which is available for action are of the greatest import.”[[280]]

The nervous effects of the weather including cyclonic winds have also been noted. Among the Eskimos, “Marriages take place at an early age, especially among the women, and the return of the sun after the long winter has a stimulating effect on the animal passions which leads to sexual excesses of all kinds.”[[281]]

Albert Leffingwell investigates The Influence of Seasons Upon Conduct[[282]] in Great Britain and elsewhere. He formulates the underlying assumption of his inquiry in the following manner: “It is not a new theory, though I propose to carry it somewhat further than it has been pushed hitherto. Over half a century ago, Quetelet in his great work “On Man,” suggested the hypothesis.... The hypothesis toward which all the facts point is simply this: that upon the nervous organization of human bodies (perhaps specially upon dwellers in the temperate zones) there is exerted during the procession of the seasons, from winter’s close till midsummer, some undefined, specific influence, which in some manner tends to increase the excitability of emotion and passion, and thus also to increase all actions arising therefrom.”[[283]] To mention only one of Leffingwell’s illustrations, he brings together in a statistical table the total number of all crimes against persons in England for ten years (1878–87), the same facts for Ireland during the same decade, and for France during forty years (1830–69), and in conjunction therewith says: “Here, again, we find that all crimes, even those arising from personal antipathy or hatred, seem specially prevalent in the warmer half of the year. In England, 55 per cent of all such acts of violence during the ten years 1878–1887 happened in spring and summer, and in France during a period of forty years the average was the same. Ireland, indeed, shows a more even distribution of such crimes; but the tendency is seen even there.”[[284]]

Cesare Lombroso, who is claimed to be the first to have essayed to portray the effect of physical environment on the human psyche,[[285]] states in his Criminal Man,[[286]] referring to Ferri and Holzendorf, that with high temperature there is an increase in crimes of violence, while low temperature has the effect of increasing the number of crimes against property. In “comparing statistics of criminality in France with those of the variations in temperature, Ferri noted an increase in crimes of violence during the warmer years.”[[287]]

Lombroso, in his Crime, Its Causes and Remedies,[[288]] citing the conclusions of the relevant statistical evidence, establishes that in England and France and Italy the crimes of rape and of murder occur in greatest number in the hottest months; that the maximum number of all rebellions in the whole world between 1791 and 1880 falls everywhere in the hottest month, while its minimum number comes in the coldest months; and that crimes against property markedly increase in the winter.[[289]]

In the southern parts of Italy and France “there occur many more crimes against persons than in the central and northern portions.... Guerry has shown that crimes against persons are twice as numerous in southern France (4.9) as in central and northern France (2.7 and 2.9). Vice versa, crimes against property are more frequent in the north (4.9), than in the central and southern regions (2.3).”[[290]] According to Buckle,[[291]] climate makes men’s habits regular or irregular.

Climatic Control of Food and Drink

William Ridgeway, summarizing his argument in “The Application of Zoölogical Laws to Man,”[[292]] says: “We have seen that environment is a powerful factor in the differentiation of the various races of man, alike in physique, institutions, and religion. It is probable that the food supply at hand in each region may be an important element in these variations, whilst the nature of the food and drink preferred there may itself be due in no small degree to climatic conditions.... The aboriginal of the tropics is distinctly a vegetarian, whilst the Eskimo within the arctic circle is practically wholly carnivorous. In each case the taste is almost certainly due to the necessities of their environment.... It is probable that the more northward man advanced the more carnivorous he became in order to support the rigours of the northern climate. The same holds equally true in the case of drink.... All across Northern Europe and Asia there is a universal love of strong drink, which is not the mere outcome of vicious desires, but of climatic law.... This view derives additional support from the well-authenticated fact that one of the chief characteristics of the descendants of British settlers in Australia is their strong teetotalism. This cannot be set down to their having a higher moral standard than their ancestors, but rather, as in the case of Spaniards and Italians (temperance reformers point to the sobriety of the Spaniards, Italians, and other South Europeans), to the circumstance that they live in a country much warmer and drier than the British Isles. We must therefore, no matter how reluctantly, come to the conclusion that no attempt to eradicate this tendency to alcohol in these latitudes can be successful....”[[293]]

SUMMARY

The Introductory Remark traces the semasiology and use of the word milieu and discusses its English and German equivalents “environment” and “Umwelt.”