The Art of Living in Australia | Page 7

the seven different colours,
namely, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Instead of
consisting simply of white light as a whole, it is now universally
accepted that in this spectrum different properties belong to different
parts. Light or luminous power to one portion; heat or calorific power
to another; and chemical power or actinism to a third.
The visible solar or Newtonian luminous spectrum, resulting from the
decomposition of white light by a prism, is only the middle portion of
the whole solar spectrum. Beyond the red end there are rays possessing
still greater-heating effect; and beyond the violet extremity there are
rays endowed with far more powerful chemical action. The violet, and
especially these latter ultra-violet rays, redden the life stream by
increasing the haemoglobin--that crystallizable body which forms so

large a portion of the coloured corpuscles of the blood. Sunlight,
moreover, has not only this action upon the animal kingdom, but also
upon the vegetable world as well Plants, like celery, which are
subjected to blanching, become whitened under the process of
etiolation. This is due to the absence of chlorophyll, the green
colouring matter of plants, which can only be developed by the
presence of light. The tops of celery, being unearthed, retain their green
colour, while the stem embedded in the soil acquires its familiar
whiteness.
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

modifications of the organism, and particularly of the special
alterations of each organ, connected with the phenomena of
acclimatization. This reproach cannot be denied. We have not yet
reached the stage in Australia of noting the effect which climate has
upon the system in general, much less of inquiring into the changes
which occur in such organs as the liver, spleen, &c. But apart from
investigating the phenomena of acclimatization, it is very plain that the
people of Australia have never given any heed to their semitropical
climate, or else the food-faults now universally practised would have
been rectified long before this.
It has always been a matter of interesting speculation as to what the
characteristic type of the future Australian will be. But reflections of
this kind can only be in the right direction by bearing in mind the
ever-present climatic conditions. Climate is of all forces the most
irresistible; for, on the one hand, the Great Desert of Sahara could not
be crossed in an Arctic costume and on Esquimaux diet; nor, on the
other, could the Polar regions be explored in a Hindoo garb and on
Oriental fare. And though blood is thicker than water, yet the resistless
influence of a semi-tropical range of temperature will be to imprint on
the descendants of the present inhabitants of Australia some marked
peculiarities of skin-colour, of facial expression, of lingual accent, and
perhaps even of bodily conformation.
Quite recently an observing writer, in a keenly analytical if somewhat
facetious article, gave it as his opinion that the coming Australians will
be as follows:--"They will not be so entirely agricultural as the
Americans were; they will be horsemen, not gig-drivers. Descended
from adventurers, not