Genre:

Regular Feature—Anecdote, Drollery

Subjects:

Climatology, Anthropology, Race, Imperialism, Amusement

    Considers the 'influence of climate' on the behaviour of different races and nations, reflecting that the 'conquering and successful colonizing races, who are accustomed to an aggressive and defensive warfare against frost, take naturally to rough sports. We never hear of the students of El Azhar, in Cairo, playing at football, or taking a degree in rowing'. Similarly, 'wife-beating, although occasionally indulged in in mild latitudes, has never been practised anywhere so successfully as in cold and disagreeable climates. The people at the South are no more warm-hearted and constant than the people of the North, but they are less vigorous in the physical expression of their feelings, and they enjoy themselves in a different way'. (332)