Man's True Thermal Environment

Abstract

FOLLOWING Dr. Hill's article on healthy atmospheres In NATURE of April 22, a letter appeared in NATURE of May 6 under the above heading, which suggests that too narrow a view has been taken of this important subject. Dr. Milne writes from a place where man exists in spite of the climate, and no doubt the robustness of the local race is largely due to generations of selection under rigorous conditions that are only overcome with the aid of ponderous clothing and heated dwellings. At the outset we should inquire as to the thermal conditions that existed at the birth of our race. No doubt man soon learnt to keep himself warm by artificial means, but he appeared first in association with a fauna almost tropical in character. It is in tropical regions that our race exists to-day in comfort with little or no protection and in spite of many adverse organisms that are also favoured by warmth.