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Alexander von Humboldt: „View of the various Productions of the different Countries of the Earth“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1822-A_v_Humboldts-2> [abgerufen am 28.03.2024].

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Titel View of the various Productions of the different Countries of the Earth
Jahr 1822
Ort London
Nachweis
in: The London Medical Repository, Monthly Journal, and Review 17:97 (Januar–Juni 1822), S. 81–82.
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: IV.24
Dateiname: 1822-A_v_Humboldts-2
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 2
Zeichenanzahl: 4377

Weitere Fassungen
A. v. Humboldts Ansicht über die Verschiedenheit der Erzeugnisse nach den Erdstrichen (Erfurt; Weimar; Leipzig, 1822, Deutsch)
View of the various Productions of the different Countries of the Earth (London, 1822, Englisch)
|81|

M. de Humboldt’s View of the various Productions of the differentCountries of the Earth. [Personal Narrative.]


Every hemisphere produces plants of a different species; and it is notby the diversity of climates that we can attempt to explain why equinoctialAfrica has no laurineæ, and the New World no heaths; why the calceolariæare found only in the Southern hemisphere; why the birds of the continentof India glow with colours less splendid than the birds of the hot parts ofAmerica; finally, why the tiger is peculiar to Asia, and the ornithorhincusto New Holland. In the vegetable, as well as in the animal kingdom, thecauses of the distribution of the species are among the number of mysterieswhich natural philosophy cannot reach. This science is not occupied in theinvestigation of the origin of beings, but of the laws according to which theyare distributed on the globe. It examines the things that are, the co-existence of vegetable and animal forms, in each latitude, at differentheights, and at different degrees of temperature; it studies the relationsunder which particular organizations are more vigorously developed, multi-plied or modified; but it approaches not problems, the solution of which isimpossible, since they touch the origin, the first existence of a germ of life.We may add, that the attempts that have been made to explain the distri-bution of various species on the globe, by the sole influence of climate, dateat a period when physical geography was still in its infancy; when, recurringincessantly to pretended contrasts between the two worlds, it was imagined,that the whole of Africa and of America resembled the deserts of Egypt,and the marshes of Cayenne. At present, when men judge of the state ofthings not from one type arbitrarily chosen, but from positive knowledge, it |82| is ascertained that the two continents, in their immense extent, containcountries that are altogether analogous. There are regions of America,as barren and burning as the interior of Africa. The islands that producethe spices of India are scarcely remarkable for their dryness; and it is noton account of the humidity of the climate, as it has been affirmed in recentworks, that the New Continent is deprived of those fine species of laurineæand myristicæ, which are found united in one little corner of the earth, inthe archipelago of India. For some years past, the real cinnamon has beencultivated with success in several parts of the New Continent; and a zonethat produces the coumarouna, the vanilla, the pucheri, the pine-apple,the myrtus pimenta, the balsam of tolu, the myroxylon peruvianum, thecrotons, the citrosmas, the pejoa, the incienso of the silla of Caraccas, the quereme, the pancratium, and so many majestic liliaceous plants, cannotbe considered as destitute of aromatics. Besides, a dry air favours thedevelopement of the aromatic, or exciting properties, only in certain speciesof plants. The most cruel poisons are produced in the most humid zone ofAmerica: and it is precisely under the influence of the long rains of thetropics that the American pimento, capsicum baccatum, the fruit of whichis often as caustic and fiery as Indian pepper, vegetates best. From the whole of these considerations, it follows, 1st, that the newcontinent possesses spices, aromatics, and very active vegetable poisonsthat are peculiar to itself, differing specifically from those of the ancientworld; 2dly, that the primitive distribution of species in the torrid zonecannot be explained by the influence of climate solely, or by the distri-bution of temperature, which we observe in the present state of our planet;but that this difference of climate leads us to perceive, why a given type oforganization developes itself more vigorously in such or such local circum-stances. We can conceive, that a small number of the families of plants,for instance the musaceæ and the palms, cannot belong to very cold regions,on account of their internal structure and the importance of certain organs;but we cannot explain why no one of the family of melastomas vegetatesnorth of the parallel of thirty degrees, or why no rose tree belongs to thesouthern hemisphere. Analogy of climates is often found in the two conti-nents, without identity of productions.—Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 180.