Deserts and the birth of civilizations

ABSTRACT MR. MCINERNY attacks an old problem at a new angle. Like others before him, he would see the influence of the desert in the origin and growth of civilisation. He differs from them

in making it solely responsible. In fact, the motto of his essay is “No desert, no civilisation”; and he goes so far as to suggest that any attempt to cultivate desert lands by irrigation at

the present day would be a mistake and a possible danger. While it is beyond question that the formation of the great Saharan Desert was crucial in the early history of mankind, few

archæologists would be prepared to follow the author in attributing the whole subsequent development of civilisation to the action of the desert areas. In Mr. McInerny's view, they have

acted as laboratories for the purification of the air and the release of ozone, thus creating an atmosphere propitious to the development of intelligence and the bleaching of the skin—in

short, producing the white man. _Deserts and the Birth of Civilizations_. By A. J. McInerny. Pp. 46. (Paris: Herbert Clarke, 1931.) Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a

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ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE _Deserts and the Birth of Civilizations_ . _Nature_ 128, 475 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/128475a0 Download citation * Issue Date: 19 September 1931 * DOI:

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