DEVELOPING CLIMATOLOGY AS A SCIENCE IN ITSELF

HUMBOLDT, ALEXANDER von.

Über die Haupt-Ursachen der Temperatur-Verschiedenheit auf dem Erdkörper. Gelesen in der öffentlichen Versammling der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin am 3. Julius 1827.

Berlin, 1827. 4to. Uncut and unopened in cont. (orig.?) blank wrappers. Some tears to edges and a bit of soiling. Otherwise fine, nice and clean. 24 pp.

First edition, off-print, of Humboldt's important paper on climatology.

The speech was printed in "Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Physikalische Klasse, 295-315.

In 1827 Humboldt left Paris to move back to his native city Berlin. He was hired by the King of Prussia to report on cultural and scientific matters. Here, he gave a number of lectures on physical geography that were immensely popular. The present paper is one of these, in which he attempted to show that science was the way to learn about nature, as opposed to mere intuition. Humboldt showed that science was the way to ascertain knowledge on empirical matters.

His "Über die Haupt-Ursachen..." occupies a central place in Humboldt's contributions to the founding of modern climatology. Several ideas that are developed further in his later works dealing with climatology, e.g. "Kosmos" are formulated in this work.
Humboldt not only deals with climatology in general, but also deals with the relation of the distribution of heat on the surface of the earth to agriculture and business, and even to politics and sociological matters, thus establishing a sort of climatology-economics.

Order-nr.: 38112