[Climate, brain, and degeneration in Cabanis]

Abstract

This analysis of the arguments defended by Cabanis in "Rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme" takes as its point of departure his eighth and ninth Memoirs, which focus on analyzing the influences of regime and climate. These writings afford a new reading of the arguments Cabanis used to explain the relation between the physical traits and moral habits of individuals and races. The article analyzes his debts to natural history, especially Buffon's theory of degeneration; to the Hippocratic tradition, above all the humor theory; and to studies of brain anatomy and pathology. Lastly, it examines the role that the human and moral sciences of medicine and hygiene play in the regeneration of the human species.