Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Acclimatization
(823 words)

Acclimatization is defined today as the introduction of non-native wild animals and plants, and the process by which they are habituated to new, climatically alien surroundings, enabling them to breed there. The term refers both to a technique used by humans for centuries and to a process that occurs in nature [4. VII]; [5. 71]. It has also come to be used of people in medicine, especially tropical and colonial medicine [3]. A theoretical foundation for acclimatization in biology was only established in the modern period, and the precise definition of terminology and diff…

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Rieke-Müller, Annelore, “Acclimatization”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_016675>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



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