The idea that the nature of things - minerals and ores as well as living creatures and humans - depended to a considerable degree on their location on the surface of the earth and their natural environment was one of the most influential scientific theories in cultural history. It was handed down to the early modern period from Antiquity in the form of the theory of climes, and it held sway in the 18th and early 19th centuries in a wide variety of fields from natural science and m…