Hints to Travellers, Scientific and General, Vol. 2: Tenth edition, revised and corrected

In Short

This technical handbook is a compendium of expertise gathered by the Royal Geographical Society to equip travelers for the rigors of global exploration. Covering everything from meteorological data collection and geological surveying to photography and tropical medicine, it functions as a portable laboratory manual for the nineteenth and early twentieth-century scientist. It has endured as an essential historical artifact, capturing the era’s intersection of imperial ambition, rigorous scientific curiosity, and the practical logistical challenges of navigating landscapes largely unmapped by Western cartography.

The Story

The volume begins with the assumption that the traveler is a field scientist tasked with documenting the physical and biological realities of the world. It frames the act of exploration as a systematic process of gathering data, moving from the atmospheric to the tangible. The narrative arc begins with the sky and weather—teaching the reader how to track humidity, wind, and pressure—before moving to the solid earth, where it provides guidance on observing mountain ranges, river plains, and geological formations.

As the reader descends from the heights of survey work to the ground level of daily life, the focus shifts to the physical objects of the world. Photography is presented not as an art, but as a critical technical tool for documentation, requiring careful mastery of chemicals and apparatus. The book moves into the realm of the organic, detailing how to collect and preserve biological specimens—from mollusks found in limestone caves to insects gathered in the brush. This section emphasizes the necessity of durability, instructing the reader to become their own technician, capable of soldering boxes and preserving remains in spirit to ensure they survive the long transit back to Europe.

The journey then moves into the anthropological, addressing the study of human cultures. Here, the text encourages the systematic observation of "primitive" societies, cataloging their methods of counting, their commerce, and their cosmic understanding of the universe. It treats these cultures as objects of study, framing their practices as primitive stages of human history that provide insight into humanity’s own long-abandoned conceptions of existence.

Finally, the arc concludes with the most immediate, practical reality of the explorer’s life: survival. The text pivots to the medical, providing extensive instructions on managing the dangers of the tropics. It catalogs diseases like malaria, plague, and sleeping sickness, detailing their symptoms and the specific chemical preparations required to combat them. It ends with the technical minutiae of surgery and field hygiene, insisting that the explorer must be a capable medic, able to perform anything from dressing a wound to treating the bite of a tsetse fly. By the end, the traveler is fully armed with the knowledge required to maintain their own health and document the world’s secrets in equal measure.

How It Unfolds

Setting the stage The text opens with rigorous meteorological standards, instructing the reader on the use of wet-bulb thermometers and the complex task of mapping isotherms to understand climate. It establishes that accurate data requires patience, specialized instruments, and a systematic approach to observation.

Documenting the physical world The focus shifts to the mechanical and geological, with detailed instructions on how to select a camera, develop plates in the field, and identify deep-sea deposits in mountain ranges. It prioritizes the collection of physical evidence, urging the reader to preserve fragments of the earth for later examination.

Recording human history The book transitions to anthropology, guiding the traveler on how to measure skulls with calipers and catalog the tools and beliefs of remote tribes. It frames this information as a way to map the intellectual history of mankind, connecting current observations to the "higher civilization" of the observer.

Managing the body The final movement centers on medicine and survival, detailing the treatment of everything from chilblains to sleeping sickness. It provides a stark, clinical catalog of pathogens and the specific, often harsh, surgical interventions necessary to keep the explorer alive in hostile environments.

The People

The book is guided by the expertise of specialists like Hugh Robert Mill, J. Thomson, and Dr. Andrew Balfour, who act as the invisible mentors for the traveling reader. These men, representing the scientific establishment of the Royal Geographical Society, demand total competence from the explorer. They stand in the way of the amateur, setting a high bar for accuracy and preparation that leaves little room for error. The "traveler" is the central, albeit unnamed, protagonist—a figure of near-infinite versatility. This individual must be part photographer, part geologist, part surgeon, and part linguist. They are expected to be calm in the face of dysentery and precise in the face of a mountain range. Through the instruction of figures like Lord Edward Gleichen, who dictates the orthography of place-names, the traveler is transformed from a mere wanderer into an instrument of the state and science, ending their journey as a vessel for the knowledge of the world.

In Its Own Voice

By allowing evaporation to take place from the bulb of a thermometer the rate of evaporation may be measured by the fall of temperature produced, and tables have been constructed to convert the differences between the wet and dry bulb readings into relative humidities.

(This technical instruction explains the necessity of the wet-bulb thermometer for gathering climate data.)

In the case of buildings, notes giving all dimensions are especially important, since the camera can seldom be brought to bear on all parts and details, and there is often not opportunity to draw out a plan on the spot.

(This advice illustrates the manual's insistence that photography is only a supplement to, not a replacement for, meticulous written observation.)

What It's Really About

At its heart, this book is an argument for the imposition of order upon the unknown. It posits that the world is a series of problems to be solved through measurement, classification, and chemical preservation. It operates on the implicit belief that anything can be understood if it is broken down into its component parts—whether that is a mountain, a culture, or a disease. It reflects a deep-seated confidence that science is the universal language through which reality can be tamed. The underlying question is one of reach: how much of the earth can be brought into the light of Western knowledge, and at what cost to the traveler’s own endurance and safety? It is a manual for the expansion of the map.

Why Read It Today

Readers with an interest in the history of science or the evolution of colonial exploration will find this a fascinating, if sometimes unsettling, read. It provides a granular look at the sheer weight of equipment and knowledge a 1920s expedition required to function. Those who enjoy technical writing will appreciate the precision of its instructions, from the specific chemical mixtures for film development to the exact dimensions of a surgical bandage.

However, modern readers must be prepared for the period-specific attitudes embedded in the text. The sections on anthropology, in particular, reflect the era's patronizing and hierarchical view of "primitive" cultures, which can be jarring. The book is dense, practical, and entirely devoid of sentimentality; it feels less like a narrative and more like a high-stakes survival guide. What stays with the reader is the image of the lone explorer, surrounded by potential dangers—from tsetse flies to the "drunken gait" of plague—armed only with their calipers, their chemicals, and the relentless, demanding curiosity of a society determined to label every corner of the globe. It is a testament to an age that believed data was the ultimate weapon against the mysteries of the wild.