Always it was necessary to clarify the original statement, where that was adhered to, and to throw it into the concrete form of expression demanded by the Anglo-Saxon mind.
One point more.

The organic theory of society and state permeates the _Anthropo-geographie_, because Ratzel formulated his principles at a time when Herbert Spencer exercised a wide influence upon European thought.

This theory, now generally abandoned by sociologists, had to be eliminated from any restatement of Ratzel's system.

Though it was applied in the original often in great detail, it stood there nevertheless rather as a scaffolding around the finished edifice; and the stability of the structure, after this scaffolding is removed shows how extraneous to the whole it was.

The theory performed, however, a great service in impressing Ratzel's mind with the life-giving connection between land and people.
The writer's own method of research has been to compare typical peoples of all races and all stages of cultural development, living under similar geographic conditions.