ANTHROPOLOGY. 



By Professor OTIS T. MASON, 



Colombian University, Washington, D. C. 



The definition of a science so comprehensive and so de- 

 pendent as anthropology must be for a long time provisional. 

 Yet those who are conversant with the progress of this de- 

 partment of knowledge cannot have failed to observe, from 

 year to year, a marked improvement in this regard. The 

 following definitions by distinguished anthropologists will 

 indicate the area of the science as now generally understood. 

 "Anthropology," says De Quatrefages, "is the natural his- 

 tory of man, studied monographically, as a zoologist studies 

 an animal." M. Broca defines it to be "the science which 

 studies the human race in its entirety, in its details, and in 

 its relation to the rest of nature." Dr. Topinard considers 

 anthropology to be " that branch of natural history which 

 treats of man and the races of men." 



Still less accurately defined are the subdivisions of the 

 subject ; but the analysis best suited to a summary of prog- 

 ress is that which brings together the results of the labors 

 of specialists. As in every scientific inquiry there is a de- 

 scriptive and a deductive phase, in the study of anthropology 

 each assemblage of facts calls forth discussions as to their 

 bearing upon each other, and upon the science at large. It 

 will be impossible to separate these in the summary, inas- 

 much as the two usually coexist in the same treatise. 



The races to be considered are extinct or extant. The 

 study of extinct races, or archaeology, is usually the pursuit 

 of a separate class of scholars. This branch of anthropology 

 will therefore claim our attention first. The investigation 

 of extant races is subdivided for the convenience of special- 

 ists, as in the course of lectures delivered in Paris during 

 the last winter under the auspices of the Societe d'Anthro- 

 pologie. The notes in this summary will be arranged some- 

 what on the same plan, as follows : 



