ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN EUROPE. 



61 



is Prof. Friedrich. Ratzel, best known to ns for his Volkerkiinde 

 an introduction to ethnography. Dr. Ratzel is now revising 

 this work, and he has lately issued a yet more valuable treatise 

 Anthropogeographie. Ethnography is most interesting to him 

 in its geography, and he at present lays especial stress upon the 

 local distribution of customs and arts. Prof. Ratzel is a favorite 

 teacher, and has sent out many young men imbued with his meth- 

 ods. Among these, one of the most promising is Dr. Heinrich 

 Schurtz, privat-docent at the university, whose recent Philosophie 

 der Tracht is an application of Ratzel's methods to the study of 

 dress. 



Drs. Meyer, Lueders, and Buchner are doing fine work with 

 the museums at Dresden, Hamburg, and Munich, and deserve 

 more than a brief reference. But the ethnographic work of Ger- 

 many and of the world cul- 

 minates in Berlin. Adolph 

 Bastian is the director of the 

 museum, the leader of the 

 corps of able workers who 

 carry it on. He is a man 

 whom years do not make 

 old ; one who has unquench- 

 able fire and enthusiasm. He 

 is decidedly the right man 

 in the right place. The Gov- 

 ernment has been liberal to 

 him, but he continually 

 needs new funds for more 

 and greater enterprises. No 

 one recognizes more clearly 

 than he the importance of 

 doing ethnographical work 

 now ; to-morrow will be too 

 late. Old tribes are dying 

 out ; new customs are being 

 introduced ; native cultures 



are being swept away, or rapidly modified by contact with the 

 civilization of the white man. Illustrations of such cultures 

 must be saved now or never. " It is a burning house, and the 

 main purpose is to gather material for the future to use. And 

 contents are lost while we wait." So his prodigious accumula- 

 tions are here for example, Dr. Grunwedel, who has direction 

 of the India collections, has upward of twenty-four thousand 

 objects in his charge. Prof. Bastian is a great traveler and a 

 busy writer. Scarcely a year passes without an important work 

 from his pen. 



Dr. Eduard Seler. 



