no POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



undertaking can not be carried on. I trust that in considering tlie 

 question it will always be borne in mind that in the relations be- 

 tween civilized and uncivilized nations and races it is of the first 

 importance that the prejudices, and especially the religious or semi- 

 religious and caste prejudices of the latter should be thoroughly well 

 known to the former. If but a single " little war " could be avoided 

 in consequence of the knowledge acquired and stored up by the 

 Bureau of Ethnology preventing such a misunderstanding as might 

 culminate in warfare, the cost of such an institution would quickly be 

 saved. 



I fear that it will be thought that I have dwelt too long on 

 primeval man and his modern representatives, and that I should 

 have taken this opportunity to discuss some more general subject, 

 such as the advances made in the various departments of science 

 since last this association met in Canada. Such a subject would 

 no doubt have afforded an infinity of interesting topics on which 

 to dilate. Spectrum analysis, the origin and nature of celestial 

 bodies, photography, the connection between heat, light, and elec- 

 tricity, the practical applications of the latter, terrestrial magnetism, 

 the liquefaction and solidification of gases, the behavior of elements 

 and compounds under the influence of extreme cold, the nature and 

 uses of the Rontgen rays, the advances in bacteriology and in 

 prophylactic medicine, might all have been passed under review, 

 and to many of my audience would have seemed to possess greater 

 claims to attention than the subject that I have chosen. It must, 

 however, be borne in mind that most, if not indeed all, of these 

 topics will be discussed by more competent authorities in the various 

 sections of the association by means of the presidential addresses or 

 otherwise. Nor must it be forgotten that I occupy this position as 

 a representative of archasology, and am therefore justified in bring- 

 ing before you a subject in which every member of every race of 

 mankind ought to be interested — the antiquity of the human family 

 and the scenes of its infancy. 



Others will direct our thoughts in other directions, but the 

 further we proceed the more clearly shall we realize the connection 

 and interdependence of all departments of science. Year after 

 year, as meetings of this association take place, we may also foresee 

 that " many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased." 

 Year after year advances will be made in science and in reading 

 that Book of Nature that lies ever open before our eyes; successive 

 stones will be brought for building up that temple of knowledge 

 of which our fathers and we have labored to lay the foundations. 

 May we not well exclaim with old Robert Recorde : " Oh woorthy 

 temple of Goddes magnificence: Oh throne of glory e and seate of 



