to the Ethnological Society of London. 69 



lished volume of the Transactions of the British Associa- 

 tion. I may add, that the work of Commander Mackintosh, 

 on the History of the River War of the Parana, in South Ame- 

 rica, contains some notices of the Guarani, the principal na- 

 tive race of Paraguay and the Brazilian countries. 



I have now conveyed, though in a very imperfect manner, 

 the recent progress which has been made in ethnology, in 

 two of the separate paths pursued by the explorators of this 

 department of knowledge. It remains for me to make some 

 brief remarks on the investigation of ancient sepulchral re- 

 mains, which I have termed Paleetaphia. 



The sepulchral antiquities of various countries have long 

 ago been examined with a view to the elucidation of ancient 

 art, but no attempts have been made, until very recently, to 

 throw light, by the medium of these researches, on the phy- 

 sical history of the several races of men. It now appears 

 obvious, that, by this investigation, many questions connected 

 with ethnology may be elucidated, since there are, in various 

 countries, sepulchral remains of different periods, the relics 

 of successive races of people who are known to have occupied 

 them ; and these remains may be distinguished from each 

 other by the form of tombs, the modes of sepulture, and the 

 relics of art, and by other incidental tokens which are dis- 

 covered in them. 



Several northern physiologists and antiquarians, Eschricht 

 of Copenhagen, Professors Nilsson of Lund, Retzius of Stock- 

 holm, and Rudolph Keyser of Christiania, deserve our gra- 

 titude for having opened new views in the ethnology of an- 

 cient Europe, and for having led the way to a more careful 

 and scientific examination of sepulchral remains than we 

 had before contemplated. Professor Nilsson's great work on 

 the contents of Ancient Tombs in Scandinavia is well 

 known ; and we were much interested in the curious memoir 

 which was read by the author at the last meeting of the Bri- 

 tish Association. 



The opinions of Professor Retzius were explained to us at a 

 meeting of this Society, during the last winter, by Dr Santes- 

 son,his colleague in the same University ; and a memoir was 

 read on the same subject, by Dr Norton Shaw, to the British 



