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On the Progress of Ethnologic . By Dr Hodgkin. (Commu- 

 nicated to this Journal by the Society.*) 

 Read before the Ethnological Society, London, Nov. 22, 1843. 



The study of man, in its most extended sense, to which the 

 term Anthropology is fitly applied, is a most complicated sub- 

 ject, presenting such various points that it admits of being di- 

 vided into several departments, each of which may constitute 

 or appertain to a separate science. 



The physical conformation of man, and the consideration of 

 the functions of his several organs, come within the province 

 of the comparative anatomist and physiologist. 



As an intelligent being, man is a subject for the metaphy- 

 sician, and, in his compound character of an intellectual ani- 

 mal, is the object of contemplation and study for philosophers 

 of various sects. Some, like Cabanis and Hope, may take a 

 comprehensive view of the whole. Others treat of his pro- 

 gress individually in relation to his education and unlimited 

 capability of cultivation. Others pursue the subject in rela- 

 tion to man as a gregarious animal, and are consequently oc- 

 cupied with the different branches of political economy, social 

 government, and the like. 



Man is also studied in relation to the lapse of time in which 

 his race had existed ; hence the group of general or particular 

 historians. 



Researches of these and analogous descriptions have ex- 

 hibited man individually and collectively in so great a variety 

 of conditions, as to render it a matter of special inquiry how 

 and to what extent he may be influenced by the circumstances 

 in which he is placed ; individually as to diet, climate, mode 

 of life, and inherited peculiarities, — collectively by govern- 

 ment, religion, influence of surrounding nations, and domi- 

 nant prejudices whence soever derived. Lord Kames, Fal- 

 coner and Herder, may be mentioned amongst the investiga- 

 tors of these points. 



♦ The Ethnological Society of London is formed for the purpose of inquiring 

 into the distinguishing characteristics, physical and moral, of the varieties of 

 mankind which inhabit, or have inhabited, the earth ; and to ascertain the causes 

 of such characteristics. — Edit. 



