3 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



posed upon other races to whom they have no such significance, 

 and who in incorporating them give to them a new local color. 

 These pseudomorphs of the earlier cultures are among the most 

 perplexing of the problems which the student of comparative 

 religion or folk lore has to resolve. 



But we want more than a perfect nomenclature to bring an- 

 thropology into range with the true sciences. We need a broader 

 basis of ascertained fact for inductive reasoning in almost all 

 parts of our subject ; we want men trained in exact method who 

 will work patiently at the accumulation, verification, and sorting 

 of facts, and who will not prematurely rush into theory. We 

 have had enough of the untrained writer of papers, the jerry- 

 builder of unfounded hypotheses whose ruins cumber our field of 

 work. 



The present position of our subject is critical and peculiar : 

 while on the one hand the facilities for anthropological research 

 are daily growing greater, yet in some directions the material is 

 diminishing in quantity and accessibility. We are accumulating 

 in our museums treasures both of the structure and the works of 

 man, classified according to his distribution in time and space ; 

 but at the same time some of the most interesting tribes have 

 vanished, and others are rapidly disappearing or becoming fused 

 with their neighbors. As these pass out of existence we, with 

 them, have lost their thoughts, their tongues, and their tradi- 

 tions ; for even when they survive, blended with other races, that 

 which was a religion has become a fragmentary superstition, 

 then a nursery tale or a child's game, and is destined finally to be 

 buried in oblivion. The unifying influences of commerce, aided 

 by steam and electricity, are effectually effacing the landmarks 

 between people and people, so that if we are to preserve in a form 

 fit for future use the shreds which remain of the myths, folk lore, 

 and linguistic usages of many of the tribes of humanity, we must 

 be up and doing without delay. It is on this account that sys- 

 tematic research such as that which Mr. Risley has advocated 

 with regard to the different races of India is of such pressing and 

 urgent importance. It is for this reason, likewise, that we hail 

 with pleasure the gathering of folk lore while yet it survives, 

 and welcome such societies for the purpose as the Folk-lore Con- 

 gress recently inaugurated. 



I have said that in the department of physical anthropology 

 our facilities for research are increasing. The newly founded 

 anthropometric laboratories are beginning to bring forth results 

 in the form of carefully compiled statistical tables, embodying 

 the fruits of accurate observations, which are useful as far as 

 they go. Were these extended in their scope the same machinery 

 might easily gather particulars as to the physical characters of 



