1865.] DAWSON — THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 41$ 



African Negroes, in which, while he adduced a vast variety of 

 considerations tending to show their inferiority to other races of 

 men, he nevertheless maintained that it was idle to imagine that 

 they formed a link between men and monkeys. The writer 

 seemed to have hit that exact mean which offends all parties. 

 The more advanced anthropologists were indignant that he had 

 not followed out his facts to the conclusion that the negro is only 

 a better kind of ape. Others were disposed to repudiate as un- 

 founded the alleged inferiority of the negro altogether. One of 

 the points referred to in the paper, was the odor of the negro. 

 To this a clever answer was given by a gentleman from the 

 United States who happened to be present. He said that — 

 " He could say, from actual knowledge and experience in the 

 South, that the offensive smell of the negro was not regarded 

 there. The whites were perfectly willing to associate with them 

 on very intimate terms. No Virginian lady drove out without 

 her negro maid in the carriage with her, and they slept in the 

 same rooms with the young ladies, in the most aristocratic families. 

 The only objection he had heard to the negroes as to their offen- 

 siveness, was when they were offensive enough to be free. The 

 fact was, they were only offensive when they were overworked and 

 unwashed, and persons of that class were, to a certain extent, to 

 be found in every country." 



Another objection to the negro was that he had not invented an 

 alphabet; but it was urged in reply that the same might be 

 affirmed of the English race — an argument not unlike that 

 adduced by a learned African at the Newcastle meeting of the 

 Association, when he alleged, that the Romans had held that British 

 captives were too stupid to be used as slaves, and since the 

 negroes were already somewhat advanced above that level, good 

 hopes might be entertained of them. In truth, the attempt to 

 establish different species of men has been so completely over- 

 thrown by scientific reasoning, and is so abhorrent to right feeling 

 and to revelation, that it is now scarcely tolerated by any intelli- 

 gent audience in England. 



In the Section of Zoology and Botany, presided over by Dr. 

 Thomson, and the so-called Sub-section of Physiology, under the 

 presidency of Dr. Acland, many interesting papers were read. 

 One of the most popular, to judge by the notices of it in the 

 newspapers, was a lengthy exposition of the methods and results 

 of oyster culture, by Frank Buckland. The young oyster is 



