HISTORY OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE- ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF 

 PARIS FROM 1805 TO 18(3?. 



By M. Paul Buoca, General Secretary of the SocifeTfi d'Anthropologib, Pro- 

 fessor AT THE FaCULTE DE MEDICINE DE PaRIS. 



[_ Translated hy C. A. Alexander for the Smithsonian Institution.*^ 



When, four years ago, I liad the honor of presenting to tlie society for the first 

 time the analysis of its labors, 1 deemed it proper to preface my report by a 

 brief historical exposition, in order to recall the principal phases through which 

 anthropology had passed from its origin up to the epoch at which our society 

 communicated to it a new impulse and direction. It was not at that time, per- 

 haps, superfluous to show how the field of our science, restricted in the begin- 

 ning to a purely descriptive study of the races of mankind, had become rapidly 

 aggrandized when, renouncing the pretension of depending only on itself, it had 

 contracted a close alliance with all the sciences which throw light on the past 

 as well as present condition of humanity. 



It is now nearl}^ a half century since linguistics was called to lend its invalu- 

 able aid to etlinology. That indispensable means of investigation, whose reach 

 extends much beyond the narrow outline of histoiy, has revealed to us unex- 

 pected filiations and opened horizons almost without limit. In according it a 

 Large share in your labors yovi have but followed the example of your predeces- 

 sors. But that which peculiarly pertains to you — that which you have for the 

 first time realized — is the association of our* science with geology and paheonto- 

 logy, with prehistoric archeology, with general natural history and zootechny, 

 with medical geography, statistics, public h^'giene — in fine, with physiology and 

 medicine itself. To fulfill this gigantic programme, the society has invoked and 

 obtained the co-operation of a great nimibcr of savants, differing in the nature of 

 their studies, but all alike emulous of participating in the progress of the science 

 of man. By the side of these, historians, men of letters, artists, philosophers, 

 have taken their place, and by their communications not unfrequently enlightened 

 our discussions. Thus human knowledge, in its most varied forms, finds its rep- 

 resentatives among us, and our society is as a living cnc3^clopedia, in Avhich all 

 questions, under every difterent aspect, ma}' receive immediate consideration by 

 competent minds. 



This })ropiLious state of things has, however, given rise to some criticism. 

 Those who regraxl the objects of anthropology in a difi'erent light from ourselves, 

 and who would restrict it to the description of liiunan races, have conceived a 

 fear lest among so many sciences which it has laid under contribution it should 

 lose its unity of action, its independence, and, so to speak, its individttality. But 

 it is enough to be present at any of our sessions to see that the ideas which are 

 disengaged from the great variety in our labors always converge in the end 

 towards the same object, and to realize that anthropology, far from being 

 absorbed by the sciences which surround it, is, on the contrary, the common 

 ground on which they meet — the focus wliich attracts and the bond which con- 

 nects them. It is like tliose edifices in course of construction for which work- 



*Itisvur. dcs Cours Scientijiqucs de la France et dc V Elrangcr. Paris, 18GG-'G7. 



