ANTHEOPOLOGY I^N" 188G. 



By Otis T. Mason. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In this introduction to tlie jirogress of anthropological work in 1886, 

 attention will be drawn to coDiprehensive summaries, courses of lect- 

 ures, and description of instrumentalities. It is well known that origi- 

 nal investigation, instruments of precision and research, and philosoph- 

 ical discussions are three distinct elements of progress in any science, 

 which are mutually dependent, which severally move forward in a line 

 marked out by the other two, and whose momentum is decided by 

 dynamic and kinetic forces regulated by the other two. The final 

 stage of progress is instruction, whereby the results of investigation 

 are popularized and became part and parcel of universal thought and 

 action. 



Instruction in anthropology is better organized in Paris than in any 

 other city. By this it is not designed to say that anthropological re- 

 search of the highest order is confined to the French capital. What is 

 emphasized is this, that in the ficole d'Anthropologie and other public 

 lectures the French anthropologists have come to realize the crowning 

 function of any science. 



The course in the Ecole in 1885-'86 included the following subjects 

 and lectures : 



(1) Zoological anthropology, by Dr. Mathias Duval. Programme: 

 Anthropogeny and comparative embryology 5 the blastoderm and the 

 first x>hases of development. 



(2) General anthropology, by Dr. Paul Topinard. Programme: Type 

 and race. Part I, races of Europe from prehistoric times to our day; 

 Part II, succession and transformation of races in time, their past and 

 their future. 



(3) Ethnology, by Dr. D all}'. Programme: Ethnic craniology; nor- 

 mal and abnormal skulls; prehistoric anthropology, by M. Gabriel de 

 Mortillet; tertiary man; origin of man; medical geography, by Dr. 

 Bordier. General action of environment. 



(4) History of civilizations, by Dr. Letourueau. Evolution and eth- 

 nology of ethics. The course of linguistics had been given in the pre- 

 vious summer. 



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