448 THE CKANIOLOGY DF MAN AND ANTHROPOID APP:S. 



tant part in the evolution of these people, but their inherited racial 

 character has had more to do with the position which the Anglo-Saxon 

 race has gained in the world than the mineral wealth, climate, or 

 protection afforded us b}' our seagirt coast. 



The environment under which even a few generations of men exist 

 would seem capable of influencing the structure of their central nerv- 

 ous system, as illustrated by comparing the mental qualities of our 

 rural and urban population. The conditions under whicli the cit}'- 

 bred child and man live engender in the course of a few generations 

 an unstal)le state of nerve structure, resulting in an excitable charac- 

 ter, which, if carried beyond a certain point, leads to unsoundness of 

 mind, and may account for the increasing number of lunatics in this 

 and the other large cities of Europe. Gen. Sir Redvers Buller again, 

 in speaking of the soldiers under his command in South Africa, refers 

 to the fact that our city-born men have imperfect sight compared with 

 men reared in the open plains of the Transvaal, thus affording us 

 another example of the effects of environment on the race." These 

 are a few of the many interesting and important subjects which arise 

 in connection with the study of anthropology, including craniology; 

 and the contents of our museum and library offer unrivaled oppor- 

 tunities to the student seeking for knowledge in these branches of 

 .science. 



In conclusion, as already stated, much of Hunter's reputation was 

 founded on the result of his lal)ors in those ])ranches of science which 

 tend to elucidate man's nature; and during the past century a succes- 

 sion of English surgeons have carried on the work commenced by our 

 great master, enriching our museum and endeavoi'ing to make this 

 college not only an examining and licensing body, but what it cer- 

 tainly should be — an imperial institution for the cultivation and diffu- 

 sion of those departments of knowledge which l)ear on comparative 

 anatomy, physiology, or surger}'. The ideas entertained by John 

 Hunter's immediate successors on this subject were ably stated by Sir 

 William Lawrence, in his lectui-es already referred to. when he 

 observes that " our own individual credit and the dignity, honor, and 

 reputation of our body, which we are bound to maintain, demand that 

 surgeons should not be behind any other class of the community in 

 the possession either of the cultivation of those branches of knowl- 

 edge which are direct!}'' connected Avith surgery or in any of the col- 



«Sir Redvers Buller in one of his speeches is reported to have stated that "in the 

 first instance, many of our men are city born, and England is not a very large coun- 

 try. We went out to a region where the ])rincipal number of our enemies were 

 born in a very open country, a very large country, and it is not untrue to say that 

 practically the vision, the ordinary sight, of otu" enemy was 2 miles, at least, farther 

 than the average sight of the English who were fighting against them. That is a 

 matter of actual isuit. An ordinary Dutchman or African can see a man coming 

 toward him 2 miles before the man approaching c3,n detect him." 



