JOHN WESLEY POWELL. (i37 



unfriendly and f^oiirchin^j;' investigation the accounts were found in 

 such perfect condition as to elicit the hig-hest praise of the Comptroller 

 of the Treasur}-. to whom tlie results of tlie iuN-estiji-ation were tinally 

 referred. The reputation of the Survey for oood business methods 

 inspired the confidence of le<;islators and led them to provide for the 

 growth of the Bureau, not only by the increase of appropriations for 

 existing- functions, l)ut tlu'ough the gradual eidargement of function. 

 The most iuiportant single addition to its duties Avas that of studying 

 the water supply of tlie country with reference to \'arious economic 

 problems. 



Except for the original suggestion or instruction l)y Professor Henry, 

 and except for the votes of funds by Congress, the Bureau of Ethnology 

 may be regarded as PoweJl's creation. Work on American ethnology 

 had previousl}' Ijeen discursi\e, unorganized, and to a large extent 

 diletanti. He gave to it definite purposes conformable to high scientific 

 standards, und personally trained its corps of investigators. To men 

 who had pre^■iously interested themselves in the study of Indians he 

 gave new methods and a new point of view, and he succeeded in divert- 

 ing to ethnology men already trained in scientific methods l)y work in 

 other fields of research. He realized, as perhaps few had realized 

 before him, that the point of view of the savage is essentially ditit'erent 

 from that of the civilized man, that just as his nuisic can not be recorded 

 in the notation of civilized nuisic, just as his words can not be written 

 with the English alphabet, so the structure of his language transcends 

 the formulte of Aryan grannnars, and his philosophy and social organ- 

 ization follow lines unknown to the European. He also realized most 

 fully that the savage is the embryo of the man of highest culture, and 

 that the study of savagery is therefore a fundamental contribution to 

 the broadest study of humanity. With these ideas he informed his 

 ethnologic corps, and in consequence of them the organ izjition of the 

 Bureau marks the most important e])Och in American ethnology. 



The same personal inlluence extended to thv work of tlie Anthropo- 

 logical Society of \\'ashington. Over the proceedings of this society 

 Powell presided for many years, taking part in all its discussions and 

 making it his special function to point out the l)earing and relation of 

 each comnnuiication to the greater problems and broader aspects of 

 the science. As the l)ureau was and is a lal)oratoiy of ethnology, 

 devoted to the stud}" and record of the character and culture of the 

 fading tribes of North America, so the society, including the same 

 group of students, was and is an arena for the discussion of the 

 broader s<,'ience of anthropology. 1 but echo th(> general sentinuMit of 

 those students in saying that the high intellectual and scientific })lane 

 on which the work of this society is conducted is a result, direct and 

 cumulative, of Powell's influence and example. 



