ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 473 



plied in all European languages, but the number of mnseuiiis that bave 

 been formed with the express purpose of illustrating the manners and 

 customs of the lower races of mankind has also largely increased. On 

 the Continent, the museums of Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, and other 

 capitals have either been founded or greatly improved; while in Eng- 

 land our ethnological collections infinitely surpass, both in the number 

 of objects they contain and in the method of their arrangement, what 

 was accessible in 1870. The Blackmore Museum at Salisbury was at 

 that time already founded, but has since been considerbly augmented. 

 In London, also, the Christy collection was already in existence, and 

 calculated to form an admirable nucleus around which other objects 

 and collections might cluster; and thanks in a great degree to the 

 trustees of the Christy collection, and in a far greater degree to the 

 assiduous attention and unbounded liberality of the keeper of the de- 

 partment, Mr. Franks, the ethnological galleries at the British Museum 

 will bear comparison with any of those in the other European capitals. 

 The collections of i)re-historic antiquities, enlarged by the addition of 

 the fine series of urns and other relics from British barrows explored 

 by Canon Greenwell, which he has generously presented to the nation, 

 and by other accessions, especially from the French caverns of the 

 E-eindeer period, is now of the highest importance. Moreover, for pur- 

 poses of comparison the collections of antiquities of the Stone and 

 Bronze periods found in foreign countries is of enormous value. In 

 the ethnological department the collections have been materially in- 

 creased by the numerous travellers and missionaries which this country 

 is continually sending forth to assist in the exploration of the habita- 

 ble world; and the student of the development of human civilization 

 has now the actual weapons, implements, utensils, dress, and other 

 appliances of most of the known savage peoples ready at hand for ex- 

 amination, and need no longer trust to the often imperfect representa. 

 tions given in books of travel. But besides the collection at Bloomsbury 

 there is another most important museum at Oxford, which that univer- 

 sity owes to the liberality of General Pitt-Rivers. It is arranged in a 

 somewhat different manner from that in London, the main purpose 

 being the exhibition of the various modifications which ornaments, 

 weapons, and instruments in common use have undergone during the 

 process of development. The skillful application of the doctrine of 

 evolution to the forms and characters of these products of human art 

 gives to this collection a peculiar charm, and brings out the value of 

 applying scientific methods to the study of all that is connected with 

 human culture, even though at first sight the objects brought under 

 consideration may appear to be of the most trivial character. - - - 

 The subjects of an anthropological survey of the tribes and castes in 

 our Indian possessions, and of the continued investigation of the 

 habits, customs, and physicial characteristics of the northwestern 

 tribes of the Dominion of Canada, were both recommended for consid- 



