ANTHROPOLOGY FX THE LAST TWENTY YEARS.* 



By 1)1'. Rudolph Virchow, of the Unirersit;/ of Berlin. 



Transslated by Rev. C. A. Bleismkk. 



Nearly twenty years ago the fouiulatioii of our present union meeting- 

 was laid on Austrian soil. A few men attending an association of nat- 

 uralists, at lunspruck in 1809, formed themselves into a separate sec- 

 tion, which held its session in a small auditorium of the univ^ersity. 



Of that number my countryman, Koner, has since died, but the rest 

 are still living, anumg them Karl Vogt, Professor Semper (first general 

 secretary of the German Anthropological Society), Professor Seligman, 

 of Yienna, and some others. 



And as I see with us Count Euzenberg, the secretary of that section, 

 there are here at least two representatives of that memorable day. 



PiVery member of that little gathering was fully convinced that Ger- 

 many and Austria ought to be united in anthropological matters and 

 that only through united work could any success be expected in anthro- 

 l)ological invesiigations. A call was published for the establishment 

 of a General German Anthropological Society, which should unite all 

 German workers, including the German Swiss and the Germans in 

 Austria. 



At a subsequent meeting held in Mayence, in May, 1870, for the pur- 

 ])Ose of drafting a constitution, a number of Austrians participated and 

 the articles were purposely framed in such a manner as to include Ger- 

 man Austrians. But circumstances are frequently more i)owerful than 

 the intentions of men. 



The current of opinion during the period following this meeting was 

 contrary to our purpose, which represented ideas based upon an un- 

 prejudiced consideration of events. Previously, in 38G9, there had been 

 formed an Anthropological Society at Berlin, the first one in Germany, 

 also a separate society at Vienna, but only the Berlin society became a 

 branch of the General German Society. It seemed imiiossible for some 

 time to find any direct point of contact with the society at Vienna, 



* Opening address delivered before the twentieth {reueral meeting of the German 

 Anthropological Association (of Germany and Austria) in Vienna, August f), 1889. 

 (From the Correspondenz-Blalt dcr deut^chan (iexeUschaft fiir Anthropolixjie, Kthnolo- 

 yieunH Urgeachichtc, xx. Jahrgauy, No. 1), September, 1889, i)p. 89-100.) 



