38 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



the lower animals the group is very small indeed between the indi- 

 viduals of which such sentiments prevail ; but steadily in their pro- 

 gress from savagery to the highest stage of civilization men have 

 enlarged the group, as the small kinship group has expanded into 

 larger, the clan into the tribe, the tribe into the confederacy, and 

 confederacies and confederated tribes into nations ; and altruism has 

 expanded from smaller group to larger group, from family love to 

 patriotism, and from patriotism to humanity ; and in the light of 

 the past we may safely prophesy of the future that this altruism will 

 improve in quality and expand m scope until every man shall 

 recognize in every other a brother in whose welfare he has an interest 

 as deep as in his own, and when the doctrine of /a/ssez /aire shaW be 

 known no more forever. 



Seventy-Ninth Regular Meeting, March i, 1884. 



Major J. W. Powell, President, in the Chair. 



The President announced the resignation of David Hutcheson, as 

 General Secretary of the Society, and the election by the Council 

 of S. V, Proudfit to fill the vacancy. 



Ensign Albert Niblack, U. S. N., read the following paper 

 on "The Smithsonian Anthropological Collections for 1883." 



With the exception of the year 1876, when the material was re- 

 ceived from the Centenial Exposition, the accessions for 1883 ex- 

 ceed those of any other year both in number and value. As the 

 annual appropriations are only made by the Government for the 

 preservation of the collections in the National Museum, it is proper 

 to refer most of the collections to the Smithsonian Institution, as the 

 Museum is under the control of the latter. The sources of last 

 year's receipts were as follows : 



Donations ; exchanges ; collections by Government expeditions, 

 required by law to be turned over to the Museum ; purchases for the 

 Fisheries Exhibition from a fund specially appropriated, and pur- 

 chases from a fund of ^3,000 or more, which the Secretary has been 

 able to save from various sources for this purpose. The last named 

 has been so judiciously applied and combined with other Govern- 

 ment work as to have enabled the Museum to acquire most valuable 

 collections, of which this sum spent represents but a fraction of their 



