2i6 NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept., 



and if Englishmen seriously propose to themselves the task, we are 

 justified by the history of Science in asserting that none are more 

 likely than they to solve the great problem of mineralogy which now 

 offers itself — the connection of chemical composition and crystalline 

 form." Such were the words of Dr. Whewell in 1832. 



Indeed, we have only to recall the additional names of WoUaston, 

 Brewster, and Miller to remind ourselves that much of the most 

 original work of the century has been done by English mineralogists. 

 An appreciative reference, in Mr. Fletcher's address, to the highly 

 philosophical teaching of Professor Maskelyne on crystalline sym- 

 metry, shows that the true spirit is by no means dead among us 

 even in the most abstruse branch of the science ; and Mr. Barlow 

 has recently made important contributions to the same subject. 

 Professor Renard, of Gand, in seconding a vote of thanks, 

 declared that no one had done more to elevate the respect already 

 felt abroad for British mineralogy than the distinguished President 

 himself, and referred especially to his admirable " Introduction to the 

 Study of Minerals," which was published in the form of a guide to the 

 vast collection, of which he has the charge, at South Kensington. 



Anthropology. 



Sir William Flower performed a most useful task when, in his 

 presidential address, he reviewed the past history and the future 

 prospects of anthropology. As a separate branch of science anthro- 

 pology is so new, and on many of its sides is so largely aided and 

 furthered by the amateur, that it was well worth while pointing out 

 that the scientific training and equipment for the scientific study of 

 anthropology is as great as those required in any of the older 

 sciences. "It invokes the aid of the sciences of zoology, comparative 

 anatomy, and physiology, in its attempts to estimate the distinctions 

 and the resemblances between man and his nearest allies, and in 

 fixing his place in the scale of living beings. In endeavouring to 

 investigate the origin and antiquity of man, geology must lend its 

 assistance to determine the comparative ages of the strata in which 

 the evidences of his existence are found, and researches into his early 

 history soon trench upon totally different branches of knowledge. In 

 tracing the progress of the race from its most primitive condition, the 

 characteristics of its physical structure and relations with the lower 

 animals are soon left behind, and it is upon evidence of a kind 

 peculiar to the human species, and by which man is so pre-eminently 

 distinguished from all other living beings, that our conclusions 

 mainly rest. The study of the works of our earliest known fore- 

 fathers — ' prehistoric archaeology,' as it is commonly called — is now 

 almost a science by itself." 



Towards the conclusion of his address the President gave an 

 account of the conclusions arrived at by the committee appointed by 

 Mr. Asquith to inquire and report upon the " anthropometric " 



