ae 
FIRST ORDINARY MEETING. (f 
but he would give it a meaning and an application which would 
astonish its author. Anthropology literally means, the science of 
man, and, if the term were construed in the full extent of its mean- 
ing, it would embrace all other sciences. It is not, however, so used, 
but is employed to designate the science which deals with the natural 
history of man. That is to say, Anthropology isa branch of Zoology. 
The great poet of the age of Queen Anne thought, and expressed 
the thought that the proper study of mankind is man, with the impli- 
cation that it is his moral nature which is especially worthy of inves- 
tigation ; the anthropologist of to-day, without leaving man’s moral 
nature out of account, feels more at home in questions about the shape 
and size of skulls, the height, weight, and colour of different races, 
the character of their hair, the peculiarities of the different parts of 
their skeletons, the relations of languages, and the development of 
civilization on the earth. 
There is no one of the differences which separate one tribe or 
nation from another more striking than that of colour. In conse- 
quence, men are often classified in popular parlance into white and 
coloured. Blumenbach, about a century ago, divided mankind on the 
basis of colour into five races : the Caucasian or white, the Mongolian 
or yellow, the American or red, the Malay or brown, and the Ethi- 
opian or black ; and this classification has, in virtue of its simplicity, 
until recently been very generally accepted. It is, however, scien- 
tifically worthless. The so-called Red race varies in colour from 
chocolate brown to dark white. There are Chinese, Japanese 
and Coreans, which races, according to Blumenbach, are Mongolian, 
as white as many so-called Caucasians ; and the Zulus of Southern 
Africa, though ranked as Ethiopians, present examples of every 
variety of complexion from yellow to black. 
In place of Blumenbach’s system a great number of classifications 
have been offered. These may be divided into those based on 
language, and those based on physical peculiarities. Both are alike 
unsatisfactory ; the former because they often bring together tribes 
and nations of very different appearance ; the latter because they 
separate races having related languages, and connect races whose 
languages are extremely different. In the Indo-European family, 
which is a division with a linguistic basis, are included the bronze- 
coloured Hindoo and the blonde Scandinavian. Among the Xantho- 
chroi, or blonde whites of Huxley, a race set apart on the basis of its 
