1866. | Biology. 549 
acid poured upon such blood set free carbonic oxide, and produced 
coagulation. 
Mr. W. L. Scott read a paper on the presence of Ammonia and 
its Homologues in the Blood, supporting Dr. Richardson’s theory 
of coagulation. The other papers read in this department were, 
Dr. Foster, “On a peculiar Change of Colour in a Mulatto;” and, 
“On an Addition to the Sphygmograph.” 
The Anthropological subdivision of Section D has done much 
to restore that branch of science to public favour, and the Com- 
mittee of the major section showed great wisdom when they invited 
the eminent traveller, Mr. Wallace, to become its President. 
Mr. Wallace delivered a short address, characterized by modesty, 
conciliation, and liberal sentiment. He claimed for Anthropology 
the function of inquiring into the nature of Man in all its aspects. 
His physiology, his anatomy compared with that of the lower 
animals, his history and paleontology, his psychology, his geogra- 
phical distribution, his archeological traces, and the study of his 
skull, brain, and languages, are all included in the noble science of 
Anthropology ; and it is the province of Anthropologists to collect, 
combine, and systematize all facts bearing upon these questions. 
“We cannot afford,” he said, “to neglect any facts relating to 
man, however trivial, unmeaning, or distasteful some of them may 
appear to us. Hach custom, superstition, or belief of savage or of 
civilized man, may guide us towards an explanation of their origin 
in common tendencies of the human mind. Each peculiarity of 
form, colour, or constitution, may give us a clue to the affinities of 
an obscure race. ‘The Anthropologist must ever bear in mind, 
that as the object of his study is man, nothing pertaining to or 
characteristic of man can be unworthy of his attention. 
“Tt will be only after we have brought together and arranged 
all the facts and principles which have been established by the 
_ various special studies to which I have alluded, that we shall be in 
a condition to determine the particular limes of investigation most 
needed to complete our knowledge of man; and may hope ulti- 
mately to arrive at some definite conclusions on the great problems 
which must interest us all—the questions of the origin, the nature, 
and the destiny of the human race. 
“T would beg you to recollect also, that here we must treat all 
these problems as purely questions of science, to be decided solely 
by facts, and by legitimate deductions from facts. We can accept 
no conclusions as authoritative that have not been thus established. 
Our sole object is to find out for ourselves what is our true nature 
—to feel our way cautiously step by step into the dark and mys- 
terious past of human history—to study man under every phase 
