616 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION ¥. 



they are unworthy of our actention when investigating a scientific 

 question, and I do deprecate any attempt to support any side of a 

 commercial argument by bolstering it up with bad logic, scientific 

 fallacies, and arguments founded on misCjUotations. 



I would add one thing more : When the abscess over Zadig's eye 

 broke in opposition to the opinion of the doctor, the doctor wrote a 

 treatise proving that it ought not to have broken : which was — What ? 

 Certainly not science. 



The meeting was adjourned till 2 o'clock to allow other members 

 to resume the discussion, but none attended. 



4.— ORIGIN OF THE MELANESIAN AND POLYNESIAN 



RACES. 



By Rev. ISAAC ROONEY, F.R.G.S. 



The peoples of the Pacific represent two distinct migrations, and, 

 although possibly from the same original stock, the migrations were so 

 far apart and the divergence is so marked that to-day they may be 

 treated as two races : (1) The Melanesian or Papuan inhabiting the 

 islands of the western Pacific from Fiji up to New Guinea ; and (2) the 

 Polynesian inhabiting the various groups of the Pacific east of a line 

 running from New Zealand to the Sandwich Islands. 



(Polynesians are also found on some parts of the coast of New 

 Guinea and other islands, descendants of those who settled down at 

 the tcimporary stopping-places when the race migrated eastward). 



I.— POINTS WHICH DIFFERENTIATE. 



1. Polynesians are brown in color, with straight black hair. 

 The Papuans are dark (various shades), with frizzy hair. 



2. The Polynesians, physically and intellectually, are a superior race. 

 R. L. Stevenson, who lived many years among them, bears this testimony : 

 " The race is perhaps the handsomest extant. Six feet is about the 

 middle height of males. They are strongly muscled, free from fat, 

 swift in action, graceful in repose ; and the women, though more fleshy, 

 are still comely." 



Count Pfeil, the German Governor of New Britain — a gentleman 

 who had travelled extensively in every part of the world except Polynesia, 

 who had lived five years among the Zulus, and always spoke of them 

 with enthusiasm as physically the finest race in the world — coming in 

 contact one day with a Polynesian chief, asked me whether I considered 

 him a fair specimen of the race. I replied in the affirmative. " Why," 

 said he, " that is the handsomest man in the world. My Zulus cannot 

 be compared with him." 



The Papuans, doubtless through long residence in a malarial climate, 

 have deteriorated physically. This does not apply to the Fijians, who 

 have preserved a magnificent physique. But malarial fever is unknown 

 in Fiji. 



