A PROBLEM IN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY.' 



B}^ Frederic ^^'ARD Putnam. 



While engaged in writing- the address which I am to read to you 

 this evening the sad news reached me of the death, on July 81, of 

 our president of five years ago, Dr. D. G. Brinton. Although not 

 unexpected, as his health had been failing since he was with us at the 

 Boston meeting, where he took his always active part in the proceed- 

 ings of Section H and gave his wise advice in our general council, yet 

 his death affects me deeply. I was writing on a subject we had 

 often discussed in an earnest but friendly manner. He believed in an 

 all-pervading psychological influence upon man's development, and 

 claimed that American art and culture were autochthonous, and that 

 all resemblances to other parts of the world were the r(^sults of corre- 

 sponding stages in the development of man; while I claimed that there 

 were too many root coincidences, with variant branches, to be fully 

 accounted for without also admitting the contact of peoples. Feeling 

 his influence while writing, I had hoped that he would be present to- 

 night, for I am certain that no one would have more readily joined 

 with me in urging a suspension of judgment, while giving free expres- 

 sion to opinions, until the facts have been worked over anew and more 

 knowledge attained. 



His eloquent tongue is silent and his gifted pen is still, but 1 urge 

 upon all who hear me to-night to read his two addresses before this. 

 association— one as vice-president of the anthropological section in 

 1887, published in our thirty-sixth volume of Proceedings; the other 

 as retiring president in 1895, published in our forty-fourth volume. 

 In these addresses he has, in his usual forcible and comprehensive 

 manner, presented his views of American anthropological research 

 and of the aims of anthropology. 



Dr. Brinton was a man of great mental power and erudition. He 

 was an extensive reader in many languages, and his retentive memory 

 enabled him to quote readily from the works of others. He was a 



^Address of the 

 ment of Soieii 

 Augui-t 25, 1899 



the retiring president of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ce, given at Cohinilius on August 21, 1899. Printed in Science, 



473 



