OUTLINES OF ANTHUOPOLOGY. 443 



scientific and critical, and consists in a careful study of all those 

 phenomena wliicli are the outcome of man's activity and enable 

 him to occupy a distinct place in creation. 



Therefore, the leading purpose of Anthropological science, 

 considered as a distinct branch of scientific research, is not 

 confined to tlie elucidation of historic events, which is the 

 business of the historian, nor to the study of the diflerent 

 languages spoken by man, which is the work claimed by the 

 philologist, nor to an inquiry into the date and origin of the works 

 of art, the remains of former periods of civilization, which is the 

 purpose of the antiquarian ; but the Anthropologist uses all these 

 materials in order to obtain an insight into the historic develop- 

 ment of evolution of man considered as the chief actor in history, 

 the maker of languages, and the creator of the works of art which 

 have escaped the destroying hand of time. Hence the object of 

 Anthropology may be more strictly defined as the critical examina- 

 tion of the intellectual and material progress of man from the 

 earliest ages down to the present. As such, Anthropological 

 science presents itself to us as the logical ofispring of the new 

 tendencies which in the course of the Nineteenth Century have 

 invaded and revolutionized every branch of scientific incjuiry. 

 This change of front which has forced itself upon every student of 

 science, manifests itself chiefly in the combination of the older 

 sciences, formerly cultivated separately under a new name, and a 

 grouping together of the resources furnished by each for the 

 realisation of higher and wider aims. It would be wrong to 

 conclude that this reformation has been accomplished at the 

 expense of older sciences, and by the sacrifice of their inde- 

 pendence. On the contrary, the fusion of the older sciences, 

 which is one of the most remarkable events of our time, has been 

 brought about, not by an invasion of the territory properly 

 belonging to each, but by an exchange of their methods and 

 instruments of research. Thus, the astronomer has borrowed 

 from the physicist his spectroscope and photographic camera, 

 and by means of these instruments he has created a new astronomy 

 and has been enabled to show us new worlds and a new heaven. 

 The naturalist has also gone to the physicist for his microscope, 

 and to the chemist for his re-a<j;ents, and what was natural histoiy 

 before has become biology. By a similar process of co-operation, 

 mineralogy has expanded into geology — geography which until 

 lately was little more than topography, has put forth three 

 important and flourishing branches : physical, commercial and 

 liistorical geography. In all directions we notice the change from 

 purely descriptive science to comparative, or critical science, from 

 speculative to experimental philosophy. We are no longer con- 

 tent with collecting, classifying and labelling ; we not only 

 want to know, but we also wish to understand, to be able to 

 explain, demonstrate and convince. It is to comj^arative anatomy 

 that we owe the first germ of the theory of evolution ; comparative 



