CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



In entering upon the study of the morphological aspects of 

 Anthropology it is of the first importance to ascertain and realize 

 the scope and limits of the subject. This is admittedly a some- 

 what difficult task, and the following account aims at giving some 

 general information of an introductory nature. 



The use of the term Anthropology is not modern, and when 

 first employed 1 it referred in a general sense to human anatomy 

 and physiology, the study of which was at the time referred to in 

 a very elementary stage. In earlier days certain philosophers had 

 been spoken of as anthropologists, and again in later times, i.e. 

 in the 18th century, Anthropology was treated (by Kant and 

 others) as a branch of philosophy, rather than of biology. The 

 latter end of the 17th century was a most important epoch in the 

 history of Physical Anthropology, using the term in the sense 

 which it has now acquired and which will presently be explained. 

 In the year 1699, Dr Edward Tyson, a member of Corpus Christi 

 College, Cambridge, published under the auspices of the Royal 

 Society a treatise entitled " Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris. 

 Or, the Anatomy of a Pygmie compared with that of a Monkey, 

 an Ape, and a Man 2 ." 



In 1501 by a German, Magnus Hundt, of Marburg. 

 ' 2 In this work we find described system by system and organ for organ the 

 comparative anatomy of man and a " Pygmie." Upon the evidence thus provided 

 is based a discussion of the relations of the two forms, the differences as well as the 

 resemblances of the two animals are taken into due consideration, and the author 

 sums up to the effect that " our Pygmie is no Man, nor yet the Common Ape, but 

 a sort of animal between both." The descriptions, the illustrations, and the 

 skeleton of the "Pygmie" (now in the Natural History Museum, S. Kensington), 

 shew that it was an immature Chimpanzee. 



D. M. 1 



