Prehistoric and Savage Man 177 



bronze, then iron. The bronze age in Europe, which seems, 

 hke its predecessor, to have come in as a wave of migration 

 from the east, introduced a yet higher development of 

 civilisation leading us up to the distinctly historical period, 

 lasting as it did in the northern peninsula till 100 a.d. To 

 the bronze men succeeded others acquainted with the use of 

 iron, and such were the inhabitants of this country when 

 Julius Caesar invaded it. I turn now to the other science 

 which this collection is designed to illustrate — the science of 

 Ethnography. 



The inquiry into the conditions of life of different races 

 and nations is one which dates back to the time of Herodotus, 

 and no doubt antecedently formed part of the lore of ancient 

 Egypt. But a true science of the kind can only be said to 

 date from the publication of Blumenbach's inaugural thesis 

 on the Varieties of Man, in 1775. The first Ethnographical 

 Society was that founded at Paris, in the year 1800, and 

 styled ' Societe des observateurs de I'homme,' but it only 

 lasted a fcAV years. 



An analogous society, but with a philantJiropic object 

 (also very short-lived), was instituted in London in 1838, 

 while the Societe Ethnologique de Paris was founded in 1839. 

 The English Ethnological Society met for the first time in 

 London on January 2nd, 1844. A Societe Anthropologique 

 was started in Paris, in 1859, by M. Broca. An English 

 Anthropological Society was set going in London in 1863, 

 but in January 1871 it united with the pre-existing Ethno- 

 logical Society, and the united societies still exist under the 

 title of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and 

 Ireland. 



The careful observations of successful explorers rapidly 

 added to our stock of information, and great is our debt to 

 such earlier travellers as Bruce, Levaillant, Pallas Bougainville, 

 La Vermie, and our own noble countryman, Captain Cook. 



VOL. II. M 



