6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



mankind as a whole. It investigates his origin and his relations to 

 the rest of the universe. It invokes the aid of the sciences of zoology, 

 comparative anatomy, and physiology ; and the wider the range of 

 knowledge met with in other regions of natural structure, and the 

 more abundant the terms of comparison known, the less risk there will 

 be of error in attempting to estimate the distinctions and resemblances 

 between man and his nearest allies, and fixing his place in the zoologi- 

 cal scale. Here we are drawn into contact with an immense domain 

 of knowledge, including a study of all the laws which modify the 

 conditions under which organic bodies are manifested, which at first 

 sight seem to have little bearing upon the particular study of man. 



Furthermore, it is not only with man's bodily structure and its re- 

 lations to that of the lower animals that we have to deal ; the moral 

 and intellectual side of his nature finds its rudiments in them also, and 

 the difficult study of comparative psychology, now attracting much 

 attention^ is an important factor in any complete system of anthro- 

 pology. 



In endeavoring to investigate the origin of mankind as a whole, 

 geology must lend its assistance to determine the comparative ages of 

 the strata in which the evidences of his existence are found ; but 

 researches into his early history soon trench upon totally different 

 branches of knowledge. In tracing the progress of the race from its 

 most primitive condition, the characteristics of its physical structure 

 and relations with the lower animals are soon left behind, and it is 

 upon evidence of a kind peculiar to the human species, and by which 

 man is so pre-eminently distinguished from all other living beings, 

 that our conclusions mainly rest. The study of the works of our ear- 

 liest known forefathers, " prehistoric archaeology," as it is commonly 

 called, although one of the most recently developed branches of knowl- 

 edge, is now almost a science by itself, and one which is receiving a 

 great amount of attention in all parts of the civilized world. It in- 

 vestigates the origin of all human culture, endeavors to trace to their 

 common beginning the sources of all our arts, customs, and history. 

 The difiiculty is what to include and where to stop ; as, though the 

 term "prehistoric" may roughly indicate an artificial line between 

 the province of the anthropologist and that which more legitimately 

 belongs to the archaeologist, the antiquary, and the historian, that the 

 studies of the one pass insensibly into those of the other is an evident 

 and necessary proposition. Knowledge of the origin and develop- 

 ment of particular existing customs throws immense light upon their 

 real nature and importance ; and, conversely, it is often only from a 

 profound acquaintance with the present or comparatively modern 

 manifestations of culture that we are able to interpret the slight 

 indications afforded us by the scanty remains of primitive civili- 

 zation. 



Even the more limited subject of ethnology must be approached 



