December 15, 1910] 



NATURE 



221 



come back some day and explore it. The address con- 

 cluded with appreciative remarks regarding the social and 

 recreative work of the institute, and especially with respect 

 to the high place taken in gymnastics. The necessity for 

 laying up for themselves a store of health and strength was 

 strongly impressed upon the students, and the inestimable 

 advantages of the social intercourse made possible by the 

 existence of the various clubs and societies was insisted 

 upon. 



CEKTAIX PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE 



XEGROES OF. THE CONGO FREE STATE 



AND NIGERIA. 



T N a lecture at the Royal Anthropological Institute on 

 •*■ November 29, Dr. Arthur Keith dealt with the physical 

 characters and relationships of certain negro tribes in 

 Equatorial Africa. His account was founded on data 

 collected by (i) Mr. E. Torday amongst tribes in the 

 Congo Free State, including the Bushonga, Basoka, 

 Sango, and several others ; (2) by Mr. P. A. Talbot in 

 southern Nigeria, including the tribes of the Ekoi, Kabila, 

 and Korawfs. Dr. Keith had also at his disposal three 

 collections of crania, an extensive one of the Batatela 

 (a tribe towards the eastern part of the Congo Free State), 

 which was brought home by Mr. Torday ; another from 

 southern Nigeria, which he owed to Mr. P. A. Talbot ; 

 and a third (from the delta of the Niger) which had been 

 placed at his disposal by Dr. Frank Corner. 



In British Nigeria there are several types, but the one 

 which he regarded as characteristic was represented bv 

 individuals of low stature, relatively long-headed, with the 

 skull decidedly flattened from side to side. Manv of the 

 physical characters of this Nigerian type can be recog- 

 nised in the Sango and other Congo tribes bordering on 

 the Sudan. In head form, although not in stature, the 

 Dinkas and Furs of the Nilotic tribes resemble the 

 Nigerian type. In a contracted type which is prevalent 

 in the Congo Free State, and which may be called the 

 Congoese type, the head bulges laterally in the parietal 

 region, and is relatively short and low. 



The Batatela and the Basoka are representative of this 

 type. It occurs also in some Nigerian tribes, and also 

 in the Nyam-Nyam and Baran tribes of the Sudan. The 

 Korawfs, a Nigerian tribe near the borders of the German 

 Cameroons, are of a low stature with relatively long 

 arms, as in Sir Harry Johnston's "forest negro type," 

 but in head-form they resemble the Nigerian tvpe of negro. 

 The Bushongo from the south central part of the Congo 

 Free State are tall compared with the Korawfs, but 

 possess the massive head, great span, and large nose of 

 the " forest type." In many features the Bushongo are 

 related to certain of the Sudan tribes, such as the Nvam- 

 Nyam. To account for the present distribution of phvsical 

 characters among the negro tribes of Equatorial .Africa 

 one must assume that there has been a free intermigration 

 of tribes, and that in their evolution the tendencv in one 

 tribe has been towards the accentuation of one set of 

 features, in another tribe of another set of characters. 

 Thus in the Nilotic Dinkas high stature and narrow- 

 headedness have become marked characters ; in typical 

 Nigerians low stature and narrow heads ; in the Bsoka a 

 wide, short head and low stature : in the Buruna a wide 

 head and high stature. Interbreeding may have plaved a 

 part in the determination of tribal characters ; if it had 

 played a great part we should have found a greater degree 

 of physical uniformity. The e.xtent to which an admixture 

 of .Arab blood has modified the physical characters of 

 "■"gro tribes has probably been exaggerated. 



SCIENCE AND THE STATED 

 JN all ages the welfare of a State must have been in a 

 greater or less degree dependent on the development 

 of its material resources and on the vigour and intelli- 

 gence of its people ; it is only in comparatively recent 

 years, however, that recognition has been given to the 

 fact that the State must leave nothing of this to chance, 

 but must set itself deliberately by the use of scientific 



1 From the prf "tidential address delivered before the South African Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science on October 31 by Dr. T. Muir 

 C.M.G., F.R.S. 



NO. 2146, VOL. 85] 



method to make the very best of its resources, and to 

 increase the available vigour and intelligence of everyone 

 within its borders. Not only so, but it must take suitable 

 precautions that intelligence be universally trained, and be 

 also duly organised so as to give the most effective and 

 productive result. It is no longer enough that the State 

 shall merely welcome and applaud a discoverer when he 

 arises, or merely safeguard a private inventor from being 

 fleeced ; on the contrary, it must give of its substance to 

 foster both discovery and invention, and must give legis- 

 lative help to secure that inventions when made shall not 

 be unfruitful through want of skilled labour or other 

 hampering cause. 



If we ask the reason for this change, the answer is that 

 the keenness of international competition has vastly in- 

 creased, that this has led to serious searching of intellect, 

 that the laws of evolution have in consequence been seen 

 to be applicable to nations as well as to individuals, and 

 that under these inexorable laws the very existence of a 

 State may be imperilled by ignorance or neglect. It is 

 thus more important than ever that statesmen and leaders 

 of the people shall not only be men of probity and high 

 general character, but men of wide knowledge and pene- 

 trating forethought. They must have studied and must 

 know all the possibilities of both land and people. On the 

 material side they must have reckoned up the mineral re- 

 sources, the agricultural resources, the water power and 

 other forms of potential energy, the harbour accommoda- 

 tion, the waterways, and the advantages of the geo- 

 graphical position for over-sea commerce. On the human 

 side they must have noted the natural gifts and weak- 

 nesses of the people, the best means of developing the 

 former and of correcting the latter ; and if it should be 

 that there are varieties of race and colour in the popula- 

 tion they must have thought out plans, not only for pre- 

 venting loss of power through internal friction, but for 

 obtaining the close cooperation of all the races in the 

 general national interest. In the future it is only in a 

 relative sense that there will continue to be " hewers of 

 wood and drawers of water " ; the State that aims at 

 being in the forefront will have to see that even its wood- 

 hewing and its water-drawing are done intelligently and 

 to the best advantage. Further, the exploitation of any 

 race in the interest of a higher race will be fatal folly when 

 the need exists for exploiting all races in the interests of 

 the State. 



These considerations make it readily appear that the 

 first great duty of the State towards science is to provide 

 an effective and comprehensive system of national educa- 

 tion. In the lower stages of the system direct and formal 

 instruction in science need not bulk very largely ; what is 

 essential is that the pupil shall throughout his course be 

 trained to observe, to think, and to reason. In the middle 

 stages — the stages covered by secondary schools of all 

 classes — the actual study of science, and especially of 

 scientific method, must form a larger and ever-increasing 

 part of the curriculum. Under neither of these heads, 

 however, need we enter into detail to-night ; it is sufficient 

 for our present purpose to insist in connection with both 

 on the desirability (i) of fostering rather than repressing 

 the natural curiosity of the young ; (2) of constantly re- 

 curring to the study of things in supplement to that of 

 words ; (3) of training the hands in the use of appropriate 

 tools other than the pen ; (4) of gradually introducing re- 

 search methods into class-room work. It is the neglect 

 of this advice that has been a main cause in the retarda- 

 tion of science ; it has also helped to make school life a 

 byword for dulness, and in many cases made the after-life 

 unintellectual and even trivial. 



W'hen we come to the higher stages — the stage of the 

 university, and more practical institutions coordinate there- 

 with — the interest in our subject naturally increases, for 

 there we look, not only for instruction in science and 

 training in scientific method, but for a steady flow of 

 fresh contributions to the stock of human knowledge. 

 That this last is a legitimate expectation is now the 

 received opinion throughout the whole civilised world. In 

 accepting it, too, we have but returned to the original 

 conception of a university — a conception that in the course 

 of a long period of years had gradually come to be for- 

 gotten in English-speaking countries. The evil results of 



