August 2 2, 1878] 



NATURE 



447 



growth of the religions entertained by the different kinds of the 

 human race are within its proper and legitimate province. I 

 now go a step farther, and pass to the distribution of man. 

 Here, of course, the anthropologist is in his special region. He 

 endeavours to ascertain how various modifications of the human 

 stock are arranged upon the earth's surface. He looks back to 

 the past, and inquires how far the remains of man can be traced. 

 It is just as legitimate to ascertain how far the human race goes 

 back in time as it is to ascertain how far the horse goes back in 

 time ; the kind of evidence that is good in the one case is good 

 in the other ; and the conclusions that are forced on us in the 

 one case are forced on us in the other also. Finally, we come 

 to the question of the causes of all these phenomena, which, if 

 permissible in the case of other animals, is permissible in the 

 animal man. Whatever evidence, whatever chain of reasoning 

 justifies us in concluding that the horse, for example, has come 

 into existence in a certain fashion in time, the same evidence 

 and the same canons of logic justify us to precisely the same 

 extent in drawing the same kind of conclusions with regard to 

 man. And it is the business of the anthropologist to be as 

 severe in his criticism of those matters in respect to the origin 

 of man as it is the business of the palaeontologist to be strict in 

 regard to the origin of the horse ; but for the scientific man 

 there is neither more nor less reason for dealing critically with 

 the one case than with the other. Whatever evidence is satis- 

 factory in one case is satisfactory in the other ; and if any one 

 should travel outside the lines of scientific evidence, and en- 

 deavour either to support or oppose conclusions which are based 

 upon distinctly scientific truths, by considerations which are not 

 in any way based upon scientific logic or scientific truth — whether 

 that mode of advocacy was in favour of a given position, or 

 whether it was against it, I, occupying the chair of the Section, 

 should, most undoubtedly, feel myself called upon to call him to 

 order, and to tell him that he was introducing CDnsiderations with 

 which we had no concern whatever. 



I have occupied your attention for a considerable time ; yet 

 there is still one other point respecting which I should Kke to 

 say a few words, because some very striking reflections arose out 

 of it. The British Association met in Dublin twenty-one years 

 ago, and I have taken the pains to look up what was done 

 in regard of our subject at that period. At that time there was 

 no anthropological department. That study had not yet differ- 

 entiated itself from zoology, or anatomy, or physiology, so as to 

 claim for itself a distinct place. Moreover, without reverting 

 needlessly to the remarks which I placed before you some time 

 ago, it was a very volcanic subject, and people rather liked to 

 leave it alone. It was not until a long time subsequently that 

 the present organisations of this Section of the Association was 

 brought about ; but it is a curious fact, that although proper 

 anthropological subjects were at the time brought before the 

 Geographical Section — with the proper subject of which they had 

 nothing whatever to do — I find that even then more than half of 

 the papers that were brought before that section were, more or 

 less distinctly, of an anthropological cast. It is very curious to 

 ob serve what that cast was. We had systems of language — we 

 had descriptions of savage races — we had the great question, as 

 it then was thought, of the unity or multiplicity of the human 

 species. These were just touched upon, but there was not an 

 allusion in the whole of the proceedings of the Association at 

 that time to those questions which are now to be regarded as 

 the burning questions of anthropology. The whole tendency in 

 the present direction was given by the publication of a single 

 book, and that not a very large one — namely, "The Origin'of 

 Species." It was only subsequent to the publication of the 

 ideas contained in that book that one of the most powerfiil instru- 

 ments for the advance of anthropological knowledge — namely, 

 the Anthropological Society of Paris— was founded. After- 

 wards the Anthropological Institute of this country, and the 

 great Anthropological Society of Berlin came into existence, until 

 it may be said that now there is not a branch of science which is 

 represented by a larger or more active body of workers than the 

 science of anthropology. But the whole of these workers are 

 engaged, more or less intentionally, in providing the data for 

 attacking the ultimate great problem, whether the ideas which 

 Darwin has put forward in regard to the animal world are 

 capable of being applied in the same sense and to the same 

 extent to man. That question, I need not say, is not answered. 



It is a vast and difficult question, and one for which a com- 

 plete answer may possibly be looked for in the next century ; 

 but the method of inquiry is imderstood; and the mode in 



which the materials are now being accumulated bearing on that 

 inquiry, the processes by which results are now obtained,, 

 and the observation of these phenomena leads to the belief 

 that the problem also, some day or other, will be solved. In 

 what sense I cannot tell you. I have my own notion about it, 

 but the question for the future is the attainment, by scientific 

 processes and methods, of the solution of that question. If you 

 ask me what has been done within the last twenty-one years 

 towards this object, or rather towards clearing the ground in the 

 direction of obtaining a solution, I don't know that I could lay 

 my hand upon much of a very definite character — except as to 

 methods of investigation — save in regard to one point. I have 

 some reason to know that about the year i860, at any rate, 

 there was nothing more volcanic, more shocking, more subversive 

 of everything right and proper, than to put forward the propo- 

 sition that as far as physical organisation is concerned there is 

 less difference between man and the highest apes than there is 

 between the highest apes and the lowest. Now my memory 

 carries me back sufficiently to remind me that, in i860,, 

 that question was not a pleasant one to touch on. The 

 other day I was reading a recently-published valuable and 

 interesting work, "L'Espece Humaine, by a very eminent man^ 

 M. de Quatrefages. He is a gentleman who has made these 

 questions his special study, and has %vritten a great deal and 

 very well about them. He has always maintained a temperate 

 and fair position, and has been the opponent of evolutionary 

 ideas, so that I turned with some interest to his work as giving 

 me a record of what I could look on as the progress of opinion 

 during the last twenty years. If he has any bias at all it is one 

 in the opposite direction to which my own studies would lead 

 me. I cannot quote his words, for I have not the book with 

 me, but the substance of them is that the proposition which I 

 have just put before you is one, the truth of which no rational 

 person acquainted with the facts could dbpute. Such is the 

 difference which twenty years has made in that respect, and 

 speaking in the presence of a great number of anatomists, who 

 are quite able to decide a question of this kind, I believe 

 that the opinion of M. de Quatrefages on the subject is one 

 they will all be prepared to indorse. Well, it is a com- 

 fort to have got that much out of the way. The second direc- 

 tion in which I think great progress has been made is with, 

 respect to the processes of anthropometry, in other words, in 

 the modes of obtaining those data which are necessary for 

 anthropologists to reason upon. Like all other persons who 

 have to deS with physical science, we confine ourselves to mat- 

 ters which can be ascertained with precision, and nothing is 

 more remarkable than the exactness which has been introduced 

 into the mode of ascertaining the physical qualities of man. 

 within the last twenty-five years. One cannot mention the 

 name of Broca without the greatest gratitude ; and I am quite 

 sure that when Prof. Flower brings forward his paper on cranial 

 measurements on Monday next you will be surprised to see what 

 precision of method and what accuracy are now introduced, 

 compared with what existed twenty-five years ago, into these 

 methods of determining the physical data of man's structure. 

 If, further, we turn to those physiological matters bearing on 

 anthropology which have been the subject of inquiry within the 

 last score of years, we find that there has been a vast amount of 

 progress. I would refer you to the very remarkable collection 

 of the data of sociology by Mr. Herbert Spencer, which con- 

 tains a mass of information useful on one side or the other, in 

 getting towards the truth. Then I would refer you to the highly 

 interesting contributions which have been made by Prof. Max 

 Mijller and by Mr. Tylor to the natural history of religions, 

 which is one of the most interesting chapters of anthropology. 

 In regard to another very important topic, the development of 

 art and the use of tools and weapons, most remarkable con- 

 tributions have been made by General Lane Fox, whose museum 

 at Bethnal Green is one of the most extraordinary ex- 

 emplifications that I know of the ingenuity, and, at the same 

 time, of the stupidity of the human race. Their ingenuity 

 appears in their invention of a given pattern or form of weapon, 

 and their profound stupidity in this, that having done so, they 

 kept in the old groove^, and were thus prevented from getting- 

 beyond the primitive type of these objects and of their orna- 

 mentation. One of the most singular things in that museum is 

 its exemplification — the wonderful tendency of the human mind 

 when once it has got into a groove to stick there. The great 

 object of scientific investigation is to run counter to that ten- 

 dency. 



