SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF A13E11DEE.V. 13 



ORDINARY MEETING. 



16TH DECEMBER, 1909. 



Professor R. W. REID, M.D., F.R.C.S., Honorary President, 



in the Chair. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. 



A paper on " The Influence of Environment on Man " was read by Prof. 

 Kidgeway, Cambridge University. Taking for his chief example the peoples of 

 Europe, Prof. Ridgeway pointed out that the differences one met with in speech, 

 custom, pigmentation and shape of skull were not necessarily due to the inter- 

 mingling of two or more sets of people of a totally different race ; on the other 

 hand, such changes were really developmental, and explicable by the reaction of 

 environment upon one and the same people, the original inhabitants of that 

 continent. Postulating that Europe was inhabited from the first by an 

 Aryan race, he set forth comparative proofs to substantiate his theory that 

 colouration, shape of skull, &c., might be due to the moulding influence of 

 environment, by pointing out the gradual change in appearance presented by 

 members of the horse tribe in different zones of the same continent. Such 

 change was both pigmentary and osteological, and here, at least, the various 

 tribes had a common ancestry. He further controverted the idea that colouring 

 was for protective reasons. 



The change in language was not due to the adoption of the conqueror's 

 tongue by the conquered, nor vice-versa ; on the contrary, the language spoken 

 was an Aryan one from the start, and the latitude of change was but dialectic 

 variations of the same tongue, due to the physical changes in the vocal organs 

 produced by the environment. Further, it was argued that no satisfactory 

 explanation of the present state of matters could be got by appealing to 



