August i6, 1894] 



NA TURE 



389 



n< regards all institutions for primary and secondary education, 

 nb^olutely nothing. The inhat)itants of the various regions of 

 our own earth are treated with no more consideration 

 and interest in all such institutions than if they lived 

 on the moon or the planets. We must turn straight to the 

 higher intellectual centre^ in the hope of finding any anthropo- 

 logical teaching. Here at Oxford, if anywhere, we may expect 

 to find it, and here, first among the British Universities, havi 

 we seen, since the year 18S3. among the list of the subjects 

 taught the word " Anthropology," but the teacher, though one 

 of the most learned of men in the subject the country has pro- 

 duced, still only bears the modest title of " Reader." A pro- 

 fessorship of Anthropology does not exist at present in the 

 British Isles, and even here the subject, though recognised as a 

 "special," offers little field for distinction in the examinations 

 for degrees, and has therefore never been taken up in a thorough 

 manner by students. Dr. Tylor's lectures must, however, have 

 done much to have spread an intelligent interest in some 

 branches of Anthropology, and have proved a valuable comple- 

 ment to the Pitt-Rivers collec'ion, as have also the couries 

 which have been given by Mr. Henry Balfour upon the arts of 

 mankind and their evolution, one of which I am glad to see 

 is announced among the advantages offered to the University 

 Extension students at present with us. Physical Anthropology 

 has aKo been taken up by Prof. A. Thomson, who, 1 understand, 

 gives instructive lectures upon it, open to the members of his class 

 of human anatomy. At the opposite end almost of the subject 

 must be mentioned the extension and organisation of the Asb- 

 molean Museum under the care of Mr. Arthur Evans, which 

 has a bearin.; upon some branches of Anthropology, and the 

 foundation of the Indian Institute under the auspices of Sir 

 Monier Monier-Williims, which must give an impetus to the 

 study of the characteristics of the races of our great Empire in 

 the East. East, but by no means least in its bearing upon the 

 origin, divisions, and diffusion of races, is the world-famous 

 linguistic work of Prof. Max MiiHer and Prof Sayce, bath of 

 whom have presided over this Section at former meetings of the 

 Association. 



' )f the sister University I wrote thu5 in 1S84: "In Cambridge 

 ■h-.re are many hopeful signs. The recently appointed Professor 

 uf Anatomy, Dr. Macalister, is known to have paid much 

 attention to Anatomical Anthropology, and has already in- 

 timated that he proposes to give instruction in it during the 

 summer term. An Eihnological and Archreoligical Museum is 

 also in progress of formation, which, if not destined to rival 

 that of Oxford, already contains many ol)jects of great value, 

 and a guarantee of its good preservation and arrangement may 

 be looked for in the appointment of Baron Anatole von Hiijel 

 as its first curator." 



Ten years have passed, and it is satisfactory to know that the 

 teaching of Anthropology has not only been fairly estalflished, 

 but the subject has also found a place in the scheme of 

 University examination. The learned Professor of Hunan 

 Anatomy continues to take a wide view of its functions, giving 

 a course during the Easter term on the methods of Physical 

 Anthropology, and also museum demonstrations on crani- 

 ometry and osleometry, by the aid of a greatly increased 

 and continually augmenting collection of specimens. Those 

 students who take anatomy as their subject for the second 

 part of the Natural Science Tripos- have both paper work 

 and practical examination in Anthropology, each man having a 

 skull placed in his hands of which he is expected to make a 

 complete diagnostic description. For the first part of the 

 tripos each candidate has one or more questions on the broad 

 general principles of the subject. Prof. Macalister informs me that 

 'he has always at least six men who go through a very thorough 

 jpraclical course with their own hands. There has also lately 

 been established a course of lectures on the Natural History of 

 (the Races of Man, delivered during the Michaelmas and Eent 

 terms liy Dr. Hickson, of Downing College, and Baron von 

 [Hiigel gives a course of museum demonstrations on the wea|)ons, 

 lornaments, and other objects in the Ethnological Museum, 

 which is open to all students, and of which many take 

 advantage. 



In London, owing to the chao'ic condition of all forms of 

 higher instruction, which has been brought so prominenlly into 

 notice by the univcisal demand for a teaching University (an 

 aspiration which the labours of the late Gresham Commission 

 certainly seem to have brought nearer to realisation than ever 

 appeared possible before), all systematic anthropological teaching 



NO. 1294, VOL. 50] 



has been entirely neglected. The great collections to which I 

 have already alluded, that of arts and customs at the British 

 Museum, and that of osteological specimens at the Royal College 

 of Surgeons, have by their steady augmentation done valuable 

 service in preserving a vast quantity of material for future 

 investigation and instruction, and students have at present all 

 reasonable facilities for pursuing their own researches in them. 

 Lectures have never formed any part of the official programme 

 of the British Museum, but at the College of Surgeons it is 

 otherwise, and though the contents of the collections are 

 specially indicated as the subject on which they should be 

 delivered, for the last ten years at least. Anthropology, not- 

 withstanding the magnificent material at hand (or its illustra- 

 tion, has had no place in the annual syllabus. It is also 

 entirely ignored in the examination scheme of the University 

 of London, an institution which prides itself as being on a 

 level with modern educational requirements ; and the managers 

 of the new Imperial Institute, casting about in all directions 

 for some worthy object to occupy their energies and their 

 spacious buildings, do not appear to have taken into serious 

 consideration the value to the world and the appropriateness 

 to their original design of a great central school of Anthropo- 

 logy, from which might emanate a full and satisfying knowledge 

 of the characteristics of all the various races of which the 

 Empire is composed. 



In Scotland the recent Universities Commission has recog- 

 nised Physical Antliropology as a branch of human anatomy in 

 their scheme for graduation in pure science, the examination on 

 this subject embracing a knowledge of race characters as found 

 in the skull and other parts of the skeleton, in the skin, eyes, 

 hair, features, and the external configuration of the body 

 generally ; the methods of anthropometrical measurement, both 

 of the living body and the skeleton ; the possible influence of 

 use and of external surroundings in producing modifications in 

 the physical characters of man, and an acquaintance with the 

 "types" of mankind and the structural relations of man to the 

 higher mammals. These regulations came into operation in 

 the University of Edinburgh in 1892, and in accordance with 

 them Prof. Sir William Turner delivers a special course of 

 twenty-five lectures on Physical Anthropology, and in addition 

 ten practical demonstrations on osteometry. The museum 

 under his charge has greatly increased of late in number and 

 value of the specimens. But " Human Anatomy, including 

 Anthropology." being only one of a series of nine subjects in 

 any three or more of which a final science examination on a 

 higher standard has to be p?ssed, there is not at present any 

 considerable number of students who take it up, and the other 

 Scotch Universities have not yet thought it necessary to establish 

 distinct courses of Physical Anthropology, although it is 

 becoming more and more a regular part of the anatomical 

 teaching to advanced students. 



For the following account of what is being done to further 

 the knowledge of our subject in the sister isle I am indebted to 

 Prof. D. J. Cunningham. The only place in Ireland where 

 anthropological work is done is Trinity College. For 

 many years those in charge of the museum have been collecting 

 skulls, and they were fortunate in obtaining the greater 

 part of Sir William Wilde's collection. To these great 

 additions have been recently made, principally in the form of 

 Irish crania from difterent districts. All the anthropological 

 specimens are lodged in one large room, which is also used as 

 an anthropometric laboratory. Though there has never been 

 any systematic teaching of Anthropology in Trinity College, Dr. 

 C. R. Browne (Prof. Cunningham's able assistant), who takes 

 charge of the laboratory, attends for two hours on three days a 

 week, and gives demonstrations in anthropological methods to 

 any students who are interested in the subject. The laboratory 

 was opened in June 1891, the instruments being provided by a 

 grant Irom the Royal Irish Academy, and about 500 individuals 

 have already been measured, the greater number of them 

 students of the College. This is, however, only part of the work 

 carried out by the laboratory. Every year the instruments are 

 taken to some selected district in Ireland, and a .systematic study 

 of the inhabitants is made. The .\ran Islands, and also the 

 islands of Inishboffin and Inishshark, have been already worked 

 out, and this year excursions are organised to Kerry, to a dis- 

 trict in Wicklow, and to another in the west of Ireland. The 

 Academy makes yearly grants to the Committee for carrying 

 on this work, the results of which have been published in 

 admirable memoirs by Prof. A. C. Haddon and Dr. C. R. 



