September i8, 1890] 



NATURE 



509 



of their arrangement, what was accessible in 1870. The Black- 

 more Museum at Salisbury was at that time already founded, 

 but has since been considerably augmented. In London, also, 

 the Christy collection was already in existence, and calculated 

 to form an admirable nucleus around which other objects and 

 collections might cluster ; and, thanks in a great degree to the 

 trustees of the Christy collection, and in a far greater degree to 

 the assiduous attention and unbounded liberality of the keeper 

 of the department, Mr. Franks, the ethnological galleries 

 at the British Museum will bear comparison with any of 

 those in the other European capitals. The collections of pre- 

 historic antiquities, enlarged by the addition of the fine series of 

 urns and other relics from British barrows explored by Canon 

 Green well, which he has generously presented to the nation, and 

 by other accessions, especially from the French caverns of the 

 Reindeer period, is now of the highest 'importance. Moreover, 

 for purposes of comparison the collections of antiquities of the 

 Stone and Bronze periods found in foreign countries is of enor- 

 mous value. In the ethnological department the collections 

 have been materially increased by the numerous travellers and 

 missionaries which this country is continually sending forth to 

 assist in the exploration of the habitable world ; and the student 

 of the development of human civilization has now the actual 

 weapons, implements, utensils, dress, and other appliances of 

 most of the known savage peoples ready at hand for examina- 

 tion, and need no longer trust to the often imperfect representa- 

 tions given in books of travel. But besides the collection at 

 Bloomsbury there is another most important Museum at Oxford, 

 which that University owes to the liberality of General Pitt- 

 Rivers. It is arranged in a somewhat different manner from 

 that in London, the main purpose being the exhibition of the 

 various modifications which ornaments, weapons, and instru- 

 ments in common use have undergone during the process of de- 

 velopment. The skilful application of the doctrine of evolution 

 to the forms and characters of these products of human art gives 

 to this collection a peculiar charm, and brings out the value of 

 applying scientific methods to the study of all that is connected 

 with human culture, even though at first sight the objects 

 brought under consideration may appear to be of the most 

 trivial character. 



So far as the museums more intimately connected with anthro- 

 pology are concerned, the advance that has been made has been 

 equally well marked, The osteological collections both at the 

 Royal College of Surgeons and at the Natural History Museum 

 have received important accessions, especially in the cranio- 

 logical department ; and the notable addition of the Barnard 

 Davis collection to that previously existing in Lincoln's Inn 

 Fields has placed the Museum of the College in the foremost 

 rank. The Museums at Oxford and Cambridge have also re- 

 ceived most important accessions : the one, of the Greenwell 

 collection from British barrows ; the other, of the Thurnam 

 collection of skulls. 



The value of the small hand-book for travellers, issued under 

 the title of "Anthropological Notes and Queries," has been 

 proved by the necessity for a new edition, towards which the 

 British Association has made a grant. Some delay in the pub- 

 lication of the new issue has taken place, but I hope that the 

 report of the Committee in charge of the work may give 

 assurance of the book being now in a forward state. 



The feasibility of assigning trustworthy marks for physical 

 qualifications in c;.ndidates for posts either in the military or 

 civil departments of the State has now for some time been 

 attracting more or less of public attention, and the subject has 

 been taken up by the Council of this Association. The result 

 of their communications on this subject with the Government 

 has been made known in their Report, and I need not enter into 

 the history of the correspondence that has passed upon the 

 question. Whatever course may at the present time be adopted, 

 we may, I think, feel confident that eventually due weight will 

 have to be attached to physical capacity in selection for appoint- 

 ments in the military branch of the public service, for which, 

 indeed, at the present time a medical examination has to be 

 passed. Thanks to the ingenuity of Mr. Francis Galton and 

 others, we have now instruments at our command, not only for 

 testing muscular force, breathing capacity, and other bodily 

 characteristics, but also for ascertaining the closeness and 

 rapidity of connection between the organs of seeing and hearing, 

 and the action of the muscles required to be brought into play. 

 In these experiments nervousness, no doubt, is to some extent a 

 factor, but perhaps the rough-and-ready test of the South 



NO. 1090, VOL. 42] 



American commander was, for ascertaining the presence or ab- 

 sence of nervousness, even more effective. When promotion of 

 some officer was about to he made upon the field, the general 

 caused all the possible candidates to be arranged around him, 

 each armed with a flint and steel and a cigarette, and he who 

 first was satisfactorily smoking was promoted then and there. 



Connected with the question of general physical capacity is 

 that of the proper appreciation of colours, the absence of which 

 is a fruitful source of danger, both by land and at sea. It is, 

 indeed, impossible to say how often an apparently inexplicable 

 accident may not have arisen from some form of colour-blindness, 

 such as the inability to distinguish red from green, in a person in 

 charge of a ship, a train, or of points on a railway. True, there 

 are some forms of examination to be gone through, both by 

 mariners and railway officials, with the view of testing their 

 powers and correctness of vision ; but it is very doubtful whether 

 the tests employed or the manner in which the examinations are 

 conducted can be regarded as in all respects satisfactory. For 

 the purpose of investigating the phenomena, and, if possible, the 

 physical causes of colour-bHndness and allied defects of vision, 

 and also with the view of suggesting improvements in the 

 methods of determining the existence of such defects in candidates 

 for maritime or railway employment, the Council of the Royal 

 Society has appointed a Special Committee. Its labours, how- 

 ever, are not yet finished, and no report has hitherto been re- 

 ceived from the Committee. I mention the subject as one in 

 which all anthropologists will be interested, and the importance 

 of which must be universally acknowledged. The most singular 

 feature in the case is that the subject, though carefully investi- 

 gated by several private inquirers, should have waited so long 

 before being submitted to some public or quasi-public body for 

 investigation. 



The subjects of an anthropological survey of the tribes and 

 castes in our Indian possessions, and of the continued investiga- 

 tion of the habits, customs, and physical characteristics of the 

 North- Western tribes of the Dominion of Canada, were both 

 recommended for consideration to the Council of this Associa- 

 tion by the General Committee at the meeting at Newcastle. 

 We have heard from the Report of the Council what has been 

 done in the matter. The lapidily with which the various native 

 tribes in different parts of the world are either modified, or in 

 some cases exterminated, affords a strong argument for their 

 characteristics, both physical and mental, being investigated 

 without delay. 



There are, indeed, now but few parts of the world the in- 

 habitants of which have not, through the enterprise of travellers, 

 been brought more or less completely within our knowledge. 

 Even the centre of the dark African continent promises to 

 become as well known as the interior of South America, and to 

 the distinguished traveller who has lately returned among us 

 anthropologists as well as geographers owe their warmest thanks. 

 It is not a little remarkable to find so large a tract of country 

 still inhabited by the same diminutive race of human beings that 

 occupied it at the dawn of European history, and whose existence 

 was dimly recognized by Homer and Herodotus. The story 

 related by the latter about the young men of the Nasamones who 

 made an expedition into the interior of Libya and were there 

 taken captive by a race of dwarfs receives curious corroboration 

 from modern travellers. Herodotus may, indeed, slightly err 

 when he reports that the colour of these pygmies was black, and 

 when he regards the river on which their principal town was 

 situated as the Nile. Stanley, however, who states that there 

 are two varieties of these pygmies, utterly dissimilar in com.- 

 plexion, conformation of the head, and facial characteristics, 

 was not the first to rediscover this ancient race. At the end of 

 the sixteenth century, Andrew Battel, our countryman, who, 

 having been taken captive by the Portuguese, spent many years 

 in the Congo district, gave an account of the Matimbas, a pygmy 

 nation of the height of boys of twelve years old ; and in later times 

 Dr. Wolff and others have recorded the existence of the same or 

 similar races in Central Africa. Nor must we forget that for a 

 detailed account of an Acca skeleton we are indebted to the out- 

 going President of this Association, Prof. Flower. It is not, 

 however, my business here to enter into any detailed account of 

 African exploration or anthropology. I have made this incidental 

 mention of these subjects rather from a feeling that in Africa, 

 as well as in Asia and America, native races are in danger of 

 losing their primitive characteristics, if not of partial or total 

 extermination, and that there also the anthropologist and 

 naturalist must take the earliest possible opportunities for their 



