OFTHEHUMANFAMILY. 5 



gation, namely, to find whether it prevailed in other parts of the world. To 

 determine that question would require an extensive foreign correspondence, which 

 a private individual coukl not hope to maintain successfully. To make the attempt 

 effectual would require the intervention of the national government, or the co-ope- 

 ration of some literary or scientific institution. It is one of the happy features of 

 American society that any citizen may ask the assistance of his government, or ef 

 any literary or scientific institution in the country, with entire freedom ; and with 

 the further consciousness that his wishes will be cheerfully acceded to if deserving 

 of encouragement. This removed what might otherwise have been a serious 

 obstacle. In this spirit I applied to Prof. Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, for the use of the name of theiatter in foreign countries in the 

 conduct of the correspondence ; and further desired him to procure a letter from 

 the Secretary of State of the United States to our diplomatic and consular repre- 

 sentatives abroad, commending the subject to their favorable attention. With 

 both of these requests Prof. Henry complied in the most cordial manner. From 

 January, 1860, until the close of the investigation, the larger part of the corre- 

 spondence was conducted under the official name of the Institution, or under cover 

 by the Secretary of State. By these means an unusual degree of attention was 

 secured to the work in foreign countries, the credit of which is due to the influence 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, and to the official circular of the late General Cass, 

 then Secretary of State. In addition to these arrangements I had previously 

 solicited and obtained the co-operation of the secretaries of the several American 

 missionary boards, which enabled me to reach, under equally favorable conditions, 

 a large number of American missionaries in Asia and Africa, and among the 

 islands of the Pacific. .^-. 



From the distinguished Ame-incan missionary, Dr. Henry W. Scudder, of Arcot, 

 India, who happened to be in. -this country in 1859, I had obtained some evidence 

 of the existence of the American Indian system of relationship among the Tamilian 

 people of South-India. This discovery opened still wider the range of the proposed 

 investigation. It became necessary to find the limits within which the systems of 

 the Aryan and Semitic families prevailed, in order to ascertain the line of demarca- 

 tion between their forms and that of the eastern Asiatics. The circumscription of 

 one was necessary to the circumscription of the other. In addition to this it seemed 

 imperative to include the entire human family within the scope of the research, 

 and to work out this comprehensive plan as fully as might be possible. The 

 nearer this ultimate point was approximated the more instructive would be the 

 final results. It was evident that the full significance of identity of systems in 

 India and America would be lost unless the knowledge was made definite concern- 

 ing the relations of the Indo-American system of relationship to those of the 

 western nations of Europe and Asia, and also to those of the nations of Africa and 

 Polynesia. This seeming necessity greatly increased the magnitude of the under- 

 taking, and at the same time encumbered the subject with a mass of subordinate 

 materials. 



In the further prosecution of the enterprise the same schedule and circular were 

 sent to the principal missions of the several American boards, with a request that 



