VII. 



ON THE METHODS AND RESULTS OF 

 ETHNOLOGY. 



ETHNOLOGY is the science which determines the dis- 

 tinctive characters of the persistent modifications of 

 mankind ; which ascertains the distribution of those 

 modifications in present and past times, and seeks to 

 discover the causes, or conditions of existence, both 

 of the modifications and of their distribution. I say 

 " persistent " modifications, because, unless incidentally, 

 ethnology has nothing to do with chance and transitory 

 peculiarities of human structure. And I speak of 

 " persistent modifications " or " stocks " rather than 

 of "varieties," or "races," or "species," because each of 

 these last well-known terms implies, on the part of its 

 employer, a preconceived opinion touching one of those 

 problems, the solution of which is the ultimate object 

 of the science : and in regard to which, therefore, 

 ethnologists are especially bound to keep their minds 

 open and their judgments freely balanced. 



Ethnology, as thus defined, is a branch of ANTHRO- 

 POLOGY, the great science which unravels the complexities 

 of human structure ; traces out the relations of man to 

 other animals; studies all that is especially human in the 

 mode in which man's complex functions are performed; 



