BIOLOGICAL TRAINING AND STUDIES. 871 



heads are to make out, each independently of the other and con- 

 temporaneously, a wise discovery or invention, it is much more 

 likely, on the calculation of chances, and considering the much 

 greater number of fools and blockheads(" Thoren und Dummkopfen"), 

 that in two countries widely apart closely similar follies should be 

 simultaneously invented. And then, if the inventing fool happens 

 to be a man of influence and consideration, which is, hy the way, an 

 exceedingly frequent coincidence, both the nations are likely to 

 adopt the same foolish practice, and the historian and antiquary, 

 after the lapse of some centuries, is likely to draw from this 

 coincidence the conclusion that the two nations both sprang from 

 the same stock.' Judge and speculate for yourselves how the spirit 

 which breathes in this passage was excited, but note its scientific 

 value too. We must not forget that it is possible, in thought at 

 least, to dissociate the psychological unity of man from his specific 

 identity even; and that, as regards identity of race, it is only 

 reasonable to expect that when similar needs are pressing, similar 

 means for meeting them are not unlikely to be devised inde- 

 pendently by members of two tribes who have for ages been 

 separated from their original stocks. The question to be asked is, 

 does the contrivance about which we are speculating combine, or 

 does it not combine in itself so large a number of converging 

 adaptations as to render it upon the calculation of chances unlikely 

 that it should have been independently invented ? Yet this very 

 obvious principle has been neglected, or Linden schmit would not 

 have found it necessary to say that, by laying too much stress upon 

 certain points of national identity in the stones used for the 

 formation of cromlechs or dolmens, the Hunenvolk might be made 

 out to have chosen to settle only in those parts of Germany where 

 erratic blocks of granite or other such large stones could be found ! 

 ('Archiv fiir Anthropologic,' iii. p. 115, 1868.) 



Sir John Lubbock's recently published work on ' The Origin of 

 Civilisation' may, I anticipate, cause the history and genealogy of 

 manners and customs to enter largely into the composition of our 

 lists of papers. There is no need for me, as the author of the 

 book is here himself, to occupy your time in recommending his 

 work; but I may be allowed to say that the utility of such 

 pursuits as those which Sir John Lubbock's book treats of 

 receives some little illustration from the fact that, as we learn 



