250 ANTHROPOLOGY xvn 



branch of Biological Science until three years later (1869), 

 when Section E, dropping Ethnology from its title, hence- 

 forward became Geography alone. The Department for the 

 first two years (1869 and 1870) was conducted under the 

 title of Ethnology, but in 1871 it resumed the name of 

 Anthropology, given to it in 1866, and it flourished to such an 

 extent, attracting so many papers and such large audiences, 

 that it was finally constituted into a distinct Section, to which 

 the letter H was assigned, and which had its first session at 

 the memorable meeting at Montreal, exactly ten years ago, 

 under the fitting and auspicious presidency of Dr. E. B. 

 Tylor. 



The history of the gradual recognition of Anthropology 

 as a distinct subject by this Association is an epitome of the 

 history of its gradual growth, and the gradual recognition of 

 its position among other sciences in the world at large, a 

 process still in operation and still far from complete. Although 

 the word Anthropology had certainly existed, but used in a 

 different sense, it was not till well into the middle of the 

 present century that it, or any other word, had been thought 

 of to designate collectively the scattered fragments of various 

 kinds of knowledge bearing upon the natural history of man, 

 which were beginning to be collected from so many diverse 

 sources. Indeed, as I have once before upon a similar occasion 

 remarked, one of the great difficulties with regard to making 

 Anthropology a special subject' of study, and devoting a special 

 organisation to its promotion, is the multifarious nature of the 

 knowledge comprehended under the title. This very ambition, 

 which endeavours to include such an extensive range of 

 subjects, ramifying in all directions, illustrating and receiving 

 light from so many other sciences, appears often to overleap 

 itself, and give a looseness and indefiniteness to the aims of 

 the individual or the institution proposing to cultivate it. 

 The old term Ethnology, or the study of peoples or races, has 

 a limited and definite meaning. It treats of the resemblances 

 and modifications of the different groups of the human species 

 in their relations to each other, but Anthropology, as now 

 understood, has a far wider scope. It treats of mankind as a 

 whole. It investigates its origin and his relations to the 



