436 



NATURE 



\_Sept. 8, 1 88 1 



Till I learned Faure's invention I could but think of step-down 

 dynamos, at a mai;i receiving-station, to take energy direct from 

 the electric main v^ith its So,ooo volts, and supply it by secondary 

 200 volt dynamos or loo volt dynamos, through proper distri- 

 buting wires, to the hriuses and factories and sh jps where it is to 

 be used for electric lighting, and sewing-machines, and lathes, 

 and lifts, or whatever other mechanism wants driving power. 

 Now the thing is to be done much more ecouDmically, I hope, 

 and certainly with much greater simplicity and regularity, by 

 keeping a Faure battery of 40,000 cells always being charged 

 direct from the electric main, and applying a methodical system 

 of removing sets of Jo, and placing them on the town-supply 

 circuits, while other sets of 50 are being regularly introduced 

 into the great battery that is being charged, so as to keep its 

 number alway; within 50 of the proper number, which would be 

 about 40,000 if the potential at the emitting end of the main is 

 80,000 volts. 



SECTION D 



BIOLOGY 



Department of Anthropology 



Opening Address by Prof. W. H. Flower, LL D., 

 F.R.S., Pres. Z.S., V.P. Anthrop. Inst., &c., Chairman 

 OF THE Department 



It is impossible for us to commence the work of this section 

 of the Association without having vividly brought to our minds 

 the loss which has befallen us since our last meeting — the loss of 

 one who was our most characteristic representative of the com- 

 plex science of anthropology — one who had for many years con- 

 ducted with extraordinary energy, amidst multifarious other 

 avocations, a series of researches into the history, customs, and 

 physical characters of the early inhabitants of our island, for 

 which he was so especially fitted by his archceological, historical, 

 and literary, as well as his anatomical knowledge, and who was 

 also the most popular and brilliant expositor, to assemblies such 

 as meet together on these occasions, of the results of those 

 researches. I need scarcely say that I refer to Prof. RoUeston. 



Within the last few months the study of our subject in this 

 country his received au impulse from the publication of a bjok 

 — small in size, it is true, but full of materials for thought and 

 instruction — the " Anthropology " of Mr. E. B. Tylor, the fust 

 work published in English with that title, and one very different 

 in its scope and method from the old ethnological treatises. 



The immense array of facts brought together in a small com- 

 pass, the terseness and elegance of the style, the good taste ani 

 feeling with which difficult and often burning questions are 

 treated, should give this book a wide circulation among all 

 classes, and thorougly familiarise both the word and the subject 

 to English readers. 



The origin and early history of man'.- civilisation, his language, 

 his arts of life, his religion, science, and social customs in the 

 primitive conditions of society, are subjects in which, in conse- 

 quence of their du-ect continuity with the arts and sciences, 

 religious, political, and social customs among which we all live, 

 by which we are all influenced, and about which we all have 

 opinions, every person of ordinary education can and should take 

 an interest. In fact, really to understand all these problems in 

 the complex condition in which they are presented to us now, 

 we ought to study them in their more simple forms, and trace 

 them as far as may be to their origins. 



But, as the .luthor remarks, this book is only an introduction 

 to anthropology, rather than a summary of all that it teaches ; 

 and some, even those that many consider the most important, 

 branches of the subject are but lightly touched upon, or wholly 

 passed over. 



In one of the estimates of the character and opinions of the 

 very remarkable man and eminent statesman, who e death the 

 country was mourning last spring, it was stated : " Lord 

 Beaconsfield had a deep-rojled conviction of the vast importance 

 of race, as determining the relative dominance both of societies 

 and of individuals" (Spalalor, April 23, iSSi); and with regard 

 to the question of what he meant by " race," we have a key in 

 the last published work of the same acute observer of mankind : 

 "Language and religion do not make a race— there is only one 

 thing which makes a race, and that is blood" ("Endymion," 

 vol. ii. p. 205). Now "blood " used in this sense is defined as 

 " kindred ; relation by natural descent from .^ common ancestor ; 



consanguinity" (Webster's "Dictionary"). The study of the 

 true relationship of the different races of men is then not only 

 interesting from a scientific poiut of view, but of great import- 

 ance to statesmanship in such a country as this, embracing sub- 

 jects representing almost every known modification of the human 

 species, whose varied and often conflicting interests have to be 

 regulated and provided for. It is to want of appreciation of its 

 importance that many of the inconsistencies and shortcomings of 

 the government of our dependencies and colonies are due, 

 especially the great inconsistency between a favourite English 

 theory and a too common English practice — the former being 

 that all men are morally and intellectually alike, the latter being 

 that all .are equally inferior to himself in all respects : both pro- 

 positions egregiously fallacious. The study of race is at a low 

 ebb indeed when we hear the same contemptuous epithet of 

 " nigger " appUed indiscriminately by the Englishman abroad to 

 the blacks of the West Coast of Africa, the Kaffirs of Natal, 

 the Lascars of Bombay, the Hindoos of Calcutta, the aborigines 

 of Australia, and even the Maoris of New Zealand ! 



But how is he to know better? Where in this country is any 

 instruction to be had ? Where are the bojks to which he may 

 turn for trustworthy information ? The subject, as I have said, 

 is but slightly touched upon in the last published treatise on 

 anthropology in our language. The great work of Pritchard, a 

 compendium of all that was known at the time it was written, is 

 now almost entirely out of date. In not a single university or 

 public institution throughout the three kingdoms is there any 

 kind of systematic teaching, either of physical or of any other 

 branch of anthropology, except so far as comparative philology 

 may be considered as bearing upon the subject. The one society 

 of which it is the special business to promote the study of these 

 questions, the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, is, I regret to say, far from fl jurishing. Au anthropo- 

 logical museum, in the proper sense of the word, either pubUc 

 or private, does not exist in this country. 



What a contrast is this to what we see in almost every other 

 nation in Europe ! At Paris there is, first, the Museum d'His- 

 toire Naturelle, where man, as a zoological subject — almost 

 entirely neglected in our British Museum — has a magnificent 

 gallery allotted to him, abounding not only in illustrations of 

 osteology, but also in models, casts, drawings, and anatomical 

 preparations showing various points in his physical or natural 

 history, which is expounded to the public in the free lectures of 

 the venerable Prof. Quatrefages and his able coadjutor. Dr. 

 Hamy ; there is also the vigorous Society of Anthropology, 

 which is stated in the last annual report to number 720 members, 

 showing an increase of forty-four during the year 1S80, and 

 which is forming a museum on a most extensive scale ; and, 

 finally, the School of Anthropology, founded by the illustrious 

 Broca, whose untimely death la-t year, instead of paralysing, 

 seems to have stimulated, the energies of colleagues and pupils 

 into increased activity. In this school, supported partly by 

 private subscriptions, partly by the public liljerality of the 

 Municipality of Paris, and of the Department of thi; Seine, are 

 laboratories in which all the processes of anthropological 

 manipulation are practised by students and taught to travellers. 

 Here all the bodies of persons of outlandish nationalities dying 

 in any of the hospitals of Paris are dissected by competent and 

 zealous observers, who carefully record every peculiarity of 

 structure disc overed, and are thus laying the foundation for an 

 exhaustive and trustworthy collection of materials for the com- 

 parative anatomy of the races of man. Here, furthermore, are 

 lectureships on all the different branches. Biological and ana- 

 tomical anthropology, ethnology, prehistoric, linguistic, social, 

 and medical anthropology are all treated of separately by 

 eminent professors who have made these departments their 

 special study. The influence of so much activity is spreading 

 beyond the capital. The foundation of an anthropological 

 society at Lyons has been announced within the present year. 



In Germany, although there is not at present any institulion 

 organised like the school at Paris, the flourishing state of the 

 Berlin Ethnological Society, which also reports a large increase 

 in the number of its members, the various other societies and 

 journals, and the important contributions which are continually 

 being made from the numerous intellectual centres of that land 

 of learning, all attest the interest which the study of man excites 

 there. In Italy, in the Scanlinavian kingdoms, in Russia, and 

 even in Spain, there are signs of similar activity. A glance at 

 the recent periodical literature of America, especially the publi- 

 cations of the Smithsonian Institution, will show how strongly 



