NA TURE 



Yjfan. 31, 1884 



gist, the antiquary, and the historian, that the studies of the one 

 pass insensibly into those of the other is an evident and neces- 

 sary proposition. Knowledge of the origin and development of 

 particular existing customs throws immense light upon their real 

 nature and importance, and conversely, it is often only from a 

 profound acquaintance with the present or comparatively modern 

 manifestations of culture that we are able to interpret the slight 

 indications afforded us by the scanty remains of primitive 

 civilisation. 



Even the more limited .subject of ethnology mn^t be approached 

 fnim many sides, and requires for its cultivation knowledge 

 derived from sciences so diverse, and requiring such different 

 mental attributes and systems of training, as scarcely ever to be 

 found combined in one individual. This will become perfectly 

 evident when v e consider the various factors or elements which 

 constitute the difterential characters of the groups or races into 

 which mankind is divided. The most important of these are — 



1. Structural or anatomical characters, derived from diversities 

 of stature, proportions of different parts of the body, complexion, 

 features, colour and character of the hair, form of the skull and 

 other bones, and the hitherto little-studied anatomy of the ner- 

 vous, muscular, vascular, and other systems. The modifications 

 in these structures in the different varieties of man are s> slight 

 and subtile, and so variously combined, that their due apprecia- 

 tion, and the discrimination of what in them is essential or 

 important, and what incidental or merely superficial, requires a 

 long and careful training, superadded to a preliminary know- 

 ledge of the general anatomy of man and the higher animals. 

 The study of physical or zoological ethnology, though it lies at the 

 basis of that of race, is thus necessaiily limited to a compara- 

 tively few original investigators. 



2. The mental and moral characters by which different races 

 are distinguished are still more difficult to fathom and to describe 

 and define, and although the subject of much v,ague statement, 

 as there are few people who do not consider themselves com- 

 petent to give an opinion about them, they have hitherto been 

 rarely approached by any strictly scientific method of inquiry. 



3. Language. — The same difficulties are met with in the study 

 of language as in that of physical peculiaiitie-', in the discrimina- 

 tion between the fundamental and essential, and the mere acci- 

 dental and superficial resemblances, and in proportion as these 

 difficulties are successfully overcome will be the results of the 

 study become valuable instead of misleading. Though the sci- 

 ence of language is an essential part of ethnology, and one 

 which generally absorbs almost the entire energies of any one 

 who cultivates it, its place in discriminating racial affinities is 

 unquestionably below that of physical characters. U>ed, how- 

 ever, with due caution, it is a powerful aid to our investigations, 

 and in the difficulties with which the subject is surrounded, one 

 which we can by no means afford to do without. 



4. The same may be said of social customs, including habita- 

 tions, dress, arms, food, as well as ceremonies, beliefs, and laws, 

 in themselves fascinating subjects of study, placed here in the 

 fourth rank, not as possessing any want of interest, but as 

 contributing comparatively little to our knowledge of the natural 

 classification and affinities of the racial divisi ins of man. When 

 we see identical and most strange customs, such as particular 

 modes of mutilation of the body, .showing themselves among 

 races the most diverse in character and remote geographically, 

 we cannot help coming to the conclusion that these customs 

 have either been communicated in some hitherto unexplained 

 manner, or are the outcome of some coomion element of 

 humanity, in either of which cases they tell nothing of the 

 special relations or affinities of the races which practise them. 



This subject of ethnography, or the discrimination and 

 description of race characteristics, is perhaps the most prac- 

 tically important of the various branches of anthropology. 

 Its importance to those who have to rule, and there are 

 few of us now who are not called upou to bear oar share 

 of the responsibility of government, can scarcely be over- 

 estimated in an empire like this, the population of which is 

 composed of examples of almost every diversity under which 

 the human body and mind can manifest itself. The physical 

 characterestics of race, so strongly marked in many cases, are 

 probably always associated with equally or more diverse charac- 

 teristics of temper and intellect. In fact, even when the physical 

 divergences are weakly shown, as in the case of the different 

 races which contribute to make up the home portion of the 

 empire, the mental and moral characteristics are still most 

 trongly marked. As it behoves the wise physician not only to 



study the particular kind of disease under which his patient is 

 suffering, and then to administer the approved remedies for such 

 disease, but also to take into careful account the peculiar idiosyn- 

 cracy and inherited tendencies of the indivirlu.al, which so greatl •■ 

 modify both the course of the disease and the action of remedies, 

 so it is absolutely necessary for the statesman who would govern 

 successfully, not to look upon human nature in the abstract and 

 endeavour to apply universal rules, but to consider the special 

 moral, intellectual, and social capabilities, wants, and aspirations 

 of each particular race with which he has to de.al. A form if 

 government under which one race would live happily anl 

 prosperously would to another be the cause of unendurable misery. 

 No greater mistake could be made, for instance, than to apply to 

 the ca e of the Egyptian fellah the remedies which may be desir- 

 able to remove the difficulties and disadvantages under which the 

 Birmingham artisan may labour in his struggle through life. It 

 is not only that their education, training, and circumstances arc 

 dissimilar, but that their very mental constitution is totally 

 distinct. And when we have to do with people still more widely 

 retnoved from ourselves, African Negroes, American Indians, 

 Australian or Pacific Islanders, it seems almost impossible to 

 fin 1 any common ground of union or modus vivendi ; the mere 

 contact t f the races generally ends in the extermination of one 

 of them. If such disastrous consequences cannot be altogether 

 averted, we have it still in our power to do much to mitigate 

 their evils. 



All these questions, then, should be carefully studied by those 

 who have any share in the government of people of races alien to 

 themselves. A knowledge of their special characters and rela- 

 tions to one another has a more practical object than the mere 

 gratification of scientific curiosity ; it is a knowledge upon which 

 the happiness and prosperity, or the reverse, of millions of our 

 fellow-creatures may depend. 



It is gratifying to find, then, that there are in our own country 

 — for on this occasion I will not speak of what is being done 

 elsewhere — many signs that the prospects of a thorough and 

 scientific cultivation of anthropology in its several branches 

 are brightening. 



I may first mention the publication of the final Report of the 

 Anthropometric Committee of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, of which formerly the late Dr. W. 

 Farr, and recently our vice-president, Mr. Francis Galton, have 

 been chairmen, and in which Mr. Charles Roberts, Dr. Beddoe, 

 Sir Rawson Rawson, and some other of our members have 

 taken so active a part. '1 his Report, and those which have from 

 time to time been issued by the Committee during the progres 

 of the work, contain a large mass of valuable statistical infor- 

 mation relating to the physical characters, including stature, 

 weight, chest girth, colour of eyes and hair, strength of arm, &c. , 

 of the inhabitants of the British Isles, illustrated by maps and 

 diagrams. Excellent as has been the work of the Committee, 

 there is still much to be done in the same direction, and larger 

 numbers of observations even than those already obtained arc 

 in many cases necessary to verify or correct the inferences drawn 

 from them. This is thoroughly acknowledged in the Report, 

 which .states in one of the concluding paragraphs that " th ■ 

 Committee believes that it has laid a substantial foundation for 

 a further and more exhaustive study of the physical condition of 

 a people by anthropometric methods, and that its action will 

 prove that it has beer useful as an example to other scien'ifij 

 societies and to individuals in stimulating them, as well a» 

 directing them in the methods of making statistical inquirie.-, 

 relative to social questions." 



It is satisfactory to learn that many portions of the work thus 

 inaugurated will be carried on by bodies specially interested in 

 particular departments, as the Collective Investigation Commit:ee 

 of the British Medical Association, and the Committee of the 

 British A-'sociation for collecting photographs and defining the 

 characteristics of the principal races of the United Kingdom, a 

 subject in which Mr. Park Harrison is taking so deep an intere.-t. 



It should be mentioned that the criginal returns upon which 

 the reports of the Committee are b.ased, includirg much informa- 

 tion which has not yet been analysed and tabulated, on account 

 of the time and labour such a process would involve, as well as 

 the instruments of investigation purchased with funds supplied 

 by the British Association, have been, by the consent of the 

 Council of the Association, placed under the charge of the 

 officers of this Institute. 



It is very satisfactory, in the next place, to be able to record 

 that our great centres of intellectual culture are gradually 



