Jan. 



NATL RE 



321 



waking up from that state of apathy with which they have 

 hitherto regarded the subject of anthropology. 



In Oxford the impulse given by the genius and energy of RoUes- 

 ton has begun to bear fruit. The University has taken charge of the 

 grand collection of ethnological objects most liberally offered to 

 it by our former presi lent, General Pitt-Rivers, and has under- 

 taken not only to provide a suitable building for its reception 

 but also to maintain it in a manner worthy of the scientific 

 discernment and munificence displayed by the donor in collecting 

 and arranging it. Furthermore O.-iford has .-howu her wisdom 

 in affiliating to herself the most learned of English anthro- 

 pologists in the viidest sense of the word, one of the few 

 men in this country who has made the subject the principal 

 occupation of his life. I need scarcely say that I r^fer to 

 another of our former presidents, Mr. E. B. Tylor. By con- 

 ferring a Readership in Antliropology upon him Oxford has 

 instituted the first systematic teaching of the subject yet given in 

 any educational establishment in this country, and it is a great 

 credit to the oldest University that it should thus lead the way 

 m one of the most modern of sciences. It is, however, only a 

 beginning; the whole of the great subject is confined to the 

 teaching of one individual with modest stipend, and not admitted 

 to the dignity of the professoriate. In the Ecole des Hautes 

 fitudes at Paris anthropology is taught theoretically and practi- 

 cally in six different branches, each under the direction of a pro- 

 fessor who has specially devoted liimself to it, aided, in some 

 cases, by several assistants. 



In Cambridge also there are many hopeful signs. The 

 recently. appointed Professor of Anatomy, Dr. Macalister, is 

 known to have paid much attention to anatomical anthropology, 

 and has already intimated that he proposes to give instruction in 

 it during the summer term. An Ethnological and Archieological 

 Museum is also in progress of formation, w'hich, if not destined 

 to rival that of Oxford, already contains many objects of great 

 value, and a guarantee of its good preservation and arrangement 

 may be looked for in the recent appointment of Baron Anatole 

 von Hiigel as its first curator. 



Perhaps in no place in the world could so varied and 

 complete an anthropological collection be expected as in 

 the national museum of this country, which should be the 

 great repository of the scientific gleanings of the numerous 

 naval, military, exploring, and mercantile expeditions sent 

 out by the Government or by private enterprise for more 

 than a century past, and penetrating into almost every region 

 of the globe. Our insular position, maritime supremacy, 

 numerous dependencies, and ramifying commerce, have given us 

 anusually favourable opportunities for the formation of such col- 

 lections, opportunities which unfortunately in past times have 

 not been used so fully as might be desired. There is, however, 

 a great change coming over those who have charge of our 

 national collections in regard to this subject. Thanks to the 

 ioresight and munificence of the late Mr. Henry Christy, and 

 the well-directed energies of Mr. Franks and his colleagues, the 

 collection illustrating the custom--, clothing, arts, and arms of 

 the various existing and extinct races of men, in the British 

 Museum, is rapidly assuming an importance which w-ill be a sur- 

 prise to those who see it for the first time arranged in the large 

 galleries formerly devoted to mammals and birds. Even the 

 grand proportion of space allotted to this collection in the re- 

 arrangement of the Museum is, I am told, scarcely sufficient for 

 its present needs, to say nothing of the accessions which it will 

 doubtless receive now that its importance and good order are 

 manifest. 



A national collection of illustrations of the physical characters 

 "f the races of men, fully illustrated by skeletons, by anatomical 

 .-pecimens preserved in spirit, by casts, models, drawings, and 

 photographs such as that which exi>ts in the Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle at Paris, is still a desideratum in this country. The British 

 -Museum till lately ignored the subject altogether, and in the be- 

 ginning of the century actually expelled ."-uch specimens of the kind 

 ,;s had accidentally found their way within its walls. Recently, 

 uowever, skulls and skeletons of man have been admitted, and 

 >ince the removal of the zoological collections to the new building 

 at South Kensington their importance as an integral part of the 

 series has been recognised, and their exhibition in the osteological 

 gallery will doubtless stimulate the growth of what we may trust 

 v\-ill be ultimately a collection worthy of the nation, although 

 unfortunately, from causes too well known, the difficulties of 

 procuring pure examples of many races are gi-adually increasing, 

 and in some cases have become well-nigh insuperable. The 



museum contains at present 407 specimens illustrating human 

 osteology, of which 10 are skeletons more or less complete. 



In the meantime the College of Surgeons of England has done 

 much to supply the deficiency. During the last twenty years it 

 has let few opportunities pass of attracting to itself, and there- 

 fore saving from the destruction or lapse into the neglected, 

 valueless condition into which small private collections almost 

 invariably ultimately fall, a large number of specimens, now, 

 it is to be hoped, placed permanently within the reach of scien- 

 tific observation. The growth of this collection may be illustrated 

 by the fact that, whereas at the time of the pubUcation of the 

 Catalogue in 1S53 it consi-ted of iS skeletons and 242 crania, it 

 now contains 89 more or less complete skeletons and 13S0 

 crania, nearly all of which have been added during the last 

 twenty years. This is, moreover, irrespective of the great col- 

 lection of Dr. Barnard Davis, purchased in iSSo by the College, 

 which was thus the means of preserving intact, for the future 

 advantage and in-tructiou of British anthropologists, an invalu- 

 able series of specimens otherwise probably destined to have 

 been dispersed or lot to the country for ever. This collection 

 consists of 24 skeletons and 1539 crania, making, with the 

 remainder of the College collection, a total of 3032 specimens 

 illustrating the osteological modifications of the human species. 

 These are all in excellent order, clean, accessible, and cata- 

 logued in a manner convenient for reference, although somewhat 

 too crowded in their present locality to be readily available for 

 observation. 



Large as is this collection, and rich in rare and interesting types, 

 it is far from exhaustive ; many great groups are almost or entirely 

 unrepreseiited even "by crania, and the series of skeletons is (with 

 the exception of one race only, the Andamanese) quite insuf- 

 ficient to give any correct idea of the average proportions of 

 different parts of the framework. In fact, such a coUecti n as 

 would be required for this purpose must be quite beyond the 

 resources of, as well as out of place in, any but a national 

 museum. 



The collections illustrating anatomical anthropology in the 

 University museums of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and 

 Dublin have all greatly increased of late, but for the reasons 

 just given they can never be expected to attain the dimensions 

 required for the study of the subject in its profoundest details. 

 The small, but very choice collections formed by the officers of 

 the medical department of the army, and kept in the museum 

 of the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley, and that of the navy 

 at Haslar Hospital, are, I believe, in a stationary condition, but 

 in good preservation. Our own collection, which also contains 

 some valuable specimens (notably the complete skeleton of one 

 of -the extinct Tasmanian aborigines, presented by the late 

 Mr! Morion Allport), and which durinj the past year has 

 been catalogued for the first time by Mr. Bloxam, has not been 

 added to, owing to a feeling which the Conned has long enter- 

 tained, and which induced them to part with the ethnological 

 collection, that a museum, entailing as it does, if worthily kept 

 up, a very considerable annual expense, is not within the means 

 of the Institute, at all events not until the more pressing claims 

 of the library and the publications are fully satisfied. 



This leads me to speak, in conclusion, of the work accom- 

 plished during the past year by the Institute, and of its present 

 position and future prospects. 



I must first refer to that portion of the retrospect of the year 

 which always casts a certain sadness over these occasions — the 

 losses we have sustained by death. Happily these have not 

 been numerous, and do not include, as has been the case in 

 many former years, any from whom great work in our own 

 subject might still have been expected. Though we were all 

 proud to number William Spottiswoode, the President of the 

 Royal Society, among our members, and though we all honoured 

 him for his accomplishments in other branches of science, and 

 loved him for his work as a man who rose high above his fellows 

 in his chivalrous sense of honour and simple dignity of de- 

 meanour, we could not claim him as a worker at anthropology. 



Lord Talbot de Malahide's antiquarian pursuits frequently 

 verged upon our own subjects in their proper sense, and he was 

 often present at our meetings, and a very recent contributor to 

 our journal. He had, however, reached the ripe old age of 

 eighty-two. 



From the list of our honorary members we have lost 

 a still more venerable name, that of Sven Nilsson, Pro- 

 fessor in the Academy of Lund. He was born on . larch 8, 

 1787, and died on November 30 of last year, and was therefore 



