Atig. 2 2, 1872] 



NA TURE 



341 



the intelligent classes of the community can be shown on rood 

 ground, that (he furtherance of abstract science is a matter of 

 vi'al imporance in our national existence, no one believes that 

 now the reallv trifling pubiic expei.diture which wojild he le- 

 quirod to enable us to compete at least on equal terms with 

 (.jeiiiiany, AuUria, Bavaria, and Russia, would at once be forth- 

 coming. 



In ttie meantime'it ,is the function and duty of all who have 

 the means and are interested in scientific progress, and es- 

 jiecially of us, the members of this section of the liritish Asso- 

 ciation, to aftord such aid as we can to those who, suppoited by 

 their own enthusiasm rather than by the prospect of honour or 

 emolumenf, are willing to devote their lives to physiological and 

 anatomical researches. 



SUB-SECTION A.NTIIROrOI-OGY 

 OpEN'IN'G ADDRIiSS BY THE PRESIDENT, COLONEL A. 



Lane Fox 

 {Concluded /iviii /"igc 324) 



Amongst the earliest improvements upon the primitive arts of 

 man would be the substitution of the throwing-stick by the bow 

 as a means of accelerating the flight and force of the javelin. So 

 decided an advance in the employment of missile force would 

 Ic.id to the discontinuance of the throwing-stick for ordinary 

 purposes wherever the bow was introduced. The throwing-stick 

 is now found only in distant and unconnected regions, viz., in Aus- 

 tralia, and amongst the Esquimaux, and the Furus Furus Indians 

 of South America ; and it has been assumed, on account ol the 

 isolated positions in which it is found, that it must be indigenous. 

 On the other hand, the use ot the bow is almost universal ; and 

 it has equally been assumed, on account of its world-wide distri- 

 bution, that it must be indigenous in dilTerent localities, and not 

 derived from a common centre. Geographical distribution , how- 

 ever, although affording the best evidence obtainable, cannot be 

 relied upon with certainty in the case of so early an invention as 

 tile bow appears to have been. I cannot concur in thinking tliat 

 we have any sure evidence that the bow originated in different 

 places ; on the contrary, what evidence we have appears to me 

 to be of a contrary tendency. 



As by degrees the use of the bow spread over the world, that 

 of the throwing-stick would tend to disappear. We have some 

 grounds for supposing that the latter instrument was foiinerly in 

 use in the I'elew Islands, and Mr. Franks has found it amongst 

 some Mexican relics probably preserved in a tomb. May it not 

 also have existed formerly in other localities where it has not been 

 preserved in tombs, and where no trace of it now exists ? If this 

 were the case, where should we now expect to find it retained ? 

 In such localities as the Arctic Seas, where lack of suitable 

 materials still renders the construction of the bow a work of 

 great difticulty, as is shown by the manner in which several 

 pieces of hard bone are sometimes fastened together to form one, 

 or in Australia, where the knowledge of the use of the bow has 

 never penetrated. 



Closely connected with the bow, the harpoon may be in- 

 stanced as an example of early origin and wide distribution. The 

 harpoon is found in some of the French caves, amongst the 

 earliest bone relics of human workmanship that have been 

 brought to light. Its piesent distribution is almost univeisal, 

 being found in Australia, Iv'orih and South Africa, North and 

 South America, and in all regions where its use has not been 

 superseded by more suitable contrivances. 



In proportion as our investigations are carried into the higher 

 phases of civilisation, we find our area^ of distribution more 

 limited, and of more and more value to us in tracing the con- 

 tinuity of culture ; and when we come to the distribution of the 

 metallurgic arts we find them defined by marked geographical 

 boundaries which are not the boundaries of the great primieval 

 races of mankind. 



If we draw a line across the globe from Behring Strait in a 

 south-westerly direction through Wallace's line, leaving Austra- 

 lia on the east, and take for our period the date of the first dis- 

 covery ot America, we shall find that — putting aside the metal- 

 lurgic culture ot Mexico and Pi.ru, which, it may be observed, 

 is grouped rouiul a single centre — this line separates the area of 

 stone culture on the cast from the area of metallurgic culture 

 on the west, but it passes straight through the prima;val racial 

 boundaries. 



If we take what we may call the metallurgic area more in 



detail, and endeavour to trace the distribution of the implements 

 of the bronze period, we find that the same class of weapons and 

 tools extends over a continuous area, including the whole of the 

 northtni, western, and central parts of Euiope, as far as Sibena 

 on the east ; these implements, including palstaves, leaf-shaped 

 swords, and socket cells, with the moulds for casting them, are 

 of a character to prove that the difiusion of the bronze culture 

 throughout this area must have been connected and continuous. 

 In Egypt, Assyria, India, and China, we have also bronze, but the 

 forms of the implements do not, as a rule, correspond to those of 

 the area above mentioned ; our knowledge of the bronze wea- 

 pons ol India and China is, however, extremely limited as yet. 

 I have elsewhere given my reasons for believing that the know- 

 ledge of the use of iron in Africa must have been derived from a 

 common centre ; not only is the mode of working it the same 

 throughout that continent and in India, but the forms of the 

 weapons fabricated in this metal, and especially the corrugated 

 blades, are the same in every part, and appear to have been 

 copied and retained through hahir, wherever the use of iron has 

 penetrated. I have lately traced this peculiar form of blade in 

 several parts of the Indian Peninsula and Burmah, and I have 

 no doubt it Avill eventually be found further to the north, so as to 

 connect the area of its distribution continuously with those of the 

 same identical construction that are found in the Saxon and 

 Frankish graves. 



I have thus briefly alluded to the distribution of some of the 

 arts associated with early culture, with the view of showing that 

 as our knowledge increases we may expect to be able to trace 

 many connect ions of which we are now ignorant, and that we should 

 be careful[jhow we too readily assume, in accordance with the 

 theory which appears popular among anthropologists at the pre- 

 sent time, that coincidences in the culture of people in oistant 

 regions must invariably have originated independently, because 

 no evidence of communication is observable at the present lime. 

 Owing, perhaps, to a praiseworthy desire to refute the arguments 

 of Archbishop Whately, and others who have erroneously, as I 

 think, assumed that because no race of existing savages has been 

 known to elevate itself in the scale of civilisation, therefore, the 

 first steps in culture must have resulted from supernatural revela- 

 tion, we have now had a run upon the theory of what may be 

 called the spontaneous generation of culture, and the pages of 

 travel have been ransacked to find examples of independent 

 origin and progress in the arts and customs of savage tribes. 



Owing to this cause we have, I Jthink, lost sight in a great 

 measure of the important fact which history reveals to us, that, 

 account for il as we may — and it is one of the great problems of 

 Anthropology to account for it if we can — the civilisation of the 

 world has always advanced by means of a leading shoot, and 

 though constantly shifting its area, it has within historic times 

 invariably grouped itself round a single centre, from which the 

 arts have been disseminated into distant lands, or handed down 

 to posterity. In all cases a continuous development must be 

 traced before the problem of origin can be considered solved ; 

 the development may have been slow, or it may have been rapid, 

 but the sequence of ideas must have been continuous, and until 

 that sequence is established our knowledge is at fault. As with 

 the distribution of plants, certain soils are favourable to the giowth 

 of certain plants, but we do not on that account assume them to be 

 spontaneous ofl'spring of the soil; so certain arts and phases of 

 culture may flourish amongst certain races, or under certain con- 

 ditions of life. But it is as certain that each art, custom, and insti- 

 tution had its history of natural growth, as it is that each seed 

 which sprouts in the soil once fell from a parent stem. The 

 human intellect is the soil in v,hich the arts and sciences may be 

 said to grow ; and this is the only condition of things compatible 

 with the existence of minds capable of adapting external nature, 

 but possessing no power of originality. 



If I am right in supposing that it is one of the primary objects 

 of Anthropological Science to trace out the history and sources 

 of human culture, a consideration of the relative value of the 

 various classts of evidence on which we rely for this purpose, 

 will be admitted to be a question of no slight importance m con- 

 nection with our subject. We must distinguish between those 

 branches of study which we are apt to look upon as intrinsically 

 the higliest, and on that account ihe most attractive, and those 

 v.'hich are of most value as evidence of man in a low condition 

 of culture. To the rtligioi.s, myths, institutions, and language 

 of a people we are naturally drawn, as affording the best indica- 

 tions of their mental endowments ; but it is evident that these 

 carry us no farther back in time than the historic period, and 

 however necessary to be studied as branches of our science, they 



