March i8, 1909J 



NA rURE 



7Z 



been one of the most striking- evidences of the 

 triumph of the truth as presented by Darwin. 



In New York a joint committee of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences, the American Museum of 

 Natural History, and Columbia, University arranged 

 n joint celebration for February 12. In the morning 

 tlie students of Columbia University assembled to hear 

 an address by Prof. H. F. Osborn on the " Life and 

 Work of Darwin," appropriately introduced by the 

 president of the university, Dr. Nicholas Murray 

 Butler. This address was the first of a course of 

 special lectures, extending over nine weeks, entitled 

 " Charles Darwin and his Influence on Science." 

 The topics cover terrestrial evolution, pateontology, 

 20ology, anthropology, psychology, botany, modern 

 philosophv, cosmic evolution, and human institutions, 

 Besides members of the Columbia facultv the speakers 

 included Prof. W. B. Scott, of Princeton, Dr. D. T. 

 McDougal, of the Botanical Research Station, and 

 Dr. G. E. Hale, of the Solar Observatory of the 

 Carnegie Institution. 



In the afternoon a large audience assembled in (he 

 Synoptic Hall of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, under the auspices of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences. Air. Charles F. Cox, presi- 

 dent of the New York Academy of Sciences, opened 

 the meeting with a sketch of Darwin's life, and closed 

 with the presentation to the American Museum of a 

 bronze portrait bust of Darwin. This bust was 

 executed by the sculptor William Cooper, and is of 

 heroic size, mounted on a polished pedestal of the 

 granite of which the museum is built, with an inscrip- 

 tion tablet in bronze. It will stand permanently at the 

 entrance of the Synoptic Hall. In accepting the bust 

 on behalf of the trustees of the American Museum, 

 President Osborn spoke of its three-fold significance 

 — first as a work of art which will be welcomed 

 everywhere as a singularly impressive likeness of 

 Darwin, second as permanently associating the name 

 of the great naturalist with one of the newer exhi- 

 bition halls which is to be especially devoted to the 

 exposition of the -general principles of biology as seen 

 In the structure and embryonic development, the 

 adaptations of colour and form, the marvellous 

 diversity, yet unity, of the animal world, to the true 

 interpretation of which Charles Darwin devoted his 

 life. President Osborn closed by announcing that, in 

 order further to cement the name and spirit of Darwin 

 with the museum, the trustees had unanimously 

 voted to name this hall Darwin Hall, and had pre- 

 pared and placed at the entrance on the centennial 

 day two bronze tablets as a permanent record of the 

 time and place of this dedication. 



.'\ddresses were then given bv Prof. N. L. Britton, 

 director of the New York Botanical Garden, on 

 Darwin's contributions to botany, and bv Prof. J. J. 

 Stevenson, of the University of New York, on 

 Dar\vin's contributions to geoiogi.-, in which it was 

 especially pointed out that modern biologv through 

 Lyell and Darwin largely owes its method to geologv. 

 The final address was made by Dr. H. C. ISumpus, 

 director of the American Museum of Natural History, 

 in which was outlined a history of the reception of 

 Darwinism in the United States and the earlv con- 

 tributions of Gray, of Morse, of Hvatt, of Cope, and 

 of others to the Darwinian theory. 



At the close of these addresses the guests passed 

 from the Synoptic Hall to the adjoining hall of North 

 American forestry, where a special exhibition had 

 been arranged to illustrate the principles brought out 

 in Darwin's writings. In the fifteen alcoves of the 

 hall a special exhibit has been arranged to exhibit each 

 of the great principles and subjects treated by Darwin. 

 There had also been brought together temporarily 

 NO. 2055, VOL. So] 



an exhibit of all Darwin's publications, of the 

 first editions of all his works, a series of portraits 

 and autograph letters, as well as a series of photo- 

 graphs of Darwin's contemporaries, chiefly from the 

 unique private collection of Mr. Charles F. Cox, 

 president of the New York i\cademy of Sciences. 



H. F. O. 



^A' IMPERIAL BUREAU OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 ■pOR many years past those who have appreciated 

 -•■ _ the practical value of ethnology in the adminis- 

 tration of our Empire have realised the necessity of 

 a central organisation for the registration and co- 

 ordination of data collected by Government officials 

 or others, for the giving of advice to those about to 

 reside or _ travel in India or the colonies, and to 

 serve as a central office where those at home could 

 obtain trustworthy information concerning the various 

 races and peoples that collectively constitute the 

 British Empire, .^t the Liverpool ' meeting of the 

 British .Association in 1896, Mr. C. H. Read, of the 

 British Museum, proposed the foundation of a bureau 

 of this nature. In his presidential address to the 

 anthropological section at the Dover meeting, three 

 years later, he announced that the trustees of the 

 British Museum had undertaken the working of the 

 bureau under his own supervision, if the Treasury 

 would make a small yearly grant. Owing to lack 

 of adequate support, very little has been accomplished 

 to render effective Mr. Read's laudable endeavour. 



The need for such an establishment has been in- 

 creasingly felt. Thanks to the zeal of Prof. W'. 

 Ridgeway, of Cambridge, the president of the Royal 

 .\nthropological Institute, the matter has again been 

 taken up. He drew up a memorial which has been 

 signed by a large number of influential persons in 

 all departments of activity, statesmen, eminent 

 administrators of India and the colonies, members 

 of Parliament, merchants, students of all branches 

 of the humanities, anthropologists, and many others. 

 The memorial refers to the utility of anthropology in 

 other departments of intellectual and practical life; 

 for example, several of our distinguished adminis- 

 trators, both in India and the colonies, have pointed 

 out that most of the mistakes made by officials in 

 dealing with natives are due to lack of training 

 in the rudiments of ethnology, primitive sociology, 

 and primitive religion. Nor is it only for the 

 administrator that training in anthropology and 

 facility for its further study are important. For pur- 

 poses of commerce it is of vital necessity that the 

 manufacturer and the trader should be familiar with 

 the habits, customs, arts, and tastes of the natives 

 of the country with which, ot- in which, thev carry 

 on their business. The Germans have long since 

 seen the value of such a training ; they have spent, 

 and are spending, large sums annually in promoting 

 the study of the ethnology of all part's of the world, 

 and their remarkable success in trade in recent years, 

 not only with primitive and barbaric races, but also 

 in China and Japan, is largely due to this fact. 



The training of young officials is a matter ot 

 national importance, and there is evidence that some 

 of our leading administrators are fully alive to its 

 value. Recently, Sir Reginald ^^■ingate addressed a 

 letter to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge 

 in which he asked wliether those universities \ycre 

 prepared to give instruction in ethnology and primi- 

 tive religion to probationers for the Sudan Civil 

 Service; the Oxford .Anthropological Committee and 

 the Cambridge Board of Anthropological Studies At 

 once replied in the affirmative, and courses of in- 



