74 



NATURE 



[March i8, 1909 



struction in those subjects have already commenced. 

 No provision has as yet been made anywhere for the 

 training of schoolmasters and medical officers in 

 anthropometry, to fit them to take measurements of 

 school children and Army recruits. Yet this branch 

 of anthropology is one of the highest importance, 

 not simply for scientific reasons, but because of its 

 practical bearing on the great question of physical 

 deterioration, which has long engaged the attention 

 of anthropologists and the medical profession, and has 

 latelv been discussed in Parliament. 



The memorial urges the establishment in London 

 of a bureau in which all the distinguished anthro- 

 pologists of the kingdom could meet on common 

 ground, as do all the leading mathematicians, physi- 

 cists, chemists, and biologists in the Royal Society. 

 .\\\ the elements of such a bureau already exist in 

 the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain 

 and Ireland. This bureau would collect information 

 respecting the ethnology, institutions, arts, religion, 

 and law of all races, especially of those in the British 

 Empire, and it would publish the notes sent in by 

 observers in all parts of the world, issuing these in 

 the form of bulletins. The bureau might confer a 

 diploma on officials, scientific travellers, and others 

 who had submitted to a proper test of their distinction 

 in some branch of anthropology, and it would approve 

 for certificates schoolmasters and others who had 

 shown themselves competent to make anthropometrical 

 observations in the examinations held under the 

 direction of the bureau. In view of the services 

 which such a bureau would render to the nation, 

 " we respectfully petition His Majesty's Govern- 

 ment to make an annual grant of 500/. to the Royal 

 -Anthropological Institute for carrying out the 

 scheme set forth, and also to grant a suitable set of 

 rooms in the Imperial Institute." 



It is not proposed tliat the teaching of ethnology 

 should form part of the work of the bureau. For 

 many vears past instruction has been given in the 

 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in various 

 departments of anthropology. In the Univer- 

 sity of London are the only two professors of 

 sociology in the kingdom, and instruction has also 

 been given in ethnology for several years, and the Uni- 

 versity of Liverpool has a professor of social anthro- 

 pology. Thus, although most of the teaching ap- 

 pointments are financially starved and work under 

 unfavourable conditions, the foundations have been 

 laid for anthropological instruction in several of our 

 universities. 



On March 12 the Prime Minister received an in- 

 fluential deputation at the House of Commons, which 

 presented to him the memorial urging the Govern- 

 ment to establish an Imperial Bureau of Anthropology 

 in connection with the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute. Prof. Ridgeway pointed out that the science 

 of anthropology could be of the highest possible ser- 

 vice to the State in the training of Colonial and 

 Indian administrators, and that it was also a necessity 

 for commercial success. Sir Edward Candy said, in 

 reply to the Prime Minister, that he would make 

 anthropology a compulsory subject. 



The Prime Minister said that he entirely agreed 

 that anthropology was becoming every year more and 

 more, not only an important, but an indispensable 

 branch of knowledge, not merely for scholars, but 

 for persons who were going to undertake the work 

 of administration in an Empire like ours, whether 

 in India or in Crown Colonies. While he would 

 hesitate to express anything like a considered and 

 final opinion as to whether anthropology ought 

 to be included as a compulsory subject for examina- 

 tion, he was quite satisfied that it was highly desir- 



NO. 2055, VOL. 80I 



able that it should become a regular subject of study, 

 and enter into the normal equipment of young men 

 who went to the outlying regions of the Empire and 

 encountered strange conditions of life. He did not, 

 however, hold out anything like an assurance, or 

 even an expectation, that the pecuniary grant they 

 had asked for would be accorded. Evidently he 

 feared that other learned societies might also urge 

 their claims for Government support, but he did not 

 appear to realise that a grant for a bureau is on a 

 different footing from one inerely to a society as such. 

 The need for a bureau of ethnology is urgent, and 

 it should be remembered that to equip a bureau as 

 an independent body would be much more expensive 

 than affiliating it with a society which already pos- 

 sesses the nucleus of the requisite organisation. It 

 is to be hoped that the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 will be generous to this scheme, which is certainly 

 one of national importance. 



An additional argument for the establishment of 

 the bureau is to be found in the Sargent prize essay 

 by the Rev. H. A. Junod, on " The best means of 

 preserving the traditions and customs of the various 

 South African native races " (Report South African 

 ■"Association for the Advancement of Science, 1907 

 [iqo8], p. 142). The Rev. H. A. Junod is 

 a sympathetic missionary who is well known for his 

 studies on the ethnology of the Ba-ronga. In 

 this essay he points out how the old lore is passing 

 out of remembrance or becoming modified, and he 

 adds, " What is wanted is a central agency which 

 would receive the materials collected by people on 

 the spot and publish them in a way which would 

 make them available for science at large. There 

 ought to be created without delay a South African 

 .-Anthropological Commission, which w-ould answer to 

 the need just pointed out." It would be a credit to 

 South Africa if the scheme outlined by M. Junod 

 could be carried out, and all such local enterprises 

 should be affiliated with a central bureau in London. 



\. C. Haddon. 



Mr. Haldane, Secretary of State for War, will be the 

 guest of the evening at the anniversary dinner of the Junior 

 Institution of Engineers, to be held at the Hotel Cecil 

 on May i. 



The seventeenth " James Forrest " lecture of the Institu- 

 tion of Civil Engineers will be delivered at the institution 

 on Monday, April 26, by Colonel H. C. L. Holden^ R.-A., 

 F.R.S., his topic being " Road Motors." 



The grand gold medal for science has been bestowed 

 upon Dr. Sven Hedin by the German Emperor, and the 

 Berlin Geographical Society has presented him with the 

 Humboldt medal of the society. 



The Times correspondent at Ottawa states that a Day- 

 light Saving Bill, introduced in the Canadian House of 

 Commons on March 12, was received with laughter and 

 ironical cheering. The Bill proposes that from April 2 

 to October 2 local time should be observed one hour ahead 

 of the standard time. 



We learn from Science that the " sundry civil " Bill for 

 the fiscal year 1910, as reported to the House of Repre- 

 sentatives last month, provides for a new building in 

 Washington to accommodate the Geological Survey, the 

 General Land Office, the Office of Indian Affairs, and the 

 Reclamation Service, to cost 500,000/., and appropriates 

 20,000!. for preliminary work in construction. 



