826 REPORT— 1886. 



Section H.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 



President of the Section — Sir George Campbell, K.C.S.I., M.P., D.C.L.,. 



F.R.G.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2. 

 The President delivered the following Address : — 



I feel much diffidence in taking this chair, for, though in former days I used to 

 pay a good deal of attention to what was then called ethnology, I have heen for 

 many years immersed in perhaps more exciting but, I am afraid, less satisfactory 

 occupations ; and I feel that I am very far behind in scientific knowledge and 

 scientific methods. I only venture to address you because I take for my subject 

 practical, rather than scientific, anthropology ; the study and cultivation of the 

 creature man as he exists, rather than that branch of the subject which seeks to 

 inquire into his origin and development. Intensely interesting as are inquiries into 

 the origin of man, it must be admitted that our knowledge on the subject is still 

 very limited and our progress slow ; that we have not yet got hold of the missing 

 link, and scarcely know whether the flint implements are the work of man or of 

 some earlier intelligent creature. We are hardly on firm ground till we come to 

 man very much in the form in which we now have him, and even already divided 

 into the principal varieties which exist to this day. I now then invite you to 

 approach the subject rather as practical agriculturists deal with the subject of 

 horses and cattle than as scientists who trace these animals to very ancient pre- 

 historic types ; and in dealing with man from this point of view I am emboldened 

 by the consideration that here also science has not yet completely conquered the 

 field, and that very much is open to those who bring to it only a quick eye and 

 careful observation. I think it can hardly be doubted that, in distinguishing well- 

 marked types of humanity, the eye is after all the easiest and perhaps the safest 

 guide. With that alone one can recognise the unmistakable differences of colour, 

 size, facial features, set of the eye, character of the hair, and one or two other 

 features by which the physical characters of different types of humanity are varied. 

 On the other hand, when we come to nicer and more subtile distinctions, especially 

 among the mixed races which occupy most of the world, we must confess that 

 anthropometric science as applied to craniology, &c. gives us results only partially 

 concliosive. I have an unusually narrow head. I can hardly be fitted with a hat 

 without making the hatter elongate it ; my next brother has so remarkably broad 

 a head that he cannot be fitted without altering a large hat the other way : and 

 so I think it is in many families and races, as anyone who tries to puzzle out 

 craniological results will find. 



So again as regards other guides to race. It is admitted that language is not 

 always a safe guide, but still it is a very important element in ethnological inquiries, 

 especially among primitive races. I have paid some attention to that, and my 

 impression is strong that language tests of race are to be found in the few simple 

 elementary words and forms which any observer can easily master and examine, 

 and not in the higher developments of the language, which are generally much. 



