146 REPORT 1871. 



of human nature, and by some divines it was used in a very special sense " to denote 

 that manner of expression by which the inspired "wi-iters attribute human parts and 

 passions to God " (Encyc. Biitannica). Gradually, therefore, the term has acquired 

 a wider and wider application, until in these days it has been made to embrace the 

 whole science of human nature. 



Both in this country and on the Continent societies have been established for the 

 cultivation of this science in its widest and most comprehensive signification, and 

 some of the results of their labom's have been given to the world in numerous pub- 

 lished memoirs on the anatomy, psychology, languages, arts, and customs of man- 

 kind, and on the distribution and characteristics of the various tribes or varieties of 

 men which inhabit or have inhabited our earth. 



We may now inquu'e what place would be occupied by a subject embracing so 

 wide arange of topics as anthropologyin the progi-amme of a scientific body organized 

 on the basis of this Association — of a body which, it must be remembered, was ori- 

 ginated, and had pursued a highly successful career, many years before men began 

 to think or speak of a science of anthropology in the sense in which the term is 

 now employed. And, without doubt, the first and most logical step was to pursue 

 the course which the General Committee took at the Birmingham Meeting in 1865, 

 to enlarge tlie scope of Section D, and by altering its title from Zoology and 

 Botany to Biology, to make it embrace the whole science of organization. An- 

 thropology, therefore, or the science of man, natm-ally came to be included within 

 this Section, and leave was given to the Committee of the Section to form a special 

 department for the consideration of anthropological papers, should memoirs suffi- 

 cient in number and importance be presented for perusal. So far, then, as the 

 associating of men together in one section can form a bond of union, all those who 

 work at the elucidation of the facts and laws of organization, whether they apper- 

 tain to the lowliest plant or animal, or to man himself, find in this Biological 

 Section a common meeting-ground. And, I would venture to submit, it is right 

 that it should be so. For the investigation of the physical aspects of man's nature, 

 which necessarily forms so large a pai-t of our proceedings, demands the same 

 precise method of work, and needs exactly the same training, as has to be gone 

 through by all who aspire to excel either in this or in the other depai-tments of 

 biology. If we look at the history of our subject, and, without referring to living 

 men, recall the names of those who have contributed largely to its progi-ess — 

 Haller, Limiseus, Blumeubach, Cuvier, Johannes Miiller, William Lawrence, and 

 John Goodsir at once stand out prominently, not only as accomplished anthro- 

 pologists, but as men well versed in a wide range of biological study. Those who 

 are conversant with anthropological literature will, I doubt not, have little diffi- 

 culty in calling to remembrance various writings in which errors, not only in the 

 description of objects, but in the general conchisions anived at from their exam- 

 ination, would have been avoided, if the previous training of the authors had been 

 of a wider nature ; if they had fully appreciated the import of the processes of 

 gTOwth and deA^elopment, nay, even the aben-ations from the normal state through 

 pathological changes occurring dm'ing embryo, or adult life, to which man is sub- 

 ject in common with other vei-tebrates. 



It is, I trust, needless for me to enlarge further on this topic, so that we may 

 next proceed to inquire briefly into the part which an anthropological department 

 may play in the proceedings of the British Association. \n societies devoted solely 

 to the consideration of anthropological questions, and acting as independent bodies, 

 such as the Anthropological Institute of London, or the corresponding Society in 

 Paris, all the subjects included within and constituting the Science of man natu- 

 rally fall within the scope of inquiry, and come under discussion as opportunity 

 offers. But in this department of the Association we have not that complete in- 

 dependence of action which these societies possess. AVe are only members of a 

 still larger body, and the function which we perform must be duly subordinated 

 to the common good ; and owing to our recent introduction into the programme 

 of its proceedings, much of the ground which many would consider we were fairly 

 entitled to cover, has been largely preoccupied by other and older depai-tments. 

 As the physical aspects of oiu- subject are based on anatomy and physiology, many 

 of the papers on the structure and function of the human body and its constituent 



