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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 139 
lake, it is necessary to have all the three to constitute a more accurate map of that’ 
portion of Africa. 
Next, Mr. Hoge showed that the best geographers, including Herodotus and 
Ptolemy, considered the White river, or the western branch, as the true Nile. 
And he then produced two more ancient maps, taken from two early Latin trans- 
lations and editions of the latter geographer, wherein the “ Nili Paludes,” or lakes, 
with the Mountains of the Moon (Montes Zune) as their origin, are differently laid 
down: one was published at Rome, with an atlas, in a.p. 1478, and the other at 
Bale in 1542. The earliest of these two maps represents a third large branch of 
the Nile, which it calls “ Astapus fluvius,” flowing from the S.E., and having its 
source in a small lake, which is bisected by the equinoctial line. Under this is 
written “Coloa Palus.” Since the Lake Coloa, or Caloé, is clearly identified with 
the lake now termed Dembea, this river must answer to the Bahr el Azrek, the 
Azure or Blue River; its geographical position, therefore, is assigned far too 
much to the south. 
Mr. Hogg also described Seneca’s account of the two officers sent by Nero Czesar to 
find out the « Caput Nili,” and which was narrated by them in the presence of that 
contemporary writer; and he conceived that the Nile which those officers explored 
was the west branch, or Bahr el Abiad, by reason of the vast quantity of “ implicite 
aquis herbs” still existing there and in the Bahr el Ghazal; and he further 
thought that the “ duas petras, ex quibus ingens vis fluminis excidebat,’”’ would 
seem to indicate the Karwma Falls, where the two Roman officers terminated their 
exploration, but which the two English officers, Captains Speke and Grant, have 
now so successfully completed, and by gallantly following that branch to its entrance 
into the Mediterranean Sea, have proved it to be the true Nile. 
On Anthropological Classification. By Dr. James Hunt, FSA. 
After the author had given a short outline of the nature of the subject, in which 
he stated that the origin of man belongs entirely to mythical times, and is a ques- 
tion which could not be solved by human experience, he proposed merely to classify 
man as he now exists, or as he has existed since the historical period, without 
reference tu those distinctions being absolutely original. The scope of the present 
paper was to inquire whether these physical differences were so well marked as to 
serve as the basis of classification. He reviewed the classifications of Ephorus of 
Cuma, Buffon, Linnzeus, Gmelin, Herder, Voltaire, Blumenbach, Lacépéde, Du- 
méril, Maltebrun, Cuvier, Virey, Hunter, Lawrence, Metzan, Bory, Desmoulins, 
Prichard, Lesson, Fischer, Morton, Latham, Hombron, Jacquinot, D’Omalius 
d@Halloy, Pickering, Burke, Knox, Agassiz, Crawfurd, and Isidore Geoffroy St.- 
Hilaire, and offered critical remarks on each system. The multiplicity of the 
systems at present in vogue is a sufficient refutation of the truth of most of them. 
he author considered that anatomy and physiology were the primary sources 
whence an adequate knowledge of the principles of anthropological classification 
could be derived. Language is no test of race. He laid great stress upon the form 
of the cranium as the most convenient and certain distinctive mark, and spoke with 
eat approval of the ternary classification adopted by Gratiolet, who divides man- 
ind into the frontal (European), parietal (Mongol), and occipital (Negro) races— 
these cranial distinctions being coincident with the mental and moral characters 
which were solely dependent on man’s physical structure. Other secondary phy- 
sical characters could also be used with advantage; and the author especially 
alluded to the classifications which might be based upon colour, stature, hair and 
beard, longevity, diseases, temperaments, odour, entozoa, and other subsidiary points 
of distinction. The degree of intelligence was the chief character distinguishing 
man from the inferior animals. If a classifier of the negroes of the West Indies 
were to use language alone as a criterion, he would classify them under the head 
of Europeans, with whom their acquired language is identical; their physical cha- 
racters alone mark them as African. The author considered that language must 
be utterly discarded as the first principle of anthropological classification. ile ave 
a far higher value to religion and to art, considering language merely as the third 
element. That there are well-marked physical, mental, ani moral Ustinetions in 
