TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 93 



dnig3, from 1790 to 1810; what is commendable in these experiments, and what 

 is deficient. 



Suggestions were made relative to further experiments (1) on the objects to be 

 pursued, (2) on the mode of proceeding, (3) on the utilization of the results. 



The paper recommended the investigation of the physiological action of medicines 

 with the view to determine their therapeutic use. 



On the Movements, Structure, and Sounds of tJie Heart. By Dr. Sibsok, F.B.S. 



Antheopologt. 



Address by A. R. Wallace, F.R.G.S., 4'C: 

 Anthropology is the science which contemplates man imder all his varied aspects 

 (as an animal, and as a moral and intellectual being) in his relations to lower 

 organisms, to his fellow men, and to the ur.;-, erse. The anthropologist seeks to collect 

 together and systematize the facts and tlic laws which have been brought to light 

 by all those branches of study which, directly or indirectly, have man for their 

 object. These are very various. The physiologist, for example, studies man as a 

 wondrous and most complicated machine, whose parts and motions, actions and 

 reactions he seeks thoroughly ^to understand. The comparative anatomist and the 

 zoologist compare his structure with that of other animals, take note of their like- 

 nesses and dift'erences, determine their degrees of affinitj-, and seek after the com- 

 mon plan of their organization and the law of their development. The psychologist 

 studies the mind of man, its mode of action, and its development, compares it with 

 the instincts and the reasoning faculties of the lower animals, and ever aims at the 

 solution of the greatest of problems — whence and what is mind. The historian col- 

 lects and arranges the facts of man's progress in recent times ; the geographer de- 

 termines the localities of the various races that now inhabit the earth, their man- 

 ners, customs, and physical characteristics ; the archaeologist seeks, by studying 

 the remains of man and his works, to supplement written history and to carry 

 back our knowledge of man's physical, mental, and moral condition into prehistoric 

 times ; the geologist extends this kind of knowledge to a still eai-lier epoch, by 

 pro'^dng that man coexisted with numerous animals now extinct, and inhabited 

 Europe at so remote a period that the very contour of its surface, the form of its 

 hills and valleys, no less than its clim.ate, vegetation, and geology, were mate- 

 rially different from what they now are, or ever have been durino; the epoch of 

 authentic histoiy ; the philologist devotes himself to the study of human speech, 

 and through it seeks to trace out the chief migrations of nations, and the common 

 origin of many of the races of mankind ; and, lastly, the phrenologist and the cra- 

 niologist have created special sciences out of the study of the human brain and 

 skull. Considering the Drain as the organ of the mind, the phrenologist seeks to 

 discover in what way they con-espond to each other, and to coimect mental pecu- 

 liarities with the form and dimensions of the brain as indicated by the con-espond- 

 ing form of its bon^' covering. The craniologist, confining his attention to the 

 skull as an indication of race, endeavours to trace out the afiinities of modern and 

 ancient races of men, by the forms and dimensions of their crania. These various 

 studies have hitherto been pursued separately. There has been gi-eat division of 

 labour, but no combination of results. Now it is our object as anthropologists to 

 accept the well-ascertained conclusions which have been arrived at by the students 

 of all these various sciences, to search after every new fact which may throw addi- 

 tional light upon any of them, and, as far as we are able, to combine and generalize 

 the whole of the information thus obtained. We cannot, therefore, afford to neg- 

 lect any facts relating to man, however trivial, unmeaning, or distasteful some of 

 them may appear to us. Each custom, superstition, or belief of savage or of civi- 

 lized man may guide us towards <an explanation of their origin in common ten- 

 dencies of the human mind. Each peculiarity of form, colour, or constitution may 

 give us a clue to the affinities of an obscm'e race. The anthropologist must ever 

 bear in mind that, as the object of his study is vian, nothing pertaining to or cha- 



