776 REPORT~1901. 



Section H.— ANTHHOPOLOGY. 



Peesident of the Seciiox — Professor D. J. Cunningham, M.D., D.Sc, 



LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 



The President delivered the following Address :^ 



Twenty-five years have passed since the British Association met in Glasgow. 

 This is a long time to looli back upon, and yet the period appears short when 

 measured by the great advance which has taken place in almost all branches of 

 knowledge. Anthropology has shared in the general progress. The discoveries 

 made within its confines may not have been so startling, nor yet have had such a 

 direct influence upon the material welfare of the people, as in the case of other 

 fields of scientific study, but its development has been steady and continuous, and 

 it has grown much in public estimation. 



At the Glasgow fleeting of the Association in 1876 Anthropology held a 

 subsidiary position. It only ranked as a Department, although it gained a special 

 prominence through having Alfred Russel "Wallace as its Chairman. It was not 

 until several years later that it became one of the recognised Sections of the 

 Association, and attained the high dignity of having a letter of the alphabet allotted 

 to it. But quite independently of its official status it has always been a branch 

 of study which has been accorded a large amount of popular favour. The anthropo- 

 logical meetings have, as a rule, been well attended, and the discussions, although 

 perhaps on certain occasions somewhat discursive, have never lacked vigour or anima- 

 tion. Professor Huxley, wlio presided over the Anthropological Department at the 

 Dublin meeting in 1878, ascribed the popularity of tlie subject to the many open- 

 inq-s which it afl'ords for wide differences of opinion between the exponents of its 

 numerous branches and to the innate bellicose tendency of man. As the repre- 

 sentative of a country in which, according to the .same high authority, tbis tendency 

 is less strongly marked than elsewhere, and of a race which has so frequently and 

 pointedly exhibited its abhorrence of vigorous language, I trust that my presence 

 here as President may not react unfavourably on the interest shown in the work of 

 the Section. 



The present occasion might appear to be peculiarly appropriate for my taking 

 slock of our anthropological possessions and summing up the numerous additions to 

 our knowledge of ' man and his doings ' which have been made during the century 

 which has just passed. Such a task, however, is surrounded with so much diffi- 

 culty that I shrink from undertaking it. The scope of the subject is enormous, 

 and the studies involved so diverse and so varied that I feel that it is beyond my 

 power to give any comprehensive survey of its development in all its parts. T prefer 

 therefore to confine my remarks to that province of Anthropology within which 

 my own work has been chiefly carried on, and from this to select a subject which 

 has for some years held a prominent place in my thoughts. I refer to the human 

 brain and the part ■which, it has flayed in the evolution of man. 



