TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 967 
Denmark and the remains of the Neolithic age of that country are not as yet 
absolutely clear; and who can fix the exact limits of that age? Nor has the 
origin and course of extension of the more recent Bronze civilisation been as yet 
satisfactorily determined ; and until-more is known, both as to the geographical 
and chronological development of this stage of culture, we can hardly hope to 
establish any detailed succession in the history of the Neolithic civilisation that 
went before it. In the meantime it will be for the benefit of our science that 
speculations as to the origin and home of the Aryan family should be rife; but it 
will still more effectually conduce to our eventual knowledge of this most 
interesting question if it be consistently borne in mind that they are but speculations. 
Turning from theoretical to practical subjects, I may call attention to the vastly 
improved means of comparison and study that the ethnologists of to-day possess as 
compared with those of twenty years ago. Not only have the books and periodi- 
cals that treat of ethnology multiplied in all European languages, but the number 
of museums that have been formed with the express purpose of illustrating the 
manners and customs of the lower races of mankind has also largely increased. On 
the Continent, the museums of Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, and other capitals have 
either been founded or greatly improved ; while in England our ethnological collec- 
tions infinitely surpass, both in the number of objects they contain and in the 
method of their arrangement, what was acccessible in 1870. The Blackmore 
Museum at Salisbury was at that time already founded, but has since been con- 
siderably augmented. In London also the Christy collection was already in 
existence and calculated to form an admirable nucleus around which other 
objects and collections might cluster; and, thanks in a great degree to the 
trustees of the Christy collection, and in a far greater degree to the assiduous 
attention and unbounded liberality of the keeper of the department, Mr. Franks, 
the ethnological galleries at the British Museum will bear comparison with any of 
those in the other European capitals. The collections of prehistoric antiquities, 
enlarged by the addition of the fine series of urns and other relics from British 
barrows explored by Canon Greenwell, which he has generously presented to the 
nation, and by other accessions, especially from the French caverns of the Reindeer 
period, is now of the highest importance. Moreover, for purposes of comparison the 
collections of antiquities of the Stone and Bronze periods found in foreign countries 
is of enormous value. In the Ethnological department the collections have been 
materially increased by the numerous travellers and missionaries which this coun- 
try is continually sending forth to assist in the exploration of the habitable world ; 
and the student of the development of human civilisation has now the actual 
weapons, implements, utensils, dress, and other appliances of most of the known 
savage peoples ready at hand for examination, and need no longer trust to the often 
imperfect representations given in books of travel. But besides the collection at 
Bloomsbury there is another most important museum at Oxford, which that 
University owes to the liberality of General Pitt-Rivers. It is arranged in a some- 
what different manner from that in London, the main purpose being the exhibition 
of the various modifications which ornaments, weapons, and instruments in common 
use have undergone during the process of development. The skilful application of 
the doctrine of evolution to the forms and characters of these products of human 
art gives to this collection a peculiar charm, and brings out the value of applying 
scientific methods to the study of all that is connected with human culture, even 
though at first sight the objects brought under consideration may appear to be of 
the most trivial character. 
So far as the museums more intimately connected with anthropology are con- 
cerned, the advance that has been made has been equally well marked. The 
osteological collections both at the Royal College of Surgeons and at the Natural 
History Museum have received important accessions, especially in the craniological 
department ; and the notable addition of the Barnard Davis collection to that pre- 
viously existing in Lincoln’s Inn Fields has placed the museum of the college in the 
foremost rank, The museums at Oxford and Cambridge have also received most 
important accessions: the one, of the Greenwell collection from British barrows ; 
the other, of the Thurnam collection of skulls. 
