164 REPORT— 1872. 



western have made considerable advance in metallurgic culture. Here, then, we 

 see that the distribution of the metallurgic art had, at the time we speak ot^ spread 

 over three continents, and been brought to a stand by gi-eat oceanic boundaries, 

 beyond which it had not penetrated, unless, indeed, it had been carried by some 

 vessel to the coast of Peru. 



If we now take what we may call the metallurgic area more in detail, and endeavour 

 to trace the distribution of the implements of the bronze period, we find that the same 

 class of weapons and tools extends over a continuous area, including the whole of 

 the northern, western, and central parts of Europe, as far as Siberia on the east ; these 

 implements, including palstaves, leaf-shaped swords, and socket celts, with the moulds 

 for casting them, are of a character to prove that the diffusion of the bronze culture 

 throughout this area must have been connected and continuous. In Egypt, Assyria, 

 India, and China we have also bronze ; but the forms of the implements do not, as 

 a rule, correspond to those of the area above mentioned : our knowledge of the 

 bronze weapons of India and China is, however, extremely limited as yet. I have 

 elsewhere given my reasons for believing that the knowledge of the use of iron in 

 Africa must have been derived from a common centre ; not only is the mode of 

 working it the same throughout that continent and in India, but the forms of the 

 weapons fabricated in this metal, and especially the corrugated blades, are the same 

 in every part, and appear to have been copied and retained through habit where- 

 ever the use of iron has penetrated. I have lately traced this peculiar form of blade 

 in several parts of the Indian peninsula and Burniah, and I have no doubt it wiU 

 eventually be found further to the north, so as to connect the area of its distribution 

 continuously with those of the same identical construction that are found in the 

 Saxon and Prankish graves. 



The distribution of megalithic monuments extends in a continuous belt, as has 

 been repeatedly shown, from western Europe to eastern and southern India ; and 

 however little disposed some of us may be to agree with Mr. Fergusson as to the 

 age to which he refers these monimients, for my part I concur with him in thinking 

 that their distribution denotes intercommunication on the part of the constructors 

 of them. The art of enamelling, which was known to the Celts and Eomans, as 

 well as to the Chinese, will, I have no doubt, be .shown hereafter to have been de- 

 rived from the east, or at least to have spread from a single source. It is worthy 

 of notice that the present distribution of filigree work, which is closely connected 

 with enamelling, and which may be regarded as a survival of that antique art, is 

 now found to be practised in a continuous belt fi-om China on the east to Spain on 

 the west ; and with the exception of some rough Scandinavian work of the same 

 character, it is not, I believe, found out of this channel. This, indeed, appears to 

 have been the high road of communication in non-historic times, and indicates the 

 route through which many of the so-called eai'ly European discoveries may have 

 been derived. 



I have thus briefly alluded to the distribution of some of the arts associated with 

 early culture, with the view of showing that as our knowledge increases we may 

 expect to be able to trace many connexions that we are now ignorant of, and that 

 we should be careful how we too readily assume, in accordance -ndth the theorj' which 

 'appears popular among anthropologists at the present time, that coincidences in the 

 culture of people in distant regions must invariably have originated independently 

 because no evidence of communication is observable at the present time. Owing, 

 perhaps, to a praiseworthy desire to refute the arguments of Archbishop Whately 

 and others, who have erroneously, as I think, assumed that because no race of 

 existing savages has been known to elevate itself in the scale of civilization, therefore 

 the first steps in culture must have resulted from supernatural revelation, we have 

 now had a run upon the theory of what may be called the spontaneous generation 

 of culture ; and the pages of travel have been ransacked to find examples of inde- 

 pendent origin and progress in the arts and customs of savage tribes. Owing to 

 this cause, we have, I think, lost sight in a great measure of tlie important fact 

 which history reveals to us, that, account for it as we may (and it is one of the gi-eat 

 problems of Anthropology to account for it if we can), the civilization of the world 

 has always advanced by means of a leading shoot ; and though constantly shifting 

 its area, it has within historic times invariably grouped itself round a single centre. 



