684: BEroET— 1881. 



kingdoms, in Russia, and even in Spain, there are signs of similar activity. A 

 glance at the recent periodical literature of America, especially the publications of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, will shov? how strongly the scientific work of that 

 country is setting in the same direction. 



It is true that a very great proportion of the energies of the societies, institu- 

 tions, and individuals who cultivate this vast subject are, in all these lands, as it is 

 indeed to so great an extent in our own, devoted to that branch which borders 

 upon the old and favourite studies of archaeology and geology. The fascinating 

 power of the pursuit of the earliest traces of man's existence upon the earth, with 

 the possibilities of obtaining some glimpses of his mode of origin, is attested in the 

 devotion seen everywhere in museums, in separate publications, and in journals, to 

 pre-historic anthropology. 



But, though the study of man's origin and earliest appearances upon the earth, and 

 that of the structural modifications to which in course of time he has arrived, or 

 the study of races, are intimately related, and will ultimately throw light upon 

 one another, I venture to think that the latter is the more pressing of the two, as 

 it is certainly the more practically important ; and hence tlie necessity for greater 

 attention to physical anthropology. In seeking for a criterion upon which to base 

 our study of races, in looking for essential proofs of consanguinity of descent from 

 common ancestors in ditl'erent groups of men, I have no hesitation in saying that 

 we must first look to their physical or anatomical characters, next to their moral 

 and intellectual characters — for our purpose more difHcult of apprehension and 

 comparison — and, lastly, as aflbrding hints, often valuable in aid of our researches, 

 but rarely to be depended upon, unless corroborated from other sources, to lan- 

 guage, religion, and social customs. 



The study of the physical or anatomical character nf the races of man is un- 

 fortunately a subject beset with innumerable ditticulties. It can only be ap- 

 proached with full advantage by one already acquainted with the ordinary fiicts 

 of human anatomy, and with a certain amount of zoological training. The 

 methods used by the zoologist in discriminating species and varieties of animals, 

 and the practice acquired in detecting minute resemblances and diilerences that 

 an ordinary observer might overlook, are just what are required in the physical 

 anthropologist. 



As the great problem which is at the root of all zoology is to discover a natural 

 classification of animals, so the aim of zoological anthropology is to discover a natural 

 classification of man. A natural classification is an expression of our knowledge of 

 real relationship, of consanguinity — of ' blood,' as the author of ' Endymiou ' ex- 

 presses it. AYhen we can satisfactorily prove that any two of the known groups 

 of mankind are descended from the same common stock, a point is gained. The 

 more such points we have acquired, the more nearly shall we be able to picture to 

 ourselves, not only the present, but the past distribution of the races of man upon 

 the earth, and the mode and order in whicli they have been derived from one 

 another. 



The difficulties in the way of appljnng zoological principles to the classification 

 of man are vastly greater than in the case of most auimals ; the problem being, as 

 we shall see, one of much greater complexity. When groups of animals become 

 so far differentiated from each other as to represent separate species, they remain 

 isolated ; they may break up into further subdivisions — in fact, it is only by further 

 subdivision that new species can be formed; but it is of the very essence of species, 

 as now universally understood by naturalists, that they cannot recombine, and so 

 give rise to new forms. With the varieties of man it is otherwise. They have 

 never so far separated as to answer to the physiological delinition of species. All 

 races are fertile one with another, though perhaps in diii'ereut degrees. Hence new 

 varieties have constantly been formed, not only by the segmentation, as it were, of 

 a portion of one of the old stocks, but also by various combinations of those already 

 established. 



Neither of the old conceptions of the history of man, which pervade! the 

 thought, and form the foundation of the works of all ethnological writers up to the 



