156 REPORT— 1874. 
factured flint implements are so abundant. The flint used appears to be rolled 
flints gathered on the shore; but if the prehistoric races of the north of Ireland 
were the flint-implement manufacturers for the whole of Ireland, as the author 
believes was the case, he considers that the supply of rolled and drift flints would 
be inadequate, and that we may look for evidence of mining having been carried on 
to obtain flint. 
A circular stone with a flat edge, that could have been used for grinding grain, 
and several pieces of the tup of a quern were found, from which the author con- 
cludes that the ancient ot cultivated grain of some kind. There were no shell 
mounds found, like the “ Kitchen middens,” nor were there any fish-bones found, 
which was considered strange owing to the sea and a good fish river like the Bann 
being so near. Some of the bones were cut previous to breaking them to extract 
the marrow; and two bones were found manufactured into articles of use, one of 
which might have served as a whistle, and the other resembles a tool used by 
thatchers, called a “spurtle.” From the fact of finding the spurtle, and there 
being several heaps of large stones among the sand, it was concluded that the pre- 
historic races resided permanently here and in thatched houses. No trace of 
ornament of any kind was found, but from finding several rubbed ochreous stones 
it was believed they painted the skin. The pottery was of two kinds, but that 
most abundant was coarse and similar in shape and ornamentation to sepulchral 
urns. One human bone was found ; but the author stated that he was unable to 
decide whether they burned their dead before burial or whether they were cannibals, 
Traces of fire were common. He was of opinion, from their so patiently cutting the 
bone previous to breaking it to get the marrow, that they were not a ravenous 
people, and that food was abundant. He hoped, in conclusion, that further search 
would give us a clearer insight into the manners and customs of this ancient people. 
The Methods of a Complete Anthropology. By the Rev. T. M‘Cann, D.D. 
Anthropology is defined to be the study of all the phenomena of the individual 
man. Man is a being who not only digests and assimilates, but also knows and 
feels. The former phenomena are considered in the Department of Anatomy and 
Physiology. The results of the faculties called mental alone are left for consideration 
in the Anthropological Department: these are the most important to man as such. 
This Department is only partially anthropological, while it confines its attention to 
the manifestations of mind in life and social customs. At present subjective obser- 
vation and experiment (psychology) are excluded, Practically this is best, though 
theoretically it is wrong and unscientific. But it is not possible wholly to exclude 
them; in point of fact psychological phenomena are very largely introduced. The 
author then referred to the introduction of such subjects into the President’s 
Address for this years and in order that such questions should be thoroughly dis- 
cussed, he proposed that papers on psychology alone should be read on one of the days 
appointed for sectional meetings, or to form a separate department for this subject, 
or else to originate a Society where men of opposite schools could meet and debate 
these disputed points as has never been done previously. 
On M‘Lennan’s Theory of “ Primitive Marriage.” 
By Josrrn Joun Murruy. 
The author accepted Mr. M‘Lennan’s theory that in the earliest societies marriage 
in one sense was unknown, and that marriage (and consequently paternal autho- 
rity) began with the practice of bride-stealing; but he dissented from Mr. M‘Lennan’s 
theory that the impulse to bride-stealing arose from the scarcity of women from the 
practice of female infanticide. There seems to be no sufficient evidence of this ; 
and such a practice would tend to the extinction of the tribe practising it. The 
writer attributed the impulse to bride-stealing partly to the desire of each man to 
have a wife of his own (which in the earliest times could be only as the result of 
capture), partly to the instinctive impulse to mix the race. So soon as any tribe 
adopted bride-stealing generally, and as a consequence marriage and paternal 
