164 REroRT — 1876. 



A^TUEOPOLOGT, 



[For A. Kiissel Wallace's Address, see page 100. | 

 On the Oldest Woman in Scotland. By General Sir J. A.iex,vnder. 



On some Phenomena associated with Abnormal Conditions of Mind. 

 By Prof. Bareett, F.Ji.S.E. 



Frimitive Ayricnltcre. By A. W. Buckiand, M.A.I. 



Belie^iiio' the study of Piimillve Apricultiire to be of great iinporfauce iu cou- 

 uexioB witli the iiiigTatious and social inteicoiirse of races in the prehistoric times, 

 I have endeiiToured to show : — 



1st. The autiquitj' of the art and its bearing- upon civilization ; that it could only 

 have originated among people having a settled abode, and therefore was probably 

 first practised iu a very imperfect state by the women of tribes left in tents or villages 

 to await the return of hunters — a probability which is strengthened by the fact that 

 women are still the sole agriculturists among man}^ semicivilized races. 



2nd. That although agriculture may have originated in many lands and at dif- 

 ferent times, many peoples yet remain iu total ignorance of it, and the agriculture 

 of the lower races consists in the cultivation of indigenous roots and fruits, the 

 cultivation of the cereals being confined to civilized races and to those who have 

 learnt it through contact v.^ith them. 



3rd. That the origin and native land of all the cereals remains obscure, althoLigh 

 all, excepting maize, are supposed to be indigenous in the eastern hemisphere, 

 whilst maize is aihrmed to be of American origin and to have been unknown 

 in the Old World before the time of Columbus. This last assertion I have ventured 

 to dispute, from the fact that travellers have found it in cultivation in various parts 

 of Asia and Africa before any intercourse had arisen with white men, and because it is 

 described in the ' Niewe Herball ' published 1578, as Frianentimi Ttircivum or Asia- 

 ticum. 



4th. That there are traces iu America, China, and ancient Egypt of a time, 

 anterior to the cultivation of cereals, when the aborigines of these countries fed, 

 as the Pacitic-islanders do now, upon fruits and roots, some of them poisonous, but 

 rendered wholesome by pounding, maceration, and desiccation, and tliat this primi- 

 tive state in these countries is couiirmed by the annals of China, by the testimony 

 of Herodotus, and by American myths. 



•5th. That a similarity in the customs, myths, monuments, and religions of China, 

 Egypt, Peru, and Mexico leads to the conclusion that a cognate pre-Arvan race 

 introduced the cultivation of the cereals into all these countries, and with them the 

 v\orship of the Moon as an agricultural deity. 



6th. That the absence of agricultural implements from prehistoric discoveries 

 proves their extreme simplicity, being probably only a pointed stick, which still 

 forms the sole agricultural implement in many countries, whilst it is not improbable 

 that some of the stone celts were employed as hoes, and that flint ilakes inserted 

 in wooden frames served then, as they do now in the East, as harrows and thre,9hing 

 implements ; and that furrows and ridges seem everywhere to have Ijeeii used in the 

 cultivation of grain, whilst corn-hills seem to be confined to America, although 

 used in Africa iu the cultivation of maudioca. 



7th. That the traces of primitive agriculture confirm the conclusions of modern 

 ethnologists as to the early condition, gradual development, and extensive mi- 

 grations of the human race. 



On Belation of Gaelic and English. By Eev. Mi'. Camekon. 



