TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 763 



Anthropology a special subject of study, and devoting a special organisation to its 

 promotion, is the multifarious nature of the knowledge comprehended under the 

 title. This very ambition, which endeavours to include such an extensive range 

 of subjects, ramifying in all directions, illustrating and receiving light from so 

 many other sciences, appears often to overleap itself, and give a looseness and 

 indetiniteness to the aims of the individual or the institution proposing to cultivate 

 it. The old term Ethnology, or the study of peoples or races, has a limited and 

 definite meaning. It treats of the resemblances and modifications of the diiferent 

 groups of the human species in their relations to each other, but Anthropology, a3 

 now understood, has a far wider scope. It treats of mankind as a whole. It 

 investigates his origin and his relations to the rest of the universe. It invokes the 

 aid of the sciences of zoology, comparative anatomy and physiology, in its attempts 

 to estimate the distinctions and resemblances between man and his nearest allies, 

 and in fixing his place in the scale of living beings. In endeavouring to inves- 

 tigate the origin and antiquity of man, geology must lend its assistance to 

 determine the comparative ages of the strata in which the evidences of his exist- 

 ence are found, and researches into his early history soon trench upon totally 

 different branches of knowledge. In tracing the progress of the race from its 

 most primitive condition, the characteristics of its physical structure and relations 

 with the lower animals are soon left behind, and it is upon evidence of a kind 

 peculiar to the human species, and by which man is so pre-eminently distinguished 

 from all other living beings, that our conclusions mainly rest. The study of the 

 works of our earliest known forefathers — 'prehistoric archaeology' as it is 

 commonly called — is now almost a science by itself. It investigates the origin of 

 all human culture, endeavours to trace to their common beginning the sources of 

 our arts, customs, and history. The difficulty is, what to include and where to 

 stop ; as, though the term prehistoric may roughly indicate an artificial line 

 between the province of the anthropologist and that which more legitimately 

 belongs to the archasologist, the antiquary, and the historian, it is perfectly evident 

 that the studies of the one pass insensibly into those of the others. Knowledge of 

 the origin and development oF particular existing customs throws immense light upon 

 their real nature and importance ; and conversely, it is often only from a profound 

 acquaintance with the present or comparatively modern manifestations of culture 

 that we are able to interpret the slight indications aflbrded us by the scanty 

 remains of primitive civilisation. 



It is considerations such as these that have caused the gradual introduction of 

 the term Anthropology as a substitute for Ethnology which I have traced in the 

 history of this Association, and which is seen in other organisations for tlie cul- 

 tivation of our science. 



Tlie first general association for llie study of man in this country was founded 

 in 1843, under the name of the 'Ethnological Society' (three years, therefore, 

 before the Ethnological sub-Section of Section D of this Association). It did ex- 

 cellent work for many years under that title, but partly from pei-sonal considerations, 

 and partly from a desire to undertake a wider and somewhat different field of 

 research, another and in some senses a rival society, which adopted the name of 

 ' Anthropological,' was founded in 18G3. For some years these existed side by side, 

 each representing in its most active supporters different schools of the science. 

 This arrangement naturally involved a waste of strength, and it was felt that the 

 interests of the subject would be promoted by an amalgamation of the two 

 societies. Many difficulties, chiefly, as is usual in such cases, of a personal nature, 

 had to be overcome, one of the principal being the selection of a name for the 

 united society. It was generally felt that 'Anthropological' would be most 

 appropriate, but the members of the old Ethnological Society could not bring them- 

 selves absolutely to sink the fact of their priority of existence, and all that they 

 had done for science for so many years, by merging their society into that of their 

 younger and active rivals ; so after much discussion a compromise was effected, and 

 the new organisation which arose from the coalescence of the two societies adopted 

 the rather cumbrous title of 'Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and 

 Ireland.' This was in 1871, and since that period, the Society, as it is to all 



