TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 767 



Surgeons, have by their steady aus;mentation done valuable service in preserving- 

 a vast quantity of material for future investigation and instruction, and students 

 have at present all reasonable facilities for pursuing their own researches in 

 them. Lectures have never formed any part of the official programme of the 

 British Museum, but at the College of Surgeons it is otherwise, and though the 

 contents of the collections are specially indicated as the subject on which they 

 should be delivered, for the last ten years at least, Anthropology, notwithstanding 

 the magnificent material at hand for its illustration, has had no place in the annual 

 syllabus. It is also entirely ignored in the examination scheme of the University 

 of London, an institution which prides itself as being on a level with modern educa- 

 tional requirements; and the managers of the new Imperial Institute, casting about 

 in all directions for some worthy object to occupy their energies and their spacious 

 buildings, do not appear to have taken into serious consideration the value to the 

 world and the appropriateness to their original design of a great central school of 

 Anthropology, i'rom which might emanate a full and satisfying knowledge of the 

 characteristics of all the various races of which the Empire is composed. 



In Scotland the recent Universities Commission has recognised Physical 

 Anthropology as a branch of human anatomy in their scheme for graduation in 

 pure science, the examination on this subject embracing a knowledge of race 

 characters as found in the skull and other parts of the skeleton, in the skin, eyes, 

 hair, features, and the external configuration of the body generallj^; the methods 

 of anthropometrical measurement, both of the living body and the skeleton ; the 

 possible influence of use and of external surroundings in producing modifications 

 in the physical characters of man, and an acquaintance with the ' types ' of man- 

 kind and the structural relations of man to the higher mammals. These regula- 

 tions came into operation in the University of Edinburgh in 1892, and in accordance 

 with them Professor Sir William Turner delivers a special course of twenty-five 

 lectures on Physical Anthropology, and in addition ten practical demonstrations on 

 osteometry. The museum under his charge has greatly increased of late in number 

 and value of the specimens. But ' Human Anatomy, including Anthropology,' being 

 only one of a series of nine subjects in any three or more of which a final science 

 examination on a higher standard has to be passed, there is not at present any 

 considerable number of students who take it up, and the other Scotch Universities 

 have not yet thought it necessary to establish distinct courses of Physical Anthro- 

 pology, although it is becoming more and more a regular part of the anatomical 

 teaching to advanced students. 



For the following account of what is being done to further the knowledge of 

 our subject in the sister isle I am indebted to Professor D. J. Cunningham. The 

 only place in Ireland where anthropological work is done is Trinity College. For 

 many years those in charge of the museum have been collecting skulls, and they 

 were fortunate in obtaining the greater part of Sir William Wilde's collection. 

 To these great additions have been recently made, principally in the form of Irish 

 crania from different districts. All the anthropological specimens are lodged in 

 one large room, which is also used as an anthropometric laboratory. Though there 

 lias never been any systematic teaching of Anthropology in Trinity College, Dr. 

 C. R. Browne (Professor Cunningham's able assistant), who takes charge of the 

 laboratory, attends for two hours on three days a week, and gives demonstrations 

 in anthropological methods to any students who are interested in the subject. 

 The laboratory was opened in June 1891, the instruments being provided b)' a 

 grant from the Royal Irish Academy, and about 500 individuals have already been 

 measured, the greater number of them students of the College. This is, however, 

 only part of the work carried out by the laboratory. Every year the instruments 

 are taken to some selected district in Ireland, and a systematic study of the 

 inhabitants is made. The Aran Islands, and also the islands of Inishboftin and 

 Inislishark, have been already worked out, and this year excursions are organised 

 to Kerry, to a district in Wicklow, and to another in the West of Ireland. The 

 Academy makes yearly grants to the Committee for carrying on this work, the 

 results of which have been published in admirable memoirs by Professor A. C. 

 Haddon and Dr. C. R. Browne. The Science end Art Museum in Dublin, under 



