768 REPORT — 1894. 



the direction of Dr. V. Ball, contains a small collection, arranged with a view to 

 general instruction, showing by means of skulls and casts the phj'sical character- 

 istics of the different races of man, those of each race heing explained by a short 

 printed label, and its range shown on a map. 



Though the development of anthropological science has thus not been greatly 

 advanced, in this country at least, by means of endowments, or by aid of the 

 State or, till very recently, by our great scholastic institutions, but has been mainly 

 left to the unorganised efforts of amateurs of the subject, its progress in recent 

 years has been undeniably great. I will give an instance of the strides that have 

 been made in one of its most important branches. 



Physical or Anatomical Anthropology, or the study of the modifications of the 

 human body under its various aspects, the modifications dependent upon sex and 

 age, the modifications dependent upon race, and those dependent upon individual 

 variability, studied not many years ago in a vague and loose manner, has gradually 

 submitted to a rigorous and, therefore, strictly scientific method of treatment. 

 The generalities which were formerly used to express the differences that were 

 recognised between the various subjects compared with each other have been 

 replaced by terms conveyed in almost mathematical precision. No one acquainted 

 with the history of the development of this branch of Anthropology can fail to 

 recognise how much it was accelerated by the genius of Broca, and the school 

 which he established in France, although all cultivated nations are now vying 

 with each other in the practice of exactitude in anthropological research, and the 

 time seems rapidly approaching when a common agreement will be arrived at, by 

 which all the observations which may be made, under whatever diverse circum- 

 stances, and by whatever different individuals, will be available for comparison one 

 with another. 



This branch of our science has received the name of ' Anthropometry.' 

 Although, as the name implies, measurement is one of its principal features, it 

 includes such other methods of comparison as can be reduced to a definite 

 standard, or to which definite tests can be applied, such as the colour of the 

 hair, eyes, and complexion, the form of the ear and nose. The great desiderata 

 that have been sought ibr, and gradually attained, in measuring either the 

 skeleton or the living person have been two in number : 1. Exact definition of 

 the points between which the measurements should be taken. 2. Exact methods 

 and instruments of measurement. la both these cases the object looked for has 

 been not only that the measurements taken by the same observer at different 

 times and under different circumstances should coincide, but also that those 

 taken by diff'erent observers should be comparable. These requirements seem so 

 simple and natural at first sight that tlie majority of persons whom I am 

 addressing will wonder that I should allude to them. Only those who are 

 seriously occupied, or perhaps I should rather say, only those who were seriously 

 occupied a few years ago, with the endeavour to solve these problems can have 

 any idea of their difficulty. The amount of time and labour that has been spent upon 

 them is enormous, but the result has, I think, been quite commensurate with it. 



We have attained at last to methods of measurement and standards of com- 

 parison which, in the hands of persons of ordinary intelligence, and with a 

 moderate amount of training, will give data which may be absolutely depended 

 upon. From these we hope to be able to formulate accurate information as to 

 the physical conformation of all tlie groups into which mankind is divided, and 

 so gradually to arrive at a natural classification of those groups, and a knowledge 

 of their affinities one to another. 



But the exact methods of modern Anthropometry are not only important ou 

 account of the aid they give in studying the race characteristics of man. As has 

 60 often happened when scientific observation has been primarily carried out for 

 its own sake, it ultimately leads to practical applications undreamt of by its earlier 

 cultivators. The application of Anthropometry not to the comparison of race«, 

 but to elucidate various social problems — as the laws of growth, of heredity, of 

 comparative capacities of individuals within a community, and the effects of 

 diff'erent kinds of education and occupation, as worked out first by Quetelet in 



