816 EEPORT — 1895. 



Section H.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 Peesident 01' THE SECTION. — Professoi" W. M. FiiNDEES Peteie, D.O.L., L.L.D. 



THURSDA Y, SEPTEMBER 12. 

 The Pkesibent delivered the followhig Address : — 



In a suhject as yet so unmapped as anthropology there is more room for 

 considerino; different points of view than in a thoroughly organised and limited 

 science. The future structure of this science depends largely on the apprehension 

 of the many different modes of treating it. The time has not yet come when it 

 can be handled as a whole, and therefore at present we may frankly consider 

 various questions from an individual staodpoint, without in the least implying that 

 other considerations should not be taken into account. It is only by the free 

 statement, however onesided, of the various separate views of the many subjects 

 involved in such a science, that any comprehensive scheme of its organisation can 

 ever be built up. In remarking, tlierefore, on some branches at present I shall 

 not attempt a judicial impersonality, but rather try to express some views which 

 have not yet been brought into ordinary currency. 



Elaborate definitions of anthropology have been formulated, but such are only 

 too liable to require constant revision as fresh fields of research are added to the 

 domain. In any new country it is far safer to define its limits than to describe all 

 that it includes ; and all that can yet be safely done in anthropology is to lay 

 down the ' sphere of influence,' and having secured the boundaries, then develop 

 the resources at leisure. The principal bordering subjects are zoology, meta- 

 physics, economics, literature, and history. So far as these refer to other species, 

 as well as to man, or to individuals rather than to the whole race, they stand 

 apart as subjects; but their relation to the human species as such is essentially a 

 part of anthropology. We must be prepared, therefore, to take anthropology 

 more as the stud}' of man in relation to various and often independent subjects, 

 than as an organic and self-contained science. Human nature is greater than all 

 formulae ; and we may as soon hope to compact its study into a logical structure, 

 as to construct an algebraical equation for predicting its course of thought. 



Two of the commonest and most delightfully elastic words in the subject mav 

 be looked at once more — ' race ' and ' civilisation.' The definition of the nature of 

 race is the most requisite element for any clear ideas about man. Our present 

 conception of the word has been modified recently more than may be supposed by 

 our realising the antiquity of the species. "When onlj' a few thousand years had 

 to be dealt with nothing seemed easier or more satisfactory than to map out races 

 on the assumption that so many million people were descended fi"om one ancestor 

 and 80 many I'rom another. Mixed races were glibly separated from pure races, 



