ADDRESS. 19 



tute was founded with an especial view to its being a centre around which 

 every interest connected with the dependencies of the Empire might 

 gather for information and support. The establishment within the last 

 twelve months of a Scientific Department within the Institute, with well- 

 appointed laboratories and a highly trained staff, shows how ready are 

 those concerned in its management to undertake any duties that may 

 conduce to the welfare of the outlying parts of the British Empire ; a fact 

 of which I believe that Canada is fully aware. The Institute is therefore 

 likely to develop, so far as its scientific department is concerned, into a 

 Bureau of advice in all matters scientific and technical, and certainly a 

 Bureau of Ethnology such as that suggested would not be out of place 

 within its walls. 



Wherever such an institution is to be established, the question of its 

 existence must of necessity rest with Her Majesty's Government and 

 Treasury, inasmuch as without funds, however moderate, the undertaking 

 cannot be carried on. I trust that in considering the question it will 

 always be borne in mind that in the relations between civilised and 

 uncivilised nations and races it is of the first importance that the pre- 

 judices and especially the religious or semi-religious and caste prejudices 

 of the latter should be thoroughly well known to the former. If but a 

 single ' little war ' could be avoided in consequence of the knowledge 

 acquired and stored up by the Bui'eau of Ethnology preventing such a 

 misunderstanding as might culminate in warfare, the cost of such an 

 institution would quickly be saved. 



I fear that it will be thought that I have dwelt too long on primaeval 

 man and his modern representatives, and that I should have taken this 

 opportunity to discuss some more general subject, such as the advances 

 made in the various departments of science since last this Association met 

 in Canada. Such a subject would no doubt have afforded an infinity of 

 interesting topics on which to dilate. Spectrum analysis, the origin 

 and nature of celestial bodies, photography, the connection between heat, 

 light, and electricity, the practical applications of the latter, terrestrial 

 magnetism, the liquefaction and solidification of gases, the behaviour of 

 elements and compounds under the influence of extreme cold, the nature 

 and uses of the Bontgen rays, the advances in bacteriology and in pro- 

 phylactic medicine, might all have been passed under review, and to many 

 of my audience would have seemed to possess greater claims to attention 

 than the subject that I have chosen. 



It must, however, be borne in mind that most, if not indeed all, of 

 these topics will be discussed by more competent authorities in the various 

 Sections of the Association by means of the Presidential addresses or 

 otherwise. Nor must it be forgotten that I occupy this position as a 

 representative of Archceology, and am therefore justified in bringing before 

 you a subject in which every member of every race of mankind ought to 

 be interested — the antiquity of the human family and the scenes of its 

 infancy. 



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