TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H.— PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, 613 
Secrion H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SEcTION.—Srm RicHarp Trempur, Barr., C.1.E. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 
The President delivered the following Address :— 
Administrative Value of Anthropology. 
Tue title of the body of which those present at this meeting form a section 
is, as all my hearers will know, the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, and it seems to me therefore that the primary duty of a Sectional 
President is to do what in him lies, for the time being, to forward the work of 
his Section. This may be done in more than one way: by a survey of the work 
done up to date and an appreciation of its existing position and future prospects, 
by an address directly forwarding it in some particular point or aspect, by 
considering its applicability to what is called the practical side of human life. 
The choice of method seems to me to depend on the circumstances of each 
meeting, and I am about to choose the last of those above mentioned, and to 
confine my address to a consideration of the administrative value of anthro- 
pology, because the locality in which we are met together and the spirit of the 
present moment seem to indicate that I shall best serve the interests of the 
Anthropological Section of the British Association by a dissertation on the 
importance of this particular science to those who are or may hereafter be 
called upon to administer the public affairs of the lands in which they may 
reside. 
I have to approach the practical aspect of the general subject of anthropology 
under the difficulty of finding myself once more riding an old hobby, and being 
consequently confronted with views and remarks already expressed in much 
detail. But I am not greatly disturbed by this fact, as experience teaches that 
the most effective way of impressing ideas, in which one believes, on one’s 
fellow man is to miss no opportunity of putting them forward, even at the risk 
of repeating what may not yet have been forgotten. And as I am convinced 
that the teachings of anthropologists are of practical value to those engaged in 
guiding the administration of their own or another country, I am prepared to 
take that risk. } 
Anthropology is, of course, in its baldest sense the study of mankind in all its 
possible ramifications, a subject far too wide for any one science to cover, and 
therefore the real point for consideration on such an occasion as this is not so 
much what the students of mankind and its environments might study if they 
chose, but what the scope of their studies now actually is, and whither it is 
tending. I propose, therefore, to discuss the subject in this limited sense. 
What then is the anthropology of to-day, that claims to be of practical value 
to the administrator? In what directions has it developed ? 
Perhaps the best answer to these questions is to be procured from our own 
volume of ‘Notes and Queries on Anthropology,’ a volume published under an 
