TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 861 
Srotion H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
PRESIDENT oF THE SEct1oN—C. H, Reap, F.S.A. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 
The President delivered the following Address: 
Tux difficulties that beset the President of this Section in prepariny an address are 
chiefly such as arise from the great breadth of our subject. It is thought by some, 
on the one hand, to comprehend every phase of human activity, so that if 
a communication does not fall within the scope of any other of the Sections into 
which the British Association is divided, it must of necessity belong to that of 
anthropology. On the other hand, there are many men, wanting neither in intelli- 
gence nor education, who seem incapable of grasping its general extent, but, mistaking 
a part for the whole, are fully content with the conclusions that naturally result 
from such a parochial method of reasoning. The Oxford don who stated, a year or 
two ago, his belief that authropology rested on a foundation of romance can only 
have arrived at this opinion by some such inadequate process, and the conclusion 
necessarily fails to carry conviction. The statement was, however, singularly ill- 
advised, for anthropology gives way to no other branch of science in its reliance 
upon facts for its existence and its conclusions. Had the reproach been that the 
facts were often of a dry and repellent character we might have pleaded 
extenuating circumstances, but I fear it must have been admitted that there was 
some justice in the complaint, though we could fairly point to instances where 
master minds had made even the dry bones of anthropology live, and that without 
trenching upon the domain of romance. 
It is not, however, my purpose to-day to enter upon a general defence of 
anthropology as a branch of science. It has taken far too firm a hold upon the 
popular mind to need any svch help. I intend rather to treat of one or two special 
subjects with which I am in daily relation, in order to see whether some practical 
means cannot be found to bring about a state of things more satisfactory than that 
at present existing. 
The first of these branches is that of the prehistoric antiquities of our own 
country. It will not be denied that there can be no more legiumate subject of 
study than the remains of the inhabitants of our islands from the earliest appear- 
ance of man up to the time when written history comes to the aid of the 
archeologist. There is no civilised nation which has not devoted some part of its 
energies to such studies, and many of them under far less favourable cireumstances 
than ours. The chiefest of our advantages is to be found in the small extent of 
the area to be explored—an area ridiculously small when compared with that of 
most of the Continental nations, or with the resources at our command for its 
exploration. The natural attractions of our islands, moreover, have also had a great 
influence on our Continental neighbours, so that their incursions have not been few, 
and no small number of them decided to remain in a country where the necessaries 
