156 ANNUAL MEETING. 
and Mr F. W. Michie, Mrs Matthews, and Miss Gordon as 
members of Council. 
The Chairman also announced that, in recognition of the 
services of Mrs Shirley in compiling the Index for 1914-1915 
and of her work as co-Editor of the Transactions, the Council 
had elected her an Honorary Member. A vote of thanks to 
the Chairman closed the proceedings. 
Comparative Archeology: Its Aims and Methods. 
By Rosert Munro, M.A., M.D., LL.D., F.S.A. Scor-. 
I.—HIsToORICAL INTRODUCTION. 
When the reasoning faculties reached the stage of being 
dominant factors in the progressive culture and civilization of — 
mankind, it is but natural to suppose that, among the many 
mysterious and inexplicable phenomena in the environment 
in which they lived, their own position in the scale of organic 
life in a world teeming with all sorts of animals would have 
given them an occasional passing thought. From time im- 
memorial tradition and proto-historic documents had im- 
pressed on their minds the idea that they occupied a different 
platform.in the scheme of creation from the other animals— 
man being regarded as the crowning achievement of a Jong 
series of creative fiats which brought the present world-drama 
into existence. Several well marked features in their mental 
and physical constitutions gave a prima facie plausibility to 
this opinion. Such, for example, as the erect attitude (sup- 
posed to be after the image of God); the acquisition of hands 
which enabled them. to manufacture tools and weapons of 
defence; and, especially, the power of communicating 
thoughts to their fellow creatures by language, speech, and 
gesture. So long as it was the current belief that the inhabi- 
tants of the modern world were the descendants of a single 
pair of human beings, speciaily created for the purpose of 
founding a divinely protected population, there was really no 
incentive to inquire into their origin on evolutionary or any 
other grounds. Both religion and tradition had already 
