January 20, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



95 



guage, of human activities, and must be as 

 truly inductive as those of any other s<;i- 

 ence. By including psychology and an- 

 thropology in the present discussion on the 

 methods of teaching science, we have given 

 expression to the conviction that the method 

 of investigation of mental phenomena must 

 be no less an inductive method than that of 

 physical phenomena. 



The teaching of anthropology may be 

 made to supplement in many ways the 

 teaching of allied subjects, and I will 

 briefly outline its functions in the uni- 

 versity curriculum. 



Physical anthropology has come to be 

 primarily a studj' of the varieties of man. 

 The differences between different tj'pes of 

 man, defined either geographically or so- 

 cially, are slight — so slight, indeed, that the 

 biologist, until quite recent times, would 

 have disregarded them entirely. Slight 

 differences in type have been of importance 

 to the student of anthropology at an earlier 

 time than to the student of zoology, be- 

 cause we are more deeply interested in the 

 slight differences that occur in our own 

 species than among animals. This has led 

 to the result that in anthropologj' sooner 

 than in zoology the insufficiency of descrip- 

 tion was felt. Anthropology was the first 

 of the biological sciences to substitute meas- 

 urement for description and the exact num- 

 ber for the vague word. The method of 

 measuring variable phenomena — in the case 

 of anthropology, of the variations compos- 

 ing a type — had to be developed. It is 

 only natural that in the course of this de- 

 velopment mistakes were committed which 

 had to be rectified, and that the sound 

 method of metric description developed 

 slowly. It would seem that at present we 

 have reached the stage where the methods 

 of metric description may be clearly recog- 

 nized, and we maj', therefore, expect confi- 

 dently a rapid and wholesome development 

 of physical anthropology. A glance at 



recent biological literature shows very 

 clearly that descriptive zoology and descrip- 

 tive botany are passing at present to the 

 substitution of metric description for ver- 

 bal description that took place in anthro- 

 pology some time ago. The study of ^ 

 anthropological methods may prevent biol- 

 ogists from repeating the same errors that 

 were committed in the early days of an- 

 thropology. Anthropological subjects will, 

 for a long time to come, remain the most 

 available material for metrical studies of 

 variations in the higher forms of life, be- 

 cause the material can be obtained in 

 greater numbers and with greater ease than 

 in studies of most of the higher animal 

 forms. The metric method, which is at 

 present principally an anthropological 

 method, will, in a very short time, become 

 of great importance to the student of 

 biologj', who ought, for this reason, to profit 

 by the experiences of the anthropologist. 



The fuller development of physical an- 

 thropology will lead to a study of the 

 physiology and experimental psychology of 

 the races of man. But in these lines of 

 work YiQ have hardly made a beginning. 

 The relation of these inquiries to physiology 

 and to psychology will be the same as that 

 of physical anthropology to anatomy. 



I may be allowed to pass by briefly the 

 relations of the linguistic method of an- 

 thropology to other sciences. You will 

 recognize at once that this subject, as well 

 as its methods, must have a stimulating 

 effect upon the teaching of philology, be- 

 cause its conclusions are based upon the 

 broad grounds of human language ; not on 

 the studies of a single family of languages. 

 The science of linguistics is growing slowly 

 on account of its intrinsic difficulties. These 

 difficulties are based as well on the lack of 

 satisfactory material as on the amount of 

 labor involved in the acquisition of knowl- 

 edge in its particular line of research. 

 Work in this field is most urgently needed, 



