374 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. Ln. No. 1347 



thropology in 1907 — and he was a man who 

 thought before he spoke, and whose death 

 diiring the war is a loss to anthropologists the 

 whole world over — " a lasting improvement 

 can only arise if the state recognizes that 

 anthropology is a science preeminently of 

 value to the state, a science which not only 

 deserves but can demand that chairs shall be 

 officially established for it in every university. 

 . . . Only this spread of officially authorized 

 anthropology in all German universities can 

 enable it to fuliil its task, that of training 

 men who, well armed with the weapon of an- 

 thropological knowledge, will be able to place 

 their skill at the service of the state, which 

 will ever have need of them in increasing 

 numbers."^ 



Our universities are not, as in Germany, 

 government-controlled institutions, although 

 such control is yearly increasing. Here we 

 have first to show that we are supporting the 

 state before the state somewhat grudgingly 

 will give its support to us. Hence the im- 

 mediate aim of the anthropologist should be 

 — not to suggest that the state should a priori 

 assist work not yet undertaken, but to do 

 what he can with the limited resources in his 

 power, and when he has shown that what he 

 has achieved is, notwithstanding his limita- 

 tions, of value to the state, then he is in a 

 position to claim effective support for his 

 science. 



I have left myself little time to place fairly 

 before you my third insistence. 



ADOPTION OF A NEW TECHNIQUE 



What is it that a young man seeks when he 

 enters the university — if we put aside for a 

 moment any social advantages, such as the 

 formation of lifelong friendships associated 

 therewith? He seeks, or ought to seek, train- 

 ing for the mind. He seeks, or ought to seek, 

 an open doorway to a calling which will be of 

 use to himself, and wherein he will take his 

 part, a useful part, in the social organization 

 of which he finds himself a member. Much 

 as we may all desire it, in the pressure of 



;. 2 Correspondenz Blatt, Jahrg. XXXVIII., S. 68. 



modem life, it is very difficult for the young 

 man of moderate means to look upon the 

 university training as something apart from 

 his professional training. Men more and more 

 select their academic studies with a view to 

 their professional value. We can no longer 

 combine this senior wranglership with the 

 pursuit of a judgeship; we can not pass out 

 in the classical tripos and aim at settling 

 down in life as a Harley Street consultant; 

 we can not take a D.Sc. in chemistry as a 

 preliminary to a journalistic career. It is 

 the faculties which provide professional train- 

 ing that are crowded, and men study nowa- 

 days physics or chemistry because they wish 

 to be physicists or chemists, or seek by their 

 knowledge of these sciences to reach com- 

 mercial posts. Even the very faculty of arts 

 runs the danger of becoming a professional 

 school for elementary school teachers. I do 

 not approve this state of afiairs; I would 

 merely note its existence. But granted it, 

 what does anthropology offer to the young 

 man who for a moment considers it as a pos- 

 sible academic study? There are no pro- 

 fessional posts at present open to him, and 

 few academic jwsts.^ There is little to attract 

 the yoimg man to anthropology as a career. 

 Is its position as a training of mind any 

 stronger? The student knows if he studies 

 physics or chemistry or engineering that he 

 will obtain a knowledge of the principles of 

 observation, of measurement, and of the inter- 

 pretation of data, which will serve him in 

 good stead whenever he has to deal with phe- 

 nomena of any kind. But, alas! in anthro- 

 pology, while he finds many things of sur- 

 passing interest, he discovers no generally 

 accepted methods of attacking new problems, 

 quot homines^ tot sententiw. The type of 

 man we want in anthropology is precisely the 

 man who now turns to mathematics, to phys- 

 ics and to astronomy — the man with an exact 



3 In London, for example, there is a reader in 

 physical anthropology who is a teacher in anatomy, 

 and a professorship in ethnology, which for some 

 mysterious reason is included in the faculty of eco- 

 nomies and is, I believe, not a full-time appoint- 

 ment. 



