38 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 706 



of variation in these parts of special im- 

 portance in at least the most significant 

 groups of humanity. What is required in 

 this line will be clearer when it is appre- 

 ciated that, to determine the total range of 

 variation in a single long bone, such as, 

 for instance, the humerus, in any partic- 

 ular group to be studied, there are needed 

 the remains of hundreds of individuals of 

 one sex from that group. As it is, even 

 the greatest collections fall still far short 

 of the requirements, and the investigations 

 carried on with them can be seldom perfect 

 or final. 



The dearth of properly trained men has 

 been a great hindrance in physical anthro- 

 pology. The cause of this is simple enough. 

 The branch demands extensive preparation 

 and arduous work, for which it offers at 

 best only moderate pecuniary reward. It 

 has not yet reached the stage of its ulti- 

 mate public utility and in consequence 

 receives much less public recognition than 

 the so-called applied sciences. Under these 

 circumstances the recruiting of regular 

 workers of the right class is precarious, a 

 new physical anthropologist is almost an 

 accident and the supply of students is far 

 short of what is needed. 



The difficulties of gathering the requisite 

 material, and even the data alone, have 

 been infinite and are still very great; in 

 fact they are sometimes quite insurmount- 

 able. Religioiis beliefs and superstition, 

 but also love, cover the dead body every- 

 where with a saeredness or awe, which no 

 man is willingly permitted to disturb. It 

 is not appreciated that the secured remains 

 are guarded in the laboratory with the 

 utmost care and for the most worthy 

 ends, including the benefit of the living. 

 The minds of the friends are only appre- 

 hensive of mutilation and sacrilege, or 

 simply fear the disturbance. These 

 conditions extend with small exceptions 

 to the civilized and savage alike, and 



to collect, in their presence, large sup- 

 plies of material indispensable to physical 

 anthropology is often very arduous and 

 unsatisfactory. The impediment that this 

 constitutes to the advance of the science is 

 beyond computation. And the difficulties 

 extend even to the data on the living. The 

 stumbling blocks due to ignorance and 

 superstition are particularly numerous in 

 the way of measuring, and are met with 

 even among the otherwise most enlightened. 

 Compare with this the facilities of the zool- 

 ogist or botanist ! 



Notwithstanding these and other ob- 

 stacles, among others those placed in its 

 way by the ill-fitted or fool investigator, 

 physical anthropology has already accom- 

 plished considerable useful work. It has 

 established a system of precise measuring 

 of man and his remains, and has furnished 

 the needed instruments; it has directly 

 advanced general anatomy, particularly 

 that of the skeletal system and brain 

 of man and other primates, and con- 

 tributed to zoology, general biology and 

 other natural sciences; it has estab- 

 lished the physical knowledge of the races 

 and many of their subdivisions, and has 

 aided through its activities the advance 

 of its sister branches, ethnology and arche- 

 ology; it has given a far-reaching impetus 

 to search for the remains of early man, and 

 has determined the physical characteristics 

 of the finds made; it has actuated and to 

 a large extent carried out the study of 

 man's development from his inception on- 

 ward; it has brought about physical in- 

 vestigation and through this a vast im- 

 provement in our knowledge of the crim- 

 inal and other defective classes; it has led 

 directly to the practical systems of iden- 

 tification of criminals ; it has taken part in 

 and promoted the studies in human hered- 

 ity, variation, degeneration and hybridity; 

 it has added to knowledge of the func- 

 tions and pathology of the human body and 



