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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 35. 



of man, his psycliical as well as his phys- 

 ical nature, and the products of all his ac- 

 tivities, whether in the past or in the pres- 

 ent. By some wi-iters, especially on the 

 continent of Europe, the term anthropol- 

 ogy is restricted to what we call physical 

 anthropology or somatology, a limitation of 

 the generic term which we cannot but de- 

 plore. Others again, and some of worthy 

 note, would exclude from it the realm of 

 history, confining it in time to the research 

 of prehistoric epochs, and in extent to the 

 investigation of savage nations. 



I cannot too j)0sitively protest against 

 such opinions. Thus ' cabinned, cribbed, 

 confined,' it could never soar to that lofty 

 eminence whence it could survey the whole 

 course of the life of the species, note the de- 

 velopment of its inborn tendencies, and 

 mark the lines along which it has been 

 moving since the first syllables of recorded 

 time ; for this, and nothing less than this, 

 is the bold ambition toward which aspires 

 this crowning bough of the tree of human 

 knowledge. 



You will readily understand from this the 

 magnitude of the material which anthro- 

 pology includes within its domain. First, it 

 investigates the physical life of man in all 

 its stages and in every direction. While he 

 is still folded in the womb, it watches his 

 embryonic progress through those lower 

 forms, which seem the reminiscences of fax'- 

 ofif stages of the evolution of the species, 

 untU the child is born unto the world, en- 

 dowed with the heritage transmitted from 

 innumerable ancestors and already rich in 

 personal experiences from its prenatal life. 

 These combined decide the individual's race 

 and sti-ain, and potently incline, if they do 

 not absolutely coerce, his tastes and ambi- 

 tions, his fears and hopes, his failure or suc- 

 cess. 



On the diiferences thus brought about, 

 and later nourished by the environment, 

 biology, as applied to the human species, is 



based; and on them, as expressed in aggre- 

 gates, ethnography, the separation of the 

 species into subspecies and smaller groups, 

 is founded. It has been observed that 

 numerous and persistent, although often 

 slight differences arose in remote times, in- 

 dependentlj'^, on each of the great conti- 

 nental areas, sufficient to characterize with 

 accuracy these subspecies. We therefore 

 give to such the terms ' races ' or ' varieties ' 

 of man. 



All these are the physical traits of man. 

 They are studied by the anatomist, the em- 

 bryologist, the physician; and the closest 

 attention to them is indispensable, if we 

 would attain a correct understanding of the 

 creature man, and his position in the chain 

 of organic life. 



But there is another vast field of study 

 wholly apart from this and even more fruit- 

 ful in revelations. It illustrates man's 

 mental or psychical nature, his passions and 

 instincts, his emotions and thoughts, his 

 powers of ratiocination, volition and expres- 

 sion. These are preserved and displayed 

 subjectively in his governments and relig- 

 ions, his laws and his languages, his words 

 and his writings; and, objectively, in his 

 manufactures and structures, in the envi- 

 ronment which he himself creates — in other 

 words, in all that which we call the arts, be 

 they ' hooked to some useful end,' or de- 

 signed to give pleasure only. 



It is not sufficient to study these as we 

 find them in the present. We should learn 

 little by such a procedure. What we are 

 especially seeking is to discover their laws 

 of growth, and this can only be done by 

 tracing these outward expressions of the in- 

 ward faculties step by step back to their 

 incipiency. This leads us inevitably to 

 that branch of learning which is known as 

 archaeology, ' the study of ancient things,' 

 and more and more to that part of archaj- 

 ology called prehistoric, for that concerns 

 itself with the most ancient; and the most 



