662 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 380. 



echo the advice of the sage of old, ' Know 

 thyself. ' 



Man may boast that he has conquered a 

 universe, but what does he know about his 

 own nature? He began to study it but a 

 little more than a generation ago, when 

 the publication of the ' Origin of Species ' 

 and the confirmation of the conclusions of 

 Boucher de Perthes rendered possible the 

 organization of the science of man. 



Instead of a few individual writers and 

 an occasional investigator there is now a 

 well-trained corps of anthropologists. Act- 

 ive national societies have been formed, 

 costly laboratories are maintained, and ex- 

 cellent journals are published. The science 

 is taught in the leading universities of 

 most civilized countries: in the United 

 States some degree of instruction in it is 

 offered in thirty colleges. It has seemed 

 to me worth while to set forth my reasons 

 for believing that anthropology should be 

 taught in every college in America, both 

 hecause of the information it imparts and 

 the discipline it gives. 



As a branch of education, anthropology 

 lias passed the pioneer period. In some of 

 our older institutions, where instruction in 

 it has been given for more than ten years, 

 the number of instructors and students is 

 continuously increasing. Always offered 

 as an elective, anthropology has thus dem- 

 onstrated its ability to win its way. 



As an objection to the introduction of 

 this new science it is sometimes said that 

 •college curricula are already crowded. But 

 with the rapidly extending elective system 

 the number of courses offered far exceeds 

 the time limit of any individual. At Har- 

 vard, for example, the undergraduate 

 might study one hundred years before 

 obtaining Ms bachelor's degree if he took 

 all the courses open to him. I presume 

 that the authorities of our universities of 

 a hundred and fifty years ago would have 

 considered their curricula threatened by 



an appalling congestion if to the subjects 

 of that time had been added simply the 

 increase of courses due to the present 

 status of knowledge in those branches. 

 And yet, besides all these, additional de- 

 partments—electricity, biology, psychology 

 —have been admitted, not only enriching 

 the schedule of studies, but winning promi- 

 nent rank therein. Similarly, anthropol- 

 ogy, ' the crown and completion ' of the 

 sciences, is assuming its rightful place ; and 

 I shall endeavor to show why it may be 

 added with special advantage to even a 

 crowded curriculum. 



Since anthropology has become clearly 

 defined we hear fewer protests that it em- 

 braces too much. Its very comprehensive- 

 ness is a virtue; for thereby it is rendered 

 suitable to serve as a framework for all 

 other loiowledge whatsoever, a symmetrical 

 framework, lacking which the student but 

 too often builds a series of mental water- 

 tight compartments, so to say, that give no 

 unity or harmony to the intellectual edifice. 



Mathematics, for example, though a dis- 

 cipline study based upon necessary reason- 

 ing and thus perhaps the most remote from 

 anthropology, nevertheless finds its appro- 

 priate place in this ideal educational struc- 

 ture. The anthropologic student learns 

 that among some peoples the mastery of 

 the number concept does not extend beyond 

 the ability to count two or three; that all 

 grades of mathematical comprehension ex- 

 ist from this primitive condition up to our 

 own denary system. He learns that cul- 

 ture may be most profoundly influenced by 

 the reaction of the number concept upon 

 human thought. The basic number may 

 determine the number of gods that are se- 

 lected to rule; through the calendar it in- 

 fluences agriculture, and, indeed, most of 

 the industrial arts; it affects. the pleasures 

 and religious ceremonies of the people. 

 Wherefore I maintain that the addition 

 of the ' human touch ' to mathematics gives 



