874 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 413. 



of the masses. Ethnology, however, does not 

 deal with the exceptional man; it deals with 

 the masses, and with the characteristic forms 

 of their thoughts. The extremes of the 

 forms of thought of the most highly developed 

 and of the lowest mind in the community are 

 of interest only as special varieties, and in 

 so far as they influence the further develop- 

 ment of the thought of the people. It may, 

 therefore, be said that the exoteric doctrine 

 is the more general ethnic phenomenon, the 

 investigation of which is a necessary founda- 

 tion for the study of the problems of esoteric 

 teaching. 



It is, therefore, evident that we must not, 

 in our study of Indian life, seek for the high- 

 est form of thought only, which is held by 

 the priest, the chief, the leader. Interesting 

 and attractive as this field of research may 

 be, it is supplementary only to the study of 

 the thoughts, emotional life, and ethical stand- 

 ards of the common people, whose interests 

 center in other fields of thought and of whom 

 the select class forms only a special type. 



It has taken many years for the study of 

 the culture of civilized peoples to broaden out 

 so as to take in not only the activities of the 

 great, but also the homely life of the masses. 

 The appreciation of the fact that the actions 

 of each individual have their roots in the 

 society in which he lives, has developed only 

 recently, and has led to the intensive study 

 of folk-lore and folk-customs that is charac- 

 teristic of our times. It seems peculiar that, 

 with increasing knowledge of the more com- 

 plex forms of Indian culture, we seem to be 

 losing interest in the popular belief; that we 

 look for the true inward significance of cus- 

 toms among the select few, and become in- 

 clined to consider as superficial the study of 

 the simpler and cruder ideas and ideals of 

 the common folk. If it is true that for a 

 full understanding of civilized society the 

 knowledge of the popular mind is a necessity, 

 it is doubly true in more primitive forms of 

 society, where the isolation of social groups 

 is very slight, and where each and every in- 

 dividual is connected by a thousand ties with 

 the majority of the members of the tribe to 

 which he belongs. 



Far be it from me to deprecate the im- 

 portance of studies of the philosophies de- 

 veloped by the Indian mind. Only let us 

 not lose sight of their intimate relation to 

 the popular beliefs, of the necessity of study- 

 ing the two in connection with each other, 

 and of the error that we should commit if we 

 should consider the esoteric doctrine, and the 

 whole system of thought and of ethical ideals 

 which it represents, as the only true form of 

 the inner li^'^e of the Indian. 



Franz Boas. 



THE ROIAL SOCIETY'S CATALOGUE OF 

 SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. 



The following memorandimi has been is- 

 sued by the treasui-er of the Royal Society: 



The Royal Society has been engaged con- 

 tinuously during the past forty years in cata- 

 loguing the various scientific papers which 

 have been issued in all parts of the world 

 since the beginning of the last century. The 

 original scheme of the ' Catalogue of Scien- 

 tific Papers ' provided that the papers should 

 be catalogued only under the names of their 

 respective authors, arranged alphabetically. 

 This ' Authors' Catalogue ' has now been 

 carried down to the end of 1883, and com- 

 prises twelve quarto volumes. 



More recently it has been decided to pre- 

 pare also a subject index of the same papers 

 — that is to say, a catalogue in which the 

 papers are indexed according to the subject- 

 matter of which they treat. Considerable 

 progress has been made with this subject in- 

 dex, though nothing has as yet been published. 



The expense of this work has been very 

 large, since, although a great amount of 

 gratuitous labor has been readily given by 

 fellows of the society, it has been necessary 

 to employ a considerable permanent salaried 

 staff upon the preparation of the copy for the 

 press. At first the printing and publication 

 were undertaken by H.ll. Stationery Office, 

 the treasury having determined that the cata- 

 logue should be printed at the public expense. 

 In coming to this conclusion the Lords of the 

 Treasury stated that they had regard ' to the 

 importance of the work with reference to the 

 promotion of scientific knowledge generally. 



