October 21, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



521 



varieties of man have been developed and 

 that the study has been extended from the 

 field of anatomy over that of physiology 

 and experimental psychology. His re- 

 searches were extended and systematized 

 by Karl Pearson, in whose hands the ques- 

 tion which was originally one of the precise 

 treatment of the biological problem of an- 

 thropology has outgrown its original limits 

 and has become a general biological method 

 for the study of the characteristics and of 

 the development of varieties. 



We may now summarize the fundament- 

 al problems which give to anthropology its 

 present character. In the biological branch 

 we have the problem of the morphological 

 evolution of man and that of the develop- 

 ment of varieties. Inseparable from these 

 questions is also that of correlation between 

 somatic and mental characters which has a 

 practical as well as a theoretical interest. 

 In psychological anthropology the impor- 

 tant questions are the discovery of a system 

 of the evolution of culture, the study of 

 the modifications of simple general traits 

 under the influence of diiiferent geograph- 

 ical and social conditions, the question of 

 transmission and spontaneous origin, and 

 that of folk psychology versus individual 

 psychology. It will, of course, be under- 

 stood that this enumeration is not exhaust- 

 ive, but includes only some of the most 

 important points of view that occupy the 

 minds of investigators. 



The work of those students who are en- 

 gaged in gathering the material from which 

 this history of mankind is to be built up is 

 deeply influenced by these problems. It 

 would be vain to attempt to give even the 

 briefest review of what has been achieved 

 by the modest collector of facts, how his 

 efforts have covered the remotest parts of 

 the world, how he has tried to uncover and 

 interpret the remains left by the races of 

 the past. 



I think we may say, without injustice,. 



that his work is directed principally to the 

 explanation of special problems that derive 

 their chief interest from a personal love for 

 the particular question and an ardent de- 

 sire to see its obscurity removed and to 

 present its picture in clear outlines. Nev- 

 ertheless the well trained and truly scien- 

 tific observer will always be aware of the 

 general relations of his special problem and 

 will be influenced in his treatment of the 

 special question by the general theoretical 

 discussions of his times. It must be said 

 with regret that the number of anthropo- 

 logical observers who have a sufficient un- 

 derstanding of the problems of the day is 

 small. Still their number has increased 

 considerably during the last twenty years 

 and consequently a constant improvement 

 in the reliability and thoroughness of the 

 available observations may be noticed. 



One or two aspects of the research work 

 of the field anthropologist must be men- 

 tioned. The studies in prehistoric archseol- 

 ogy have been given a lasting impulse by 

 the discussions relating to the evolution of 

 mankind and of human culture. Two great 

 problems have occupied the attention of 

 archEeologists, the origin and first appear- 

 ance of the human race, and the historical 

 sequence of races and of types of culture. 

 To the archaeologist the determination of 

 the chronological order is an important one. 

 The determination of the geological period 

 in which man appeared, the chronological 

 relation of the earliest types of man to 

 their later successors, the sequence of types 

 of culture as determined by the artifacts 

 of each period, and approximate determi- 

 nations of the absolute time to which these 

 remains belong are the fundamental prob- 

 lems with which archaeology is concerned. 

 The results obtained have the most imme- 

 diate bearing upon the general question of 

 the evolution of culture, since the ideal aim 

 of archaeology practically coincides with 

 this general problem, the solution of which 



