A SCHEME OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 355 



-characteristics of our native Canadian tribes, and of some special points of signifi- 

 cance in relation to their arts are only glanced at. One deduction, however, 

 may be worthy of future consideration. If it be a fact borne out by much in- 

 dependent evidence that from the,extremest northern range of the Arctic Eski- 

 mo, southward to the Great Lakes, and beyond this, especially to the east of the 

 Alleghany Mountains, amid considerable diversity of ethnical characteristics, the 

 dolichocephalic type of head prevailed ; whereas among more southern tribes, 

 such as the Osages, Ottoes, Missouris, Dacotas, Cherokees, Seminoles, Creeks, 

 and many others, including the Florida Indians, the short, rounded, or brachy- 

 cephalic head appears to have been universal; this seems to point to a converg- 

 ence of two distinct ethnical lines of migration from opposite centres. In this as 

 I believe, the evidence thus derived from physical characteristics confirms what 

 is indicated by wholly independent evidence of language, traditional customs, 

 and native arts. 



A SCHEME OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Prof. Alex. Winchell, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 

 presided. There was a large attendance of members. 



The first paper read at the morning session of this section was by Professor 

 Otis T. Mason, of the Columbian University, Washington, U. S., on " A Scheme 

 of Anthropology," of which the following is a summary: 



Science progresses by observation, by the classification of phenomena, by 

 the deduction of the laws of nature, and by inquiring into the origin and correla- 

 tions of its objects. The amount of progress at any moment is indicated by the 

 condition of the nomenclature. In every department of knowledge it is now 

 ■deemed necessary to investigate origins, or beginnings. The science of man must 

 have its three stages of development — description, science, and law. These three 

 -Stages are (i) the phenomenal, observational, descriptive ; (2) the classifying, dis- 

 criminating, analytical; (3) the synthetic, deductive, predictive stage. No branch 

 of study is altogether worthy of the name of a science that has not passed through 

 these three steps. The natural history of man, as a whole, will be divided into 

 four parts ; the first relating to the origin of man. Whatever view we take of 

 man's origin in the first being, it is probable there existed in embryo the promise 

 and potency of his future. The second part is the descriptive, including facts 

 and objects necessary to correct inferences. The third part embraces all that 

 has gone before, and finally all attempts to study the phenomena of human prog- 

 ress must end in understanding the law of that movement, so that it may be 

 useful to the man of action in the future. 



The ga,therirLg of crania, skeletons, implements of stone, bone, clay, shell, 

 ■etc., the consideration of their position and the truthful report of what is observ- 

 ed constitutes the first lesson in priscan history. The pursuit, however, has little 

 claim to be called a science as yet. There are hundreds of men and women, 



