LEIPSIC MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY. 393 



Eetzins, on cephalo-gnathism ; of some, on the skull-bases ; of others, on 

 skin, hair, pelves, &c ; of Latham, on language; of Max Muller, on 

 religion. Though not always pursued and published in a proper spirit, 

 these labors are necessary in every possible line of investigations. Let 

 us have more of them. Failure to find the truth, after an honest effort, 

 is helpful and commendable. Greater patience, with more improved 

 instruments on other paths, will give results which will become the 

 axioms of higher generalizations. 



In the second place, a number of sciences considered as auxiliary to a 

 knowledge of the human race have reference to its environment. Among 

 these are chemistry, physics, meteorology, geology, and one knows not 

 "where to stop in the enumeration. We find man bound up with his 

 material surroundings by a threefold cord : he resembles it ; he depends 

 upon it; he subdues it. A knowledge of the facts concerning these 

 relations is so necessary to an understanding of himself that great 

 progress in a variety of sciences, and an impartial and comprehensive 

 view of them, become necessary to a just appreciation of the difficulties 

 of ethnological research. 



Nearly every law of human embryology, anatomy, and physiology 

 has been discovered or confirmed through the study of animals and 

 plants. Man resembles all creatures in his amenability to the laws of 

 climate and physical forces. So great is the similarity of his body to 

 that of the animals of related species that it is hard to find anatomical 

 characteristics worthy to be co-ordinated with the overwhelming differ- 

 ences between his mental powers and theirs. The same food nourishes; 

 the same law of decay returns them back to the dust. The floods sweep 

 over them and they are gone. Their records are read side by side in 

 the drift-gravels of the riverbeds. 



The dependencies of man are twofold — those which he has in common 

 •with other creatures, and those by which climate, food, the fertility of 

 the soil, the constancy and suitableness of material supplies, confine him, 

 determine his character and destiny; by which thepoverty of some places 

 starves him, the luxuriance of others enervates him, the adaptability 

 of others to his body and mind supplies just those helps, stimulants, and 

 rewards which conduce to his symmetrical development. When we 

 •consider how many upheavals and deposits have helped to prepare a 

 single acre of ground for his apjDearance and growth upon it, or how many 

 ages of the operations of all the forces of nature, and how many species 

 of natural objects minister to him in savage and in civilized life, we 

 come to regard him as the most helpless and needy of all beings, and 

 we must admit the necessity of an acquaintance with all these in order 

 to have a correct appreciation of him who is their adopted child. 



We come now to regard man as nature's conqueror ; for, like the 

 science which reveals him. he that was erst the infant and ntost de- 

 fenseless of all creatures, comes in his later years to be the spoiler of the 

 universe. By the sweat of his brow he earns his bread and clothing 



