FIRST OKDINARY MEETING. / 



but he would give it a meaning and an application which would 

 astonish its author. Anthropology literally means, the science of 

 man, and, if the term were construed in the full extent of its mean- 

 ing, it would embrace all other sciences. It is not, however, so used, 

 but is employed to designate the science which deals with the natural 

 history of man. That is to say, Anthropology is a branch of Zoology. 

 The great poet of the age of Queen Anne thought, and expressed 

 the thought that the proper study of mankind is man, with the impli- 

 cation that it is his moral nature which is especially worthy of inves- 

 tigation ; the anthropologist of to-day, without leaving man's moral 

 nature out of account, feels more at home in questions about the shape 

 and size of skulls, the height, weight, and colour of different races, 

 the character of their hair, the peculiarities of the different parts of 

 their skeletons, the relations of languages, and the development of 

 civilization on the earth. 



There is no one of the differences which separate one tribe or 

 nation from another more striking than that of colour. In conse- 

 quence, men are often classified in popular parlance into white and 

 coloured. Blumenbach, about a century ago, divided mankind on the 

 basis of colour into five races : the Caucasian or white, the Mongolian 

 or yellow, the American or red, the Malay or brown, and the Ethi- 

 opian or black ; and this classification has, in virtue of its simplicity, 

 until recently been very generally accepted. It is, however, scien- 

 tifically worthless. The so-called Red race varies in colour from 

 chocolate brown to dark white. There are Chinese, Japanese 

 and Coreans, which races, according to Blumenbach, are Mongolian, 

 as white as many so-called Caucasians ; and the Zulus of Southern 

 Africa, though ranked as Ethiopians, present examples of every 

 vai'iety of complexion from yellow to black. 



In place of Blumenbach's system a great number of classifications 

 have been offered. These may be divided into those based on 

 language, and those based on physical peculiarities. Both are alike 

 unsatisfactory ; the former because they often bring together tribes 

 and nations of very different appearance ; the latter because they 

 separate races having related languages, and connect races whose 

 languages are extremely different. In the Indo-European family, 

 which is a division with a linguistic basis, are included the bronze- 

 coloured Hindoo and the blonde Scandinavian. Among the Xantho- 

 chroi, or blonde whites of Huxley, a race set apart on the basis of its 



