54 REPORT — 1841. 



foreign to it, are notwithstanding pursuing it with zeal, it certainly behoves 

 us, for the credit of our country, to endeavour to diffuse a more extensive 

 and operative interest in relation to it." 



Dr. Hodgkin stated that sufficient time had not elapsed for the return of 

 answers from distant countries. Some interesting information had, however, 

 been elicited by them from a gentleman who had lately travelled in Texas, 

 where he had observed the remnants of the ancient Mexicans. He pointed 

 out some of the national reasons which call for exertion on the part of 

 Englishmen, and related some of the labours of foreigners, and more espe- 

 cially of the Ethnographical Society of Paris, of Dr. Dieffenbach, R. H. 

 Schomburgk, and other Germans, and those of the government as well as of 

 individuals of the United States, and gave a description of the gallery of 

 North American Indian curiosities and portraits collected and exhibited with 

 great expense and pains by George Catlin, whose work on the Indians of 

 North America he announced as nearly ready for publication. Dr. Hodgkin 

 dwelt on the importance of Ethnological researches, and on the absolute 

 necessity for promptly pursuing the work if anything valuable and satis- 

 factory is to be accomplished ; seeing that the races in question are not only 

 changing character, but rapidly disappearing. 



" It is this threatened extinction of races of men who have been either 

 wholly neglected or very imperfectly studied, which seems to bring this sub- 

 ject peculiarly within the province of this Section of the British Association. 

 Why should not the varieties of our own species receive as much attention 

 as those of inferior animals, however remarkable or rare they may be ? Has 

 the extinction of a variety of man ever excited equal attention with that 

 which has been paid to the loss of the dodo ? Or has the diminution of any 

 tribe of Aborigines received a proportionate share of solicitude with that 

 which has been given, not to the extinction of a species, but to its disappear- 

 ance from a particular hcality, as in the case of the ' cock of the woods,' from 

 the northern parts of this island ? Successful attempts have been made to 

 restore these animals to their ancient haunts ; and it has even been contem- 

 plated to restore the long-lost wild boar to the list of British wild animals. 

 A rare variety of the ox or the dog is preserved with unremitting care, and 

 often at great expense, from generation to generation ; and a rare specimen 

 in any department of natural history is sought with unremitting perseverance, 

 preserved with pains, and purchased at an almost unlimited expense. It is not 

 to disparage the zeal which is justly devoted to any of the various branches 

 to which these objects may belong, that these observations are offered ; they 

 are merely made for the purpose of urging that man himself, even as an object 

 of Natural History, may receive a degree of attention proportioned to the 

 exalted rank which he holds amongst the works of his Creator. A great variety 

 of interests are united in ascertaining the mode in which man, as the highest 

 of animals, has been diffused over the surface of the globe." 



Dr. Hodgkin concluded by urging, as practical means for advancing the 

 cause of Ethnological investigation, first, the bringing home, for the purpose 

 of being studied themselves, as well as of being made the subjects of suitable 

 education, well-selected aboriginal youths, and especially such as have had an 

 opportunity of acquiring knowledge, and exhibiting ability in missionary or 

 other native schools. This plan, which need not equal in expense what is 

 often done for other objects of zoology and for botany, might be facilitated 

 by the union of individual contributors. Secondly, rendering personal and 

 pecuniary aid to the Aborigines' Protection Society, the objects of which were 

 neither of a party nor of a sectarian character, but were solely directed to the 

 preservation, amelioration, and study of the feeble races of mankind, amongst 



