XIV EVOLUTION OF RACE 195 



varieties have constantly been formed, not only by segmentation, 

 as it were, of a portion of the old stocks, but also by various 

 combinations of those already established. . . . Without entering 

 into the difficult question of the method of man's first appearance 

 upon the world, we must assume for it a vast antiquity, at all 

 events as measured by our historical standard. Of this there is 

 now ample proof. During the long period when he existed in a 

 savage state — a time to which the dawn of historical time was as 

 yesterday — he was influenced by the working of those natural 

 laws which have produced the variations seen in other regions of 

 organic nature. The first men may very probably have been all 

 alike ; but when spread over the face of the earth, and made 

 subject to very diverse external conditions of climate, food com- 

 petition with members of his own species or with wild animals, 

 racial differences began slowly to be developed. . . . Geographical 

 position must have been one of the main factors in determining 

 the formation and permanence of races. Groups of men isolated 

 from their fellows for long periods, such as those living on small 

 islands, to which their ancestors may accidentally have drifted, 

 would naturally, in course of time, develop a new set of features, 

 of skull, of complexion, or of hair. A slight set in one direction 

 in any of their characters would constantly tend to intensify 

 itself, and so new races would be formed ; . . . the longer a race 

 thus formed remained isolated, the more strongly impressed 

 would its characteristics become. 



After expressing a hope that the Trustees of the 

 British Museum would see their way to provide 

 accommodation for anthropological collections in 

 their new Museum, he concluded by urging his 

 hearers to support the Institute. 



Thirteen years later, at Oxford, General Pitt 

 Rivers presented to the University his splendid 

 collection illustrating the arts and customs of primi- 

 tive people. Only two years after the York meeting 



