248 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



and human faculties ; brute worship ; the worship of humanity ; the 

 philosophic creeds, and their connection with popular creeds, &c. 

 The Ethnological Society announced by their Honorary Secretary, 

 Colonel Lane Fox, that a statement which had been published to 

 the effect that the Ethnological Society was about to be wound up, 

 was unfounded. That Society owed nothing, and was never in a 

 more nourishing condition. 



The Annual General Meeting of the Anthropological Society 

 was held on the 18th January, Dr. John Beddoe, President, in the 

 chair. The Society is at present overshadowed with the loss it has 

 so recently sustained in the death of its most active promoter and 

 founder, Dr. James Hunt. No anniversary dinner this year cheered 

 their proceedings. Those philanthropic souls who labour only to 

 promote the happiness and freedom of mankind would have lis- 

 tened with pain on February 1st to Major F. Millin gen's account of 

 " Negro Slaves in Turkey." These unfortunates are brought from 

 the countries situated on the higher basin of the Nile, — the Nile- 

 valley being the route followed by the cargoes of slaves on their way 

 to the markets. Major Millingen considers that so long as the 

 demand and supply exist it is useless to hope that slavery can be 

 abolished. The endless feuds of the Negro races keep up the supply, 

 and the religious and social system of the Mussulman nation causes 

 the demand. Sir Samuel Baker's expedition to put a stop to the 

 slave trade will, the author considers, prove futile unless the Sultan 

 and the Khedive intend really to do away with slavery, which the 

 Major thinks cannot be accomplished unless they give up their 

 harems. 



At the meeting of Anthropologists, on February loth, Dr. Bar- 

 nard Davis and Mr. E. A. Welch gave an account of " The Abori- 

 gines of Chatham Islands." The aborigines of these three islands, 

 which he to the eastward of New Zealand, have been gradually 

 exterminated by the invasion of the Maories. Dr. Barnard Davis 

 gives the result of an examination of the skulls and skeletons of 

 many of the inhabitants. The stature of the Moriories, or Chatham 

 Islanders, indicated a race shorter and stouter than the inhabitants 

 of New Zealand. 



Dr. J. Campbell contributed a paper " On Polygamy : its Influ- 

 ence in Determining the Sex of our Bace, and its Effects on the 

 Growth of Population." The author, who had been many years 

 resident in Siam, concludes that the proportion of males and females 

 born were, as in the case of monogamist marriages, entirely equal. 



Mr. Balph Tate described an inscribed rock on the banks of the 

 Iguana, a tributary of the Orinoco, presenting incised markings of 

 a date more ancient than the present inhabitants of the district. 



