686 THE: AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [VoOL. XXXIII. 
and especially in South America, become peopled, anthropology will 
be taken up in different places beyond the United States. By that 
time the United States ought to be to America in anthropology what 
France has been and still is to Europe. But this it cannot be without 
one or rather a number of first-class Institutes, which would offer 
everything to the foreign student which he will not be able to find at 
home. 
It is very plain why the United States, more than any other coun- 
_ try on this continent, should become the leader in anthropology. No 
other American country possesses such resources and, perhaps it 
might be added with justice, none such an abundance of apt and, 
particularly, energetic workers. 
How would the establishment of an anthropological Institute be prac- 
ticable? Paris gave as a place for the Broca’s Institute a part of one 
of its public buildings, and the French government supports the estab- 
lishment. Similar things might be done here, were a few influential 
citizens and officers of some large scientific center, or of some state, 
interested in the proposition. Possibly the government of the United 
States itself would support the project. The aid of the government 
would of all be the most desirable, and with it the execution of the 
project the most feasible. The government supports the American 
Bureau of Ethnology, besides other allied institutions. Perhaps the 
scope of the Bureau of Ethnology, which is doing excellent anthropo- 
logical work, could be enlarged, until the bureau would comprise all 
classes of anthropological work and at the same time develop into a 
center of instruction in the science. In such a case there ought to 
be at least two branch Institutes, one in New York and one in Chicago. 
In case of the failure of government or state or city support, there 
still exists the possibility of securing the interest of one or more 
wealthy private persons. But all these are mere theories, and it is 
not my object to advocate any of them specifically. My sole aim is 
to arouse interest among American anthropologists in this proposi- 
tion, and if I succeed in this, the practical way of effecting the project 
will surely be found later. 
There are other things which American anthropologists, particu- 
larly those who occupy themselves more with somatological investi- 
gation, need besides an Institute, and the most important of these 
are a uniform, definite nomenclature and a uniform system of measure- 
ments. ‘There are practically two systems of anthropological nomen- 
clature, as well as of measurements, in existence; namely, the French 
and the German. The result of this is much confusion. It is difficult 
