Recent Progress of Ethnology. lb 



Guinea Coast, where he has laboured for the advancement of 

 several sciences. His paper on the natives of Old Callebar, 

 printed in our first volume, established his reputation as an 

 ethnologist. His recent papers on Akkrah and Adampe will 

 sustain that reputation. He has filled up lacunae in our know- 

 ledge of African Ethnology ; and we may confidently look for 

 more knowledge as the result of new investigations which he 

 will enter upon on his return, at the end of the month, to 

 Africa. And let me add, that he will have our best wishes 

 for the preservation of his health, and that he may be spared 

 to return to us, and to increase his reputation by enlarging 

 still more the boundaries of our ethnological knowledge of 

 West Africa. 



We may also expect additions to our African ethnology 

 from Dr Overweg's expedition. 



" A Manual of Geographical Science. By the Rev. C G. 

 Nicolay.'' The several articles of this manual are written 

 by various authors. The article Physical Geography is 

 written by Professor Ansted. The section on the distribu- 

 tion of animals in space and time occupies 48 pages ; that on 

 Ethnology occupies 25 pages ; so that a very fair proportion 

 of space is allotted to our science. But in so small a space 

 there can only be a sketch of the subject. The sketch is a 

 compilation, chiefly from the works of Dr Pri chard and 

 Colonel Hamilton Smith ; and, as might be expected, the 

 sketch is more a description of the geographical distribution 

 of the human family than a manual of Ethnology. 



Our science has been advanced, and most valuable mate- 

 rials have been collected for others to advance it, by the 

 Bible and the several Missionary Societies. The philolo- 

 gical and other knowledge which those societies have collected 

 together to further the high and noble objects which they 

 have in view, has also been of incalculable value in advan- 

 cing ethnological science. I need not enumerate the many 

 unwritten languages which the missionaries have been the 

 first to study and reduce to writing. Nor is it necessary to 

 enlarge upon the great patience and ability which is required 

 so to acquire, and afterwards to write ; for the works them- 

 selves speak louder than any praise of mine. The labours 



