78 Richard Cull, Esq., on the 



been justified in assuming, a priori, that should the Baby- 

 lonian language be recovered, it would be found to be cog- 

 nate with the Mosaic Hebrew. 



It was proposed some years ago to appoint a distinct Sec- 

 tion for the cultivation of Ethnology in the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science. The proposal was 

 negatived by the committee of the Association. It was, how- 

 ever, felt, that Ethnology is worthier than to occupy a mere 

 subordinate place in the section of Natural History. It has 

 accordingly been removed from that section, and now is 

 united with Geography, which has been removed from Geo- 

 logy, and they together form one section. If by such a union 

 Ethnology were to be degraded into the science of the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the human race, I should never 

 cease to raise my voice against its union. At the Ipswich 

 meeting last July, Section E, for the cultivation of Geography 

 and Ethnology, met for the first time, and you were duly in- 

 formed of the results of that meeting at the opening of the 

 session. 



I have now rapidly glanced at the progress of Ethnology 

 during the past year. In relation to the whole science, that 

 progress is fragmentary, but so is the annual progress of 

 every other science. One of the chief uses of reviewing our 

 progress is to draw attention to what is well known, less 

 known, and unknown ; for our knowledge and ignorance are 

 so blended as to make a chaos. And, in reviewing our posi- 

 tion, it would be well to draw up special reports in order to 

 affix the boundaries of our knowledge, so as to exhibit in its 

 full magnitude our ethnological ignorance, both in relation 

 to space and time. 



Common experience in the progress of knowledge shews, 

 that in proportion as the number of students of a science in- 

 crease, so does a larger number of persons become interested 

 in the advancement of that science, and we find it advance. 

 The history of Mathematics, of the Physical Sciences, of Che- 

 mistry, of Geology, of Geography, and other sciences, all con- 

 cur in shewing that a rapid advancement of the science, both 

 by extension of knowledge, and a fuller comprehension of the 

 laws of nature, invariably follows a wider diffusion of what 



