British Association. ate 
“On the Commixture of the Races of Man as affecting the Progress of 
Civilisation in the New World.” By Mr J. Crawrurp. 
“On Anthropological Classification.”” By Dr J. Hunv. 
“ A few Notes on Sir Charles Lyell’s Antiquity of Man.” By Mr Joun 
Crawrurp, F.R.S.—While the author agrees with Sir Charles Lyell as 
to the great antiquity of the appearance of man on the earth, he objects 
to his view of the unity of the human race and his doctrine of transmu- 
tation. He also differs from him as to the origin of languages. In 
speaking of Professor Huxley’s views, he expresses his conviction that 
whatever actual resemblance there may be between man and apes, 
they are completely removed from each other in most important par- 
ticulars. 
‘Geographical Notes on the Island of Formosa.’ By Mr Roserr 
Swinuog, Vice-Consul at T'aiwan. 
“Some Facts respecting the Great Lakes of North America.” By Mr 
J. A. Laruam, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. 
“On the Physical and Mental Characters of the Negro.” By Dr 
James Hunt.—The general deductions which he attempted to draw 
were—Ist, That there is as good reason for classifying the Negro as a 
distinct species from the European, as there is for making the ass a 
distinct species from the zebra. 2d, That the Negro is inferior intellec- 
tually to the European. 3d, That the analogies are far more numerous 
between the Negro and apes, than between the European and apes. 
No man, he said, who investigates with an unbiassed mind, can doubt 
that the Negro belongs to a distinct type of man from the European. This 
word species, in the present state of science, is not satisfactory ; but we 
may safely say that there is in the Negro that assemblage of evidence 
which would, zpso facto, induce an unbiassed observer to make the Euro- 
pean and Negro two distinct types of man. My second and third propo- 
sition must be equally patent to all who have examined the facts. 
We must, for the present, leave apart all questions of the origin of the 
Negro, and simply take him as he exists, and not as poets or fanatics 
paint him. We shall then learn, that it is only by observation and 
experiment that we can determine the exact place in nature which the 
Negro race should hold, and that it is both absurd and chimerical to 
attempt to put him in any other. 
Mr Crart said that though he was not of pure African descent, he was 
black enough to attempt to say a few words in reference to the paper 
which had just been read. With regard to the origin of the Negro, he 
for one believed that black and white men were all descended from a 
common parent. As Africans were very dark, and the inhabitants of 
Northern Europe very fair, and as, moreover, the nations of Southern 
Europe were much darker than these of Northern Hurope, it was per- 
fectly fair to suppose that climate had a tendency to bleach as well as to 
blacken. The thickness of the skull of the Negro had been wisely 
arranged by Providence to defend the brain from the tropical climate in 
which he lived. The woolly hair was not considered by Africans as a 
mark of inferiority, though some of them shaved it off, but it also 
answered the purpose of defending the head from the sun. He had 
recently been to Africa on a visit to the King of Dahomey. He found 
there considerable diversities even among the Africans themselves. 
Those of Sierra Leone had prominent, almost Jewish features. Their 
heels were quite as short, on the whole, as those of any other race, and 
upon the whole they were well formed. Persons who had any knowledge 
