437 



ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



H. A. AUDEX, D.Sc. 



The opening address, given bv the President of the Section, 

 Professor Ridgeway, Disney Professor of Archaeology, Cam- 

 T^ridge, bears the title ' The Application of Zoological Laws to 

 Man.' The whole paper is an ' attempt to shew that the 

 ■chief errors which impede the scientific study of man, which 

 lead to the maladministration of alien races, and which beget 

 blunders of the gravest issue in our social legislation, are due 

 in the main, to man's pride in shutting his eyes to the fact that 

 he is controlled by the same laws as the rest of the animal 

 kingdom.' The first point raised was the problem of th9 

 stratifications of populations, shewing that the doctrine that 

 identity or similarity of type means identity of race was un- 

 tenable, since it leaves out of consideration the effects of en- 

 vironment in changing racial types. An example of this change 

 is found in the Boers, who, in less than 150 years, have lost the 

 old Dutch build. The effects of climate upon the natives of 

 the New World are equally patent, starting with the Iroquois 

 of the temperate regions — a tall, light-complexioned race, and 

 passing southwards, their kindred tribes grow darker in com- 

 plexion, and more feeble in physique (except where they live 

 at high altitudes — a condition which exerts the same influence 

 as latitude) as the equator is approached. Crossing the equator, 

 the reverse is the case, the physique gradually improving, until 

 the vigorous Pampas Indians are reached. The same law can 

 be seen at work in Europe, where the dark race on the shores of 

 the Mediterranean gradually pass northwards into the most 

 light-complexioned race in the world, on the shores of the Baltic. 

 The explanation of the change in pigmentation is not to be 

 found in the movements of the peoples either upwards or down- 

 wards from the Alpine or Baltic regions. A complete demonstra- 

 tion of the same doctrine is found in the animal world. The 

 horse family can be followed out with great exactness, and 

 ■every belt is found to have its own particular type. Char- 

 acteristics of race, other than pigmentation, such as the skull 

 ctnd other osteological features, lead to the same conclusions, 

 nor does the hypothesis fail when applied to the linguistic 

 tests of racial identities, or the systems of tracing inheritance. 

 The second part of the address emphasised the fact that, owing 

 to the total disregard of natural laws, which modify and dif 



-igoS December i. 



