220 Proceedings of Boyal Society of Edinhurgli. [sess. 
Antiquity of Man greatly helped to consolidate the doctrines of 
Anthropology. In this work the author collected the previously 
recorded materials hearing on the early history of Man from all 
parts of the world. The effect of its accumulated details was 
so overwhelming that there could no longer be any doubt that 
the existence of humanity on the globe must he relegated far 
back into the Quaternary period. With the general acceptance of 
the doctrine of evolution and man’s great antiquity terminates what 
may he called the struggling period of Anthropology. 
Henceforth a new impetus was given to the study of this science 
by the conviction that in the meanest traces of man’s early career 
were to be found more important materials for a history of humanity 
and civilisation than in all the treasures that could he collected from 
the ruins of the greatest empires of the historic world. The wide 
morphological gap between Man and the other animals still living 
suggested a correspondingly long period for his development, in the 
course of which it was expected that some evidence of the stages 
through which he had passed might have become stereotyped in the 
geological records. Where to find and how to interpret these 
records were now the chief problems at issue and to their solution 
the savants of all countries braced themselves with an energy that 
augured final success. Societies were founded in London, Paris, 
and other centres of intellectuality, for the express purpose of fol- 
lowing up the new-found trail of humanity ; and to popularise and 
disseminate their doctrines, numerous periodicals and special works 
were published. In the year 1865, at a special meeting of the 
Italian Society of Natural Science held at Spezzia, was founded the 
“Congres International d’Anthropologie et d’Archeologie Prehis- 
toriques,” the first meeting of which was held in the following year 
at Neuchatel. Subsequent meetings have been held at Paris (1867), 
London (Norwich, 1868), Copenhagen (1869), Bologna (1871), 
Brussels (1872), Stockholm (1874), Buda-Pesth (1876), Lisbon 
(1880), Paris (1889), and Moscow (1892). The published proceed- 
ings of these congresses contain the most complete records of the 
progress of the science, especially as regards Europe. After the 
cloud of scepticism which enveloped its early and evolutionary 
stages had been swept aside. Anthropology found a footing at the 
British Association, at first as a sectional department, but since 
