490 
POPULAE SCIENCE EEYIEW. 
study of mankind, when one already existed, we can only say that it was at 
least questionable. It is true that the President endeavoured to justify the 
founding of his society by an appeal to the relative significations of the 
words Ethnology and Anthropology^ Such a method, however, is little better 
than mere quibbling, and is as unworthy of the chairman of (what we sup- 
pose should be termed) a learned body, as it is de facto unfair. Even if it 
is granted that the term Anthropology has a wider and less specific meaning 
than that of Ethnology, does such an insignficant circumstance warrant the 
division of a number of scientific men who, in order to obtain the best re- 
sults, should work together ? We fancy not. Doubtless the Anthropological 
Society will endeavour to prove that its aims are more comprehensive than 
those of the sister association ; but its memoirs afford the best evidence on 
this point, and an impartial examination of them leads to a very different 
conclusion. 
In the volume lying upon our table we cannot find a single contribution of 
any value. We were about to say original contribution, but the expression 
would be out of place. Altogether the papers are very much of the sort that 
we find read before provincial literary and scientific institutions ; they con- 
tain a very small amount of interesting matter spun out with considerable 
ingenuity, but they will never be referred to by anyone in want of information 
upon matters connected with Anthropology. Moreover, they are not essays 
which we should care to see our sons peruse with much interest. Although 
they cannot -be said to be absolutely immoral, they in many instances border 
so closely upon the prurient that we are not surprised at the remark w'hich 
one of them (written by that well-known supporter of all that is virtuous and 
ennobling — Captain Burton) opens with. In this the writer observes, 
% 
“ I cannot but congratulate ourselves upon the fact that we find in this 
room a liberty of thought and expression unknown, I may assert, to any other 
Society in Great Britain.” 
Thackeray tells us how certain old men, when the physical energy that 
once contributed to the ordinary gratification of their passions has been 
exhausted, delight to chat over the excesses of their youth ; in fact, how to 
certain individuals the mere idea of peculiar forms of sexual indulgence is 
extremely gratifying. Such a mental condition is deplorable, even when con- 
fined to beings who may be said to live upon the edge of the grave ; but how 
lamentable is the condition of things in which we find old and young engaged 
in the discussion of matters such as those which we have alluded to ! Ear be 
it from us to allege that this state is presented by the Anthropological 
Society, but it must, in all candour, be admited that some of its memoirs are 
more calculated to suit the palate of Vhomme blase than to engage the atten- 
tion of the philosopher. 
Of those articles to which, without offence to our readers, we may refer, the 
first and one of the longest is that upon the “ Negro’s place in Nature.” . This 
is from the pen of Dr. Hunt, the president ; and is remarkable as the paper 
which was so painfully dissected by Mr. Huxley. In it the writer endeavours 
with a profound display, or rather what the general reader might mistake for a 
profound display of science, to prove that the negro is anatomically and men- 
tally a being several degrees below the European. The great bulk of the article 
