330 
REPORT— 1847 . 
On the vaHous methods of Research which contribute to iheAdvmt- 
ment of Ethnology, and of the relations of that Sdence to oihtr 
branches of Knowledge. By James Co^'LBS Prichard, M.D., 
F,R.S. &c. 
It may be remembered that in the series oP reports on tbe progress i 
science in its different departments, comprised in the first volume of tk 
‘ Transactions of the British Association,’ there was one memoir on the co^ 
tributions afforded by physical and philological researches to ethnology 
the history of the human species. The admission of that paper by the 
of the Transactions, gave those persons who had made ethnology theit 
favourite pursuit some groun<I for hope, that this would for the future 
among the recognised branches of knowledge, for the cultivation of 
provision would be mado at the ineetiags of tbe Association. It » 
needless to say that thi» hope was disappointed, and that no arrangemaiB 
having been adopted for the diacussion of ethnological quwtioiiB, some 
elaborate memoirs sent to the meetings of the Assuniation, by dUlhigu'^hw 
scholars, were returnoil without having obtained a hearing*. Itwasnotunt 
after several annual meetings had taken place, that it was detennhic'l.*® 
afford an opportunity for the pursuit of ethnological inquiries hymakii^w 
that purpose a subdivision of one of the sections devoted to natural hatorj 
or physiology. 
I’here seemed to be an obvious ])ropricty of systematic arraugemwt a 
contemplating the natural history and physiology of man as forming 
part of tf)e study of living nature in general. Bliyaiology, in the 8rDsoV“i|W 
modern writers attach to that term, has a comprehensive nicaning) 
more restricted one than its original acceptation. 'T\\e rhysiohyi<^f^ 
ancients comprised the knowledge of nature in all its deimrtmcnts. Modeni 
writers have divided this universal science into two great provinces, atid 
have ternu'd the study of one “ natural pbilcisophy, and that of ^ i 
“ pliysiology.” They have observed that the objects respectively ccmtempl^ 
by these sciences <iiffer from each oUier in the manner of their existence, m 
manence and identity of being U the attribute of one class; the eharactcina 
of the other is surcessive generation and decay. Perpetuity of 
tar as our experience of time extends, simplicity of structure, and prf^ 
tjon of the same form and state, unleas chanced bv extcnial agenoy. bej^ 
alike to the smallest molecules of tho unorganized world and to thc« 
m^es, which, age after age, revolving in the heavens, have ofiered tJ»^ 
Mlves to the view of countless generations. Natural philosophy 
division of createtl tlungs ami h-aves to physiology those beings 
a less permanent duration, which exist in successive generations destin«i 
alter another, to rise, flourish, and decay, which, beginning from ova ors^ 
grow to a dehniie extent by accretion of particles from withont, “-“f _ 
particular lorm, subsist in perfection fur a definite space of time, and 
otter giving origin to new germs or rudiments,prepared according^ . , 
fixed laws to secure the continued existence of each iribc, fall at 
prey to the dissolving powers of the external elements. These are the ^ 
mon properties of all organized beings. The theorv of these 
stitu^ the physiology of modern times, and it is obvious that the 
W come within tliese 
> the real scope of ethnology were merely an inquiry into the p. 
Rovfd ThSu mentioned a memoir by Dr. West, a distinguished ‘I*' 
British Idaa£ "’^o formed the original popula 
