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REPORTS OF THE

MEETINGS OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

ORDINARY MEETING, FEBRUARY 24TH, 1863.

THE PRESIDENT read the inaugural address on the Study of Anthropology (see p. 1).

A vote of thanks to the President for his address was proposed by Mr. BURKE, seconded by Mr. BLACKSTONE, and carried unanimously. The PRESIDENT, having intimated that he should be happy to hear any remarks any gentleman might have to offer on the topics touched on in the address,

Mr. C. H. CHAMBERS inquired whether the Society had opened any relations with similar societies on the continent.

The PRESIDENT replied that the subject was under the consideration of the Council, and that a correspondence was at present being carried on with the Anthropological Society of Paris with a view to a mutual exchange of publications.

Mr. C. C. BLAKE, Honorary Secretary, drew attention to a most important duty which the Society will be called upon to perform, namely, the appointment of various committees to investigate and report upon special subjects. The principal topics which will be brought before the committees will be the following.

The geographical distribution of man, and the geographical relation of races one to another. The question of acclimatization, which though ably treated of in the President's paper read before the British Association in 1861, still requires much further investigation. The vertical distribution of man, and the influence of great altitudes on certain organs, the respiratory organs, for example. Geological distribution and the nature of the evidences of the antiquity of man, subjects of extraordinary interest, and to the investigation of which a peculiar responsibility is attached. The assistance of the geologist and palæontologist will be required to tell us the number of species of animals found in connection with human remains, and it will be the duty of the Society to prepare a series of tables illustrating this subject. The archæological aspect of man as far as regards the works of art of past ages, as well as of existing nations. Early traditions. As an illustration of the light which zoology may throw on the study of mythi, the suggestion was thrown out that the reason why the inhabitants of Borneo think that man was made from the dust, and the Thibetans that he is descended from the monkeys, is that the Borneans are familiar with large anthropoid apes, and are by no means desirous of claiming descent from such ill-looking creatures, whereas in Thibet monkeys are rare and confined to the smaller species, so that the people have no aversion to thinking themselves allied to them. The migrations of man, chiefly as illustrated by philology. The resem

The

blances alleged by Max Müller and others to exist between the languages of widely separated races will be specially taken into consideration. The geographical distribution of disease, and the causes of their appearance and disappearance, branches of anthropology in which the co-operation of the medical members of the Society will be required. The abnormalities of the skeleton, with special reference to the question whether they are more usual in certain races. subject of the dental varieties of man will early be brought to the notice of the Society. The cerebral organization of man and its relation to inferior types, a subject which it is hoped will be studied with the earnestness and honesty of purpose which it demands, and not with the levity which has lately characterized discussions on it. The structures which man shares in common with other animals; without any reference to the hypothesis of transmutation. Hybridity between so-called races of mankind, and the question whether hybrid races die out, or are physically inferior to others surrounding them. The distribution of human parasites, a subject which seems to throw light on many problems of anthropology, and from the study of which very interesting results may be expected. The historical evidence of the Differences of colour, on which every ethnoextinction of races. logist has written, but respecting which our knowledge still rests on In a recent paper very uncertain information. The stature of man.

contributed to the Anthropological Society of Paris, it is stated that dwarfs are unknown among negroes. The relative degree of the complexity of the organs of sense; whether, for example, the North American Indians are really endowed with any special sense of smell, or the Negroes with a higher standard of eyesight than ourselves. Mr. BLAKE concluded by remarking on the immense field for research afforded by the science of anthropology, and how little the wide scope of that science and its subordination to the great science of biology have hitherto been appreciated.

Mr. L. BURKE took exception to the stress laid by the President on the collecting of facts, and maintained that a large mass of facts had already been ascertained, from which it would be the duty of the Society to deduce general laws. He also expressed his dissent from the views of the President respecting the untrustworthiness of books of travel.

Mr. S. J. MACKIE, F.G.S., referred to the relations between geology and anthropology, and urged the necessity of carefully tracing the records of man's existence through successive geologic ages.

Mr. J. G. AVERY commended the fairness and moderation of those parts of the President's address touching on matters connected with theology, and expressed his satisfaction at knowing that the objects of the Society were in no way antagonistic to revelation.

Dr. G. D. GIBB, F.G.S., as a medical man, promised his aid in the investigation of the subject of the distribution of disease.

Mr. J. F. COLLINGWOOD, F.G.S., proposed that the President's address be reprinted separately and circulated.

Mr. T. S. PRIDEAUX seconded the proposal, which was carried unanimously.

The PRESIDENT thanked the meeting, briefly replied to Mr. Burke and to a question asked by Mr. Bouverie Pusey; and, in conclusion, referred to what had fallen from Mr. Avery, and stated that the Society was not antagonistic to anything at all, but had purely for its object the investigation of truth.

MEETING OF THE 24TH MARCH, 1863.

SIR CHARLES NICHOLSON, BART., VICE-PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. THE HON. SECRETARY, Mr. C. C. BLAKE, read a paper by Captain R. F. BURTON, Vice-President of the Society, on "A Day among the Fans." (See p. 43).

Sir CHARLES NICHOLSON proposed a vote of thanks to Captain Burton.

Dr. HUNT drew attention to the reliability of Captain Burton's observations, and to the importance in matters of science of having observers free from preconceived notions. Although the dying out of solitary races is an undoubted fact, we know that races hardly ever die out in their own country; but, when removed from their native place, they degenerate and become extinct, and that independently of drinking and the various other injurious consequences of intercourse with civilized man. A short period of time may make a marked difference with regard to cannibalism among such a people as the Fans; and one man may observe the habit, while another, coming twelve months afterwards, may find no trace of it. Dr. Knox and others have denied the existence of cannibalism; but, independently of the fact that Capt. Burton states that he has seen all but the act of eating, we have credible records of the practice from the sixth century to our own times.

Mr. C. C. BLAKE remarked that Capt. Burton's paper was one of considerable interest to the zoologist, and chiefly because it disproved the alleged correspondence between the distribution of the lowest races of mankind, and that of the anthropomorphous apes. The Fans, inhabiting the same district as the gorilla, are found to possess a self-acquired civilization far superior to that of the southern and coast tribes, who have been long in contact with the white man. It is commonly stated that no men are cannibals unless animal food is extremely scarce; but the Fans are, we are told, amply provided with several descriptions of animal food, and are yet decided man-eaters.

Mr. A. A. FRASER narrated an instance of cannibalism which came under his own observation in the Fiji Islands. Going up the Rewa river in 1853, he saw the body of a man who had been killed, surrounded by a great number of natives: and, when he returned, he saw the people scraping the dark skin off the dissevered limbs of the corpse with shells. The smell of roasting human flesh was so repulsive as to make many of Mr. Fraser's boat's crew sick.

Mr. BURKE thought that the conflicting opinions on extinction of races might easily be reconciled. There is no doubt that solitary

tribes die out, and also races in a certain sense; but the homes or centres of formation of races are, Mr. Burke asserts, maintained.

Mr. E. B. TYLOR said that there is often great difficulty in finding out whether people are cannibals. On the Brass river, within reach of British guns, Mr. Hutchinson and some friends were witnesses of the devouring of a criminal by the friends of the man whom he had aggrieved, although the practice was not previously known to exist in the district. Mr. Tylor also noticed the resemblance between the musical instruments of the Fans and those of the Aztecs and South Americans, and thought that the marimba was imported by the negro into America.

Professor TAGORE stated that the aborigines of India were cannibals, and that the eating of human flesh was a religious ceremony among the present Hindus. The eating of horse flesh as an ordinary article of food was in early ages common in India, but was afterwards elevated into a religious ceremony.

Sir CHARLES NICHOLSON thought it marvellous how people can doubt the existence of cannibalism. He had conversed with many persons who had seen it, and might himself have seen it if he had wished. It appeared generally to be a quasi-religious ceremony. With regard to the extinction of races, Sir Charles Nicholson remarked that the New Zealanders are evidently dying out. War alone was not sufficient to account for the extinction of races; the causes are rather physiological. Among races that are disappearing the men are "commonly more numerous than the women, of course causing prostitution and its consequent infertility. Sir Charles thought there was good evidence of the general diffusion in early times, throughout the whole of the southern hemisphere at least, of an ancient negroid race; and that if we ever find a fossil man, he will probably be of that type.

Mr. BOLLAERT mentioned a case of a number of negroes being kidnapped and carried to Easter Island, where they rapidly died out of dysentery and measles.

Mr. BOLLAERT read a paper by Professor RAIMONDI on "The Indian Tribes of Loreto, Northern Peru." (See p. 33).

A vote of thanks was proposed by the Chairman.

Mr. C. C. BLAKE did not understand how a board with a hole in it, fastened into the forehead of an infant in the manner described by Professor Raimondi, could cause a circular elevation of the frontal bone.

Mr. BOLLAERT suggested that the soft parts might protrude.

Dr. DRACHAICHIS was of opinion that the board would be quite capable of producing the effects ascribed to it.

Dr. HUNT regretted the vagueness of Professor Raimondi's statistics, more especially as we have no other information about these tribes of Loreto. He thought the principle of creating necessities one of great importance in dealing with primitive races, and well worthy of the support of the Society.

Sir CHARLES NICHOLSON. It is to be regretted that we have no information on the subject of the language of these people, the rela

tions of languages being of the highest importance in determining the the relations of tribes.

The meeting was then adjourned.

MEETING OF THE 7TH OF APRIL, 1863.

DR. HUNT, PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR.

The Honorary Secretary having announced the presents to the Society,

Professor OWEN made some remarks on some human bones discovered under six feet of brick earth at Chatham, and which have been presented to the Society by the Rev. H. F. Rivers. Professor Owen remarked that the bones contain much gelatine, and are therefore probably not contemporaneous with the brick earth in which they are found. The teeth are of the ordinary European type, and so much worn as to be probably characteristic of coarse food. The forehead is low, but whether very unusually low it would be impossible to say until the fragments of the cranium are put together. From the size and strength of development of the ridges for the attachment of muscles the bones appear to be those of a male.

Mr. MACKIE asked whether there was any trace of disturbance of the brick-earth in which the bones were found, and whether any marsh shells were discovered in the brick-earth. The frontal bone appeared to be like that of the Heathery Burn Cave skull.

The PRESIDENT. Further information as to the finding of the bones will be laid before the Society at some future time; but I may state that a stone implement, weighing about fourteen pounds, was found with the remains.

The HONORARY SECRETARY read a paper by Mr. R. T. GORE on "The Microcephalic Brain of a Female Idiot." (See p. 168).

A vote of thanks having been passed, Professor OWEN said :— The normal organization of the human species is liable, and perhaps more so than that of lower species, to malformation as a consequence of arrest of development; and this is especially the case with the organ the great relative size and complexity of which form the chief characteristic of the human organization, viz., the brain. Instances of this arrest of development are known in different varieties of the human kind, e. g., in the Negro one, as exemplified by the female called by her showman the "Hottentot Venus"; and by the hybrid Spanish and Indian children from San Salvador, called by their showman "Aztecs". But the best recorded cases of such cerebral arrests are those of Europeans, as exemplified by the idiot whose brain is preserved in St. Bartholomew's Hospital; by that whose brain, weighing 1 lb. 4 oz., is described by Dr. Todd (Cycl. of Anat., vol. iii, art. "Nervous Centres"); and by the still smaller and more remarkable instance of the idiot with the brain weighing only 10 oz. 5 grains, avoird., described this evening by Mr. Gore. No physiological phenomena are of greater interest and importance than those