WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, Friday, June 2, 1865. SIR HENRY HOLLAND, BART. M.D. D.C.L. F.R.S. President, in the Chair. PROFESSOR HUXLEY, F.R.S. On the Methods and Results of Ethnology. THE lecturer commenced by defining the nature and the limits of Ethnology. Biology being the name applied to the science of life and living things, Zoology is that division of Biology which deals especially with animals; and Anthropology is that branch of Zoology which is specially concerned with man. Ethnology is the more special science which determines the distinctive characters of the persistent modifications of mankind, ascertains the distribution of these modifications in present and past times, and searches after the causes or conditions of existence, both of the modifications and of their distribution. Turning to a map of the world, the lecturer next indicated and briefly characterized, in successive order, the more obvious and prominent persistent modifications of mankind, commencing with the Australians. With dark skins, these people conjoin wavy hair; their skulls are always long, but are sometimes high and sometimes depressed. The antero-posterior and transverse diameters of the brim of the pelvis in the male are more nearly equal than is usually the case in Europeans. The Negritos, inhabiting the belt of islands which lie between Australia, Polynesia, and Micronesia, have dark skins and woolly hair, the skull sometimes inclining towards the Australian, and sometimes towards the Polynesian type. The Amphinesians have the colour of the skin brown, in lighter or darker shades, and the hair is long, black, and straight or wavy; the skull varies in character. These people cover an enormous area, occupying almost all the other islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans. The Americans have black straight hair; the skin exhibits various shades of reddish and yellowish brown, sometimes inclining to olive; the face is broad and scantily bearded, the skull broad and high. The Esquimaux have also straight black hair and broad faces, with prominent cheek bones, but their skulls are remarkably long. They inhabit the Arctic shores of America and of Eastern Asia. The rest of Eastern Asia is peopled by the Mongolians, with skins varying in colour from yellow to olive, broad faces with flat noses, obliquely set small eyes, and straight black hair; the skull is never long, and usually is remarkably broad and rounded. The Lapps of Northeastern Europe have strongly-marked Mongolian characters, but the immense interval between the western limit of the Eastern Mongolians and Lapland is, in great measure, occupied by people with pale complexions, blue or light eyes, yellow or red hair, and prominent noses. These may be termed the Xanthochroi. They exhibit two very distinct forms of cranium-the Scandinavians having long heads, the Slavonians, Fins, South Germans, and Swiss, broad heads. The Melanochroi have, like the Xanthochroi, prominent noses, pale skins, wavy hair, and abundant beards, but the hair is black or dark, and the eyes usually so. They inhabit Southern and Western Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia. The Negroes with dark skin, woolly hair, projecting jaws, thick lips, and elongated skulls, people Central Africa; while the Bushmen, differing from the true negroes in their yellowish-brown colour, tufted hair, very small stature, and tendency to fatty and other integumentary outgrowths, inhabit the southern extremity of that continent. The so-called "Drawidian" populations of Southern Hindostan lead us back physically as well as geographically towards the Australians, while the diminutive Mincopies of the Andaman Islands lie midway between the Negro and Negrito races. The diversities of hair, complexion, and cranial characters observed among the modifications of mankind which have been enumerated, may be exhibited in the form of a tabular classification as follows: The "Leiotrichi" are the people with straight and wavy hair; the "Ulotrichi are those with woolly hair; the "Dolichocephali are the long-headed people; the "Brachycephali," the short-headed. "Leucous" signifies that the complexion is fair and the hair red or yellow: "Leucomelanous," that the skin is pale, but the hair dark; "Xanthomelanous," that the skin is yellow, brown, or olive, and the hair black; "Melanous," that the hair and skin are both very dark, or blackish. As a rule, woolly-haired people are long headed; while, on the other hand, broad heads preponderate among the Leiotrichi, and only two of the stocks enumerated among them-the Esquimaux and the Australian-are exclusively long headed. It is further worthy of remark that an ethnological chart projected in such a manner, that the Pacific Ocean occupies its centre, shows an Australian area occupied by a dark-skinned, smooth-haired people, separated by an incomplete inner zone of dark and woolly-haired Negroes and Negritos, from an outer zone of comparatively pale and smooth-haired men, occupying the Americas, Asia, North Africa, and Europe. Having thus sketched the physical differences of the chief persistent modifications of mankind, the lecturer proceeded to consider the nature and the value of their other differences, linguistic and physiological. Great as is the value of the scientific study of language, philology cannot afford any basis for ethnological classification, unless it can be shown that the mixture or substitution of languages is always accompanied by a corresponding mixture or substitution of the blood of the people speaking those languages. If in any instance it can be proved that the language of a nation has changed fundamentally, while its blood has remained wholly or comparatively unmixed, or vice versa, language ceases to be a test of ethnological affinity. Cases were adduced in support of each of those alternative propositions. With regard to the physiological differences of the known persistent modifications of mankind, there would appear to be good grounds for the belief that they are differently affected by the influences which give rise to diseases, but no sufficient evidence has yet been adduced in support of the doctrine held by some ethnologists, that any two of them exhibit the phenomena of hybridity. Turning from the present to the past condition of mankind, attention was directed to the fact that our knowledge of most of the persistent modifications of mankind is very modern, and of later date than the fifteenth century; while, on the other hand, the oldest historical records give us no right to believe that the distribution of mankind was, at the time to which they refer, other than it is now. Archæology proves the existence of dolichocephalic and brachycephalic people side by side, or in succession, in various parts of Europe, but affords no grounds for believing that they were different from stocks now existing in the same or adjacent localities; while, at present, palæontology does little more than reveal the existence of man in that quarter of the world before its physical condition had become that which it now is. The lecturer finally proceeded to discuss the various hypotheses which have been offered to explain the facts of ethnology, pointing out that the strength of the Monogenists lies in their recognition of the anatomical unity of mankind, while the Polygenists have done no less service by bringing prominently forward the distinctness and permanence of the leading modifications of the human type. And in conclusion, he endeavoured to show in what way the application of Mr. Darwin's views to Ethnology reconciles the doctrine of anatomical unity with that of persistence of modification, and overcomes difficulties of distribution by taking into account the effects of geological change. GENERAL MONTHLY MEETING Monday, June 5, 1865. SIR HENRY HOLLAND, Bart. M.D. D.C.L. F.R.S. President, in the Chair. Mrs. Elizabeth Beevor. Samuel Canning, Esq. David Painter McEuen, Esq. Joshua Metcalfe, Esq. Joseph Moore, Esq. Hamilton Noel Hoare, Esq. Henry Arthur Hunt, Esq. Henry Lee, Esq. F.R.C.S. were elected Members of the Royal Institution. William Henty, Esq. was admitted a Member of the Royal Institution. The Special Thanks of the Members were returned for the following additions to "The Donation Fund for the Promotion of Experimental Researches" (see page 151): Sir Henry Holland, Bart. Pres. R. I. (7th annual donation) £40 0 0 The PRESENTS received since the last Meeting were laid on the table, and the thanks of the Members returned for the same: viz.— FROM Accademia Pontificia de' Nuovi Lincei—Atti. Anno X. Sess. 1-7. fol. Roma, 1863-4. Astronomical Society, Royal-Monthly Notices, 1864-5. No. 6. 8vo. Editors-Artizan for May, 1865. 4to. Athenæum for May, 1865. 4to. Chemical News for May, 1865. 4to. Engineer for May, 1865. fol. Horological Journal for May, 1865. 8vo. Journal of Gas-Lighting for May, 1865. 4to. 8vo. Mechanics' Magazine for May, 1865. Practical Mechanics' Journal for May, 1865. 4to. Granville, A. B. M.D. F.R.S. M.R.I. (the Author-The Great London Question of the Day; or, can Thames Sewage be converted into Gold? Part 1. Historical. 8vo. 1865. Horticultural Society, Royal-Proceedings, 1865. No. 5. 8vo. Kerr, Mrs. A. M.R.I.-Der Talisman James Richardson's erklärt von Ludolf Krehl. (M7) 4to. 1865. Longmans, Messrs. (the Publishers)-John Hullah: Lectures on the Third or Transition Period of Musical History, delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. 8vo. 1865. Macloughlin, D. M.D. M.R.I. (the Author)—The Question of Syphilis submitted to the Medical Profession. 8vo. 1865. The Treatment of Cholera. 8vo. 1865. Medical and Chirurgical Society, Royal-Proceedings. Vol. V. No. 1. 8vo. 1865. Michell, W. D. Esq.-N. Whitley: The Flint Implements of the Drift not Authentic. (K 92) 8vo. 1865. Photographic Society-Journal, No. 157. 8vo. 1865. Playfair, Lyon, C.B. LL.D. F.R.S.-On the Food of Man in relation to his Useful Work. (K 92) 8vo. 1865. Royal Society of London-Proceedings, No. 74. 8vo. 1865. Philosophical Transactions for 1864. Vol. CLIV. Parts 1 & 2. 4to. 1864-5. Vereins zur Beförderung des Gewerbfleisses in Preussen-Verhandlungen, Jan. und Feb., 1865. 4to. Warington, George, Esq. F.C.S. (the Author)-The Phenomena of Radiation as exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence of God. (Actonian Prize Essay.) 16to. 1865. Zoological Society of London-Transactions, Vol. V. Part 5. 4to. 1865. Wilson and Beadell, Messrs.-Photographic Portrait of Dr. Hofmann. WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, THE LORD WENSLEYDALE, Vice-President, in the Chair. EDWARD FRANKLAND, Esq. F.R.S. PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, R.I. On Researches in Organic Chemistry in the Royal Institution. THE vast crowd of organic compounds with which modern research has made us acquainted, have been grouped into a comparatively small number of families, each containing substances closely allied in chemical character. Thus, amongst others, the following families or series of organic bodies are well known and sharply defined : 1. The Marsh-gas family. 2. The Alcohols. 3. The Organic Ammonias. 4. The Fatty, or Acetic Series of Acids. 5. The Organic Oxalic Acids, or Lactic series. 6. The Acrylic series of Acids. The speaker referred especially to the last three families as having been the subjects of the researches carried on in the laboratory of the VOL. IV. (No. 42.) 2 L |