A. de Quatrefages. Unité de l'Espèce Humaine. 8vo, Paris, 1861. Edited by George F. Rolph, Esq., F.A.S.L. Dr. Theodor Waitz, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Marburg. Anthropologie der Naturvölker. 1861. Second part. Edited by J. Frederick Collingwood, Esq., F.G.S., F.R.S.L., Hon. Sec. A.S.L. Gosse. Mémoire sur les Déformations Artificielles du Crâne. 8vo, Paris, 1855. Edited by Dr. Thurnam, F.S.A. Committees. Two Committees have been appointed. The first to report on the terminology of Anthropological Science; and the second to report on the present state of the Anthropological Museums in Great Britain. The result of the reports will be issued to the Fellows as soon as they are known. Societies. Arrangements have been made to exchange Transactions with the following Societies in Great Britain :— The Royal Society. Society of Antiquaries of London Royal Society of Literature. The Royal Geographical Society. Berwickshire Naturalists' Field Club. Philosophical and Literary Society of Leeds. The Royal Institute of Cornwall. The Glasgow Geological Society. Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club. Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool. Arrangements have been made for an exchange of publications with the following Academies and Societies, several of which have forwarded to the Society complete sets of their Proceedings and Memoirs : The Anthropological Society of Paris. The Royal Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam. The Canadian Institute, Toronto. The Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vienna. The Royal Bengal Asiatic Society, Calcutta. The Upper Hesse Society for Natural and Medical Science, The Physio-economical Society of Königsburg. In the foreign department, eighteen gentlemen have been elected Honorary Fellows, thirty-five Corresponding Members, and twenty Local Secretaries. Communications have been received from nearly all of these gentlemen, expressing great interest in the work of the Society and offering to advance its objects in every way in their power. Honorary Fellows. The Council have felt it their duty to limit the present number of Honorary Fellows to twenty-five. It is proposed, however, eventually to increase this number to forty. Corresponding Members. Thirty-five Corresponding Members have been elected, and the Council recommend that no more than forty be elected. Local Secretaries. Twenty-two Local Secretaries have been appointed in Great Britain, of these seven are Fellows of the Society. The Council are still anxious to increase their number, and to have their official representative in every county, and also in every large town throughout the kingdom. They will be glad to hear from gentlemen who are really anxious to promote the objects of the Society. Twenty Local Secretaries have been appointed abroad, but the Council hope during the next year that their number will be largely increased. The Council invite the assistance of the Fellows in nominating gentlemen to fill this important office in different parts of the world. The Council have not yet been able to indicate the class of facts required," but they hope during the ensuing session to be able to do so. Donations. Besides the valuable donations which the Society have received for the Library and Museum, they have also the pleasure of announcing the following:-Henry Christy, Esq., £5.; J. F. Collingwood, Esq., £10; S. E. Collingwood, Esq., £5.; Henry Hotze, Esq., £5 (for the library). Special Donations. The following sums have been received as a special fund for preparing or stuffing a specimen of male Gorilla, presented to the Society by Mr. Winwood Reade:-J. Frederick Collingwood, Esq., £5; S. E. B. Bouverie Pusey, Esq., £5; S. E. Collingwood, Esq., £5; James Hunt, Esq., £1; Charles Stenning, Esq., £1; C. R. des Ruffières, £1; W. Chamberlain, Esq., 5s. The Council having made a few remarks on each of the chief objects of the Society, would now beg to invite the attention of the Fellows to the important question of Finance, which will necessarily regulate its future operations. The experience of the past year has convinced the Council, after mature and earnest consideration, that the objects of the Society cannot be fully carried out until there are Five hundred Fellows. The Council would, therefore, suggest the desirability of not increasing the subscription or of making an entrance fee, until this number has been obtained. It will be readily seen that the objects of this Society include something more than those generally included in a scientific society, and that the expense of printing is very large. The Council are glad, however, to state that the present number of Fellows, two hundred and thirty-six, will enable them to accomplish all they have done during the past year; but they feel that the ultimate success of a Society of this sort will require a larger annual expenditure. The Council feel especially anxious to establish as soon as possible a good reference library. They also look forward with earnest hope of being able to found a reliable Anthropological Museum, and thus remove the disgrace under which this country is now suffering, that with all our colonial possessions no independent Anthropological Museum has yet been established in this Metropolis. The Council are fully sensible of the important services which the officers of the Society have rendered during the past year, and they feel that it is their duty to again call on all the officers for renewed exertion during the ensuing year. The Council trust that the ample success which their efforts have met during the past year, will be an encouragement to the official representatives of the Council to again use their exertions to put the affairs of the Society in a permanently satisfactory state. Signed on behalf of the Council, JAMES HUNT, Chairman. Mr. S. E. BOUVERIE PUSEY moved that the Report of Council be adopted, which was seconded by Mr. H. J. C. BEAVAN, and carried unanimously. The PRESIDENT appointed Mr. J. REDDIE and Mr. H. J. C. BEAVAN Scrutineers for the ballot, for the election of Officers and Council for 1864. The PRESIDENT then delivered the annual address. THE PRESIDENT'S ADDress. GENTLEMEN,-A custom prevails amongst the chief scientific societies in the metropolis that the President should deliver an annual address. Believing such a course to be salutary to the well being of any society, I shall proceed to make such remarks as I think are suitable to the present occasion. The first year's existence of a scientific society is necessarily one not only of great hope, but also a period of great anxiety for those whose duty it is to see the objects of the society fully carried out. When I addressed you at our first general meeting we had just formed a Society, consisting of one hundred and twenty Fellows, but the plan proposed has yet to be tried before it could be decided whether the theory advanced was practicable. We shall now do well to review what we have done, with a view of seeing what still remains to be accomplished. We Every new plan is invariably met with certain objections, and our society has been no exception to this rule. We were told that our scheme was both impossible and impracticable. It was also boldly asserted that if we obtained members sufficient to carry out the objects of the Society, we could not obtain enough workers to do what was proposed. We were also told that existing societies with kindred objects could not get sufficient papers to be read at their meetings, and that our scheme must fail, from this if from no other reason. were met with these and many other objections, frequently coming from men to whom we have a right to look both for support and encouragement; but experience has shown that these discouragements have no real existence. I will not detain you to show that each fancied defect in the constitution of our Society has been proved to be fallacious. I will merely ask you to recall what we have done as the most satisfactory answer to such objections. We have also been obliged to hear the objects of the Society misrepresented, and have been told that we were antagonistic to existing institutions. On this point I think I shall do well to say a few words, as it might tend to put our position in a clearer light before those who have not yet really taken the trouble to inquire into the objects and aim of our society. In the first place, then, it is an erroneous idea to suppose that this Society is in any way antagonistic to any existing institution, or that there is any society in Great Britain which has ever attempted to carry out the objects for which we have united together. We are, indeed, trying to do something more than founding a new society; we are endeavouring to found a new science. We make bold to assert that no society has ever before attempted in this country to found a science of Man or Mankind. We have long had the different departments composing this science studied; but as long as they were isolated, so long could there be no real science of Mankind. The time has arrived when it has become absolutely necessary that all the different branches of science relating to man shall no longer be isolated, for we now see that it is necessary to bring all these branches together before we can make any real progress It is our duty to use several sciences in founding our own. Just as the geologists have divided the different departments of their science into Geognosy, Palæontology, and Mineralogy, so the anthropologist sees the necessity of studying something more than Ethnology or the science of races, if he hoped to solve the problem of which that great branch of our science treats. Many years ago the plan we have adopted would have been an impossibility. Archæology and Ethnology have hitherto been kept separate, to the great injury of both sciences. They both form an integral part of our science. We cannot be too careful to fully understand the meaning that we attach to our science, and, by so doing, we shall, g VOL. II.-NO. IV. perhaps, be able to remove much of the misconception which exists respecting our objects and aims. The first attempt made to found such a science was in Paris, at the beginning of the present century; but it was a failure. It is only twenty-five years ago that a society was formed at Paris by William Edwards for the study of Ethnology. A few years later an Ethnological Society on exactly the same plan was formed in this metropolis. A similar society was, later still, formed at New York. The Ethnological Society of Paris consisted, at its height, of forty-six members. It still exists in name as one of the Paris societies, but has not published any memoirs since 1848. The London Ethnological Society, for the first two years of its existence, only consisted of twenty-one members. The second report of the Council announced that this number could not be increased. It has published altogether six volumes. The Ethnological Society of New York consisted at one time of forty-four members. For some time it ceased to publish any Memoirs or proceedings; in 1856 a part of a volume was issued, but nothing has since appeared. Up to this time it has published two volumes. It is now some four years ago since some zealous students of mankind became sensible of the unsatisfactory nature of existing institutions, and determined, with a wise appreciation of the vast extent of their science, to establish a society in Paris which should meet the requirements of the age, and that should help to establish a de facto science of man. Those who have watched the workings of this society must have become convinced that our scientific brethren in Paris have led the way to the formation of a science of man built on an extended and firm foundation. During the four years of their existence they have published nearly four volumes of Bulletins, and one volume of Memoirs. To the end of the first year there were only nineteen enrolled members, but they have been gradually increasing since then, and now we believe number nearly two hundred.* And now we come to a short year since, when we enrolled ourselves together to found a similar society in this me M. Broca has kindly sent us the following details. "We have at present one hundred and fifty-four subscribing members, liable to an annual subscription of 30 francs. These are:-112 living at Paris; 41 in the departments; 1 abroad-total, 154. When the last one, Professor Rizzetti, chief of the statistical department of Turin, was elected, the Society decided that its regulations did not preclude foreigners from becoming subscribing members; and this question, which had not previouly been mooted, has been resolved very recently by a vote which took place prior to the nomination of M. Rizzetti. "Our honorary members amount to the number of six; ie. MM. Serres, Milne-Edwards, Boucher de Perthes, Renan, d'Avezac, and Littré. "We have thirty-six associate and foreign members. Of these are:-England and Ireland, 14; Germany and Austria, 6; Switzerland, 4; Italy and Sicily, 2; America, 3; Spain, 1; Denmark, 1; Holland, 1; Belgium, 1; Russia, 3-36. "We have, in fact, eighteen national correspondents, belonging for the most part to the army or the navy; and eight foreign correspondents, all established in America. "Amongst the one hundred and twelve subscribing members living in Paris, we count eighty-four doctors of medicine. |