THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW. VOL. VII. 1869. LONDON: ASHER & Co., 13, BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1869. Archaic anthropology at the Society Functions of the brain, 100, 201 of Antiquaries, 95 Gall's organology, 76 Gauls, origin of, Belloguet on, 245 Human-ape organisms, 128 Sanford, B., on the Negro as a soldier, 40 Ireland, the race question in, 54 Jackson, J. W., on the race question in Ireland, 54 Inaugural address to the Psychological Association of Glasgow, 259 the Aryan and the Semite, 333 Latin, Spanish language derived from, 154 Le Hon's fossil man, 154 Localisation of the functions of the Microcephali, Vogt on, 128 22 Music in race, 306 Negro as a soldier, 40 weight of the brain in, 190 Nicholas, Pike v., 279 Owen, Professor, comparative ana- Prideaux, T. Symes, on Gall's organ- Psychological Association of Glas- anthropology, 231 Race in medicine, 240 Rochet, M., characters separating Schaaf hausen, Professor, on develop- Soldier, the Negro, 40 Spanish language, derivation of, 154 Tree and serpent worship in India, 217 Vertebrates, anatomy of, 252 Weisbach, Dr. A., the weight propor- 92 Wise, Dr., on race in medicine, 240 THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW. No. XXIV. JANUARY, 1869. THEORIES OF HUMAN ORIGIN. In the opinion of most of the anthropologists of the present day, it is as yet premature to pronounce, or even to form an absolute decision, upon the question, whether man's origin was unique in its occurrence, or accomplished at several points of time or place. During the short course of our investigation of man's real antiquity, facts have but rarely and feebly borne direct witness in the case; collateral evidence, derived from existing characters, is but too liable to be vitiated by party spirit; no wonder, then, that to the judicious anthropologist it scems proper to wait for a larger and clearer mass of testimony before venturing to try conclusions upon a subject so obscure. It may, however, be observed that it is far less difficult to take this position, than to preserve it consistently. Many an unconscious partisan, while professing to discard "plurality" and "transmutation" alike from the vocabulary of his faith, is unable to conceal from others his affection for a chosen theory. We must, nevertheless, admit that in the present incomplete state of our knowledge of archaic anthropology, to pretend to issue a bull decisive of the rival claims of unity and plurality, would savour greatly of the profundity of Dogberry and the temperance of St. Athanasius. It would, indeed, be scant wisdom to consider this problem ripe for complete solution until its premise, the method of organogeny, has been found capable of demonstration. The apparently wide divergence of opinion upon this preliminary point, would seem to argue ill for its speedy settlement; and as long as its students are baffled either by insufficiency of light or by obliquity of vision, it behoves the truth-winner, who weighs polygeny against monogeny, to keep the scale-beam upon the pivot. But while this cautious reserve is perfectly justifiable, nay, laudable, the expediency of maintaining it does not withdraw the license granted by science itself, of adopting provisional opinions in accordance with the data at present supplied by observation or in VOL. VII.-XXIV. B |