The Council of the Anthropological Society of London have much pleasure in reporting to the Fellows of the Society that they consider the state of the Society to be satisfactory and most encouraging. The past year has been one of great anxiety to the Council, inasmuch as the scheme proposed by the original circular of the Society was so vast, that the Council at first nearly despaired of being able to carry it out in all its particulars. The Council now beg to submit a few remarks on each of the objects for which the Society was founded, and also to add some suggestions for the consideration of the Society.

Meetings. During the past year, i.e. since February 24, thirteen ordinary meetings of the Society have been held, at which twenty-four papers have been read, consisting of the following:—

Dr. F. Royston Fairbank, On Flint Arrowheads from Canada.

Count Oscar Reichenbach, Vitality of the Coloured People in the United States.

The Council hope that during the next year some most important and valuable memoirs will be laid before the Society.

The discussions have been satisfactory, and many Fellows and visitors had taken part in them.

Transactions. The Council, at the early part of the year, made arrangements with Messrs. TrÜbner and Co. to publish the Journal of the Society in connection with the Anthropological Review. This has hitherto been carried out, and the Council think that the connection between the Review and Journal will soon be better understood. At first the Journal was printed as part of the Review, but the Council have now made arrangements that the Journal shall be paged differently, and it will then be seen for which part of this publication the Society is alone responsible. The Journal for the ensuing year will occupy a far larger space than it has hitherto done. An offer was made to the Council of the copyright of the Anthropological Review, which the Council felt it their duty to decline. The Memoirs have not yet been published, but a volume is now in the press. A general wish of the Fellows induced the Council to order the separate publication of the President’s paper “On the Negro’s Place in Nature,” which will, however, again appear in the forthcoming volume of Memoirs.

Museum. Many valuable donations have been made to the Museum, and many other presents have been offered when a suitable place has been found for the deposit. The following gentlemen have made donations to the Museum:—Dr. James Hunt, Rev. H. F. Rivers, W. W. Reade, Esq., George Witt, Esq., Erasmus Wilson, Esq., C. Carter Blake, Esq., Dr. R. Fairbank, Captain R. F. Burton, R. T. Gore, Esq., T. Bendyshe, Esq., and A. A. Fraser, Esq.

Library. The Library now consists of more than two hundred volumes. The Council have only recently made an effort to establish a Library; but they trust ere long to have such an Anthropological Library for the use of the Fellows as has never before existed in this metropolis. The Council also beg to suggest to the Fellows that they may all have works which, comparatively valueless in themselves, would yet be of the highest value in an Anthropological Library. Donations have already been received from the following gentlemen:—Dr. James Hunt, (one hundred and eighteen volumes) T. Bendyshe, Esq., J. Jones, Esq., Professor Busk, Dr. W. Bell, M. Boucher de Perthes, the Anthropological Society of Paris, M. Paul Broca, M. Pruner-Bey, George Tate, Esq., Professor R. Owen, M. Camille Dareste, Professor Nicolucci, Sir Charles Lyell, Dr. Hughlings Jackson, C. Carter Blake, Esq., M. D’Omnalius D’Halloy, Professor Dana, the Smithsonian Institution of New York, A. Stair, Esq., David Carrington, Esq., Professor Eckhard, Hekekyan Bey, Royal Institution of Cornwall, Dr. Beke, Sir W. Jardine, Dr. Cuthbert Collingwood, the Royal Geographical Society, Imperial Academy of Science of Vienna, the Society of Antiquaries, G. McHenry, Esq., J. Frederick Collingwood, Esq., Jacob Boys, Esq., R. S. Charnock, Esq., R. T. Gore, Esq., H. C. Atkinson, Esq., M. de Quatrefages, Dr. F. C. Webb, the upper Hesse Society fÜr Natur- und Heilkunde, Rev. W. Houghton, W. Spencer Cockings, Esq., the Royal Society of London, George Witt, Esq., Professor R. Wagner, Professor Tennant, G. E. Roberts, Esq., A. Higgins, Esq., C. von Martius, Dr. Beddoe, and G. Pouchet.

Translations. The Council are glad to report that they have printed the first volume of a translation of Waitz’s Anthropologie der NaturvÖlker, and they feel that their best thanks are due to Mr. J. Frederick Collingwood, for the care and attention with which he edited this work. Mr. Collingwood has fully explained the reasons which induced the Council to select this work, and they feel it right to acquaint the Fellows of their determination during the ensuing year to issue works which shall not advocate the same opinions as those put forward by Professor Waitz. The Council are fully impressed with the necessity of their exercising a strict impartiality in selecting works for translation. The Council have entrusted the chief management of the publications of the Society to a Publishing Committee, and they feel the thanks of the Society are due to this Committee for the efficient manner in which they have discharged their duties.

It is proposed that the following works should be next undertaken by the Society:—

Broca. Sur l’HybriditÉ Animale en gÉnÉral, et sur l’HybriditÉ Humaine en particulier. 8vo, Paris, 1860. Edited by C. Carter Blake, Esq., F.G.S., Hon. Sec. A.S.L. (In the Press.)

Pouchet. PluralitÉ des Races Humaines. 8vo, Paris, 1858. Edited by T. Bendyshe, Esq., M.A., F.A.S.L. (In the Press.)

Carl Vogt. Vorlesungen Über den Menschen, seine Stellung in der SchÖpfung und in der Geschichte der Erde. 8vo, Giessen, 1863. Edited by Dr. James Hunt, F.S.A., Pres. A.S.L. (In the Press.)

Gratiolet. MÉmoire sur les Plis CÉrÉbraux de l’Homme et des Primates. 4to, Paris, 1855. Edited by Dr. Tuke.

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 Imperial German Academy at Dresden.
The Royal Society of Victoria, Melbourne.
The Smithsonian Institute, Washington.
The Imperial Academy at St. Petersburg.
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, Giessen.
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 this 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,
xxxxxxxxxxJames Hunt, Chairman.

4, ST. MARTIN’S PLACE, TRAFALGAR SQUARE.

HIS Society is formed with the object of promoting the study of Anthropology in a strictly scientific manner. It proposes to study Man in all his leading aspects, physical, mental, and historical; to investigate the laws of his origin and progress; to ascertain his place in nature and his relations to the inferior forms of life; and to attain these objects by patient investigation, careful induction, and the encouragement of all researches tending to establish a de facto science of man. No Society existing in this country has proposed to itself these aims, and the establishment of this Society, therefore, is an effort to meet an obvious want of the times.

This it is proposed to do:

President—James Hunt, Esq., Ph.D., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris, etc.

Vice-Presidents—Captain Richard F. Burton, H.M. Consul at Fernando Po, etc. Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart., D.C.L., LL.D., F.G.S., etc. The Duke of Roussillon.

Honorary Secretaries—C. Carter Blake, Esq., F.G.S., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris, etc. J. Frederick Collingwood, Esq., F.G.S., F.R.S.L., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris.

Honorary Foreign Secretary—Alfred Higgins, Esq., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris.

Treasurer—Richard Stephan Charnock, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.G.S., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris.

Council.

Hugh J. C. Beavan, Esq., F.R.G.S.

T. Bendyshe, Esq., M.A.

W. Bollaert, Esq., F.R.G.S., Corr. Mem. Univ. Chile, and Ethno. Socs. London and New York.

S. Edwin Collingwood, Esq., F.Z.S.

George D. Gibb, Esq., M.A., M.D., F.G.S.

J. Norman Lockyer, Esq., F.R.A.S.

S. E. Bouverie-Pusey, Esq., F.E.S.

W. Winwood Reade, Esq., F.R.G.S., Corr. Mem. Geographical Society of Paris.

George E. Roberts, Esq.

C. Robert des RuffiÈres, Esq., F.G.S., F.E.S.

Dr. Berthold Seemann, F.L.S.

William Travers, Esq., M.R.C.S.

W. S. W. Vaux, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., F. and Hon. Sec. R.S.L., President of the Numismatic Society of London.

George Witt, Esq., F.R.S.

The Terms of Membership for the first five hundred Fellows (who will be called Foundation Fellows) are Two Guineas per annum, which will entitle every Fellow to admission to the Meetings, one copy of the Quarterly Journal, the Memoirs of the Society, and a Volume (or Volumes) of the Translations printed by the Society. Life Members, Twenty Guineas.

Further particulars will be forwarded on application to the Honorary Secretaries.

The following Papers, amongst others, will be laid before the Society in the present session:—

PUBLICATIONS OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Now Ready, in 1 vol., 8vo., pp. 400, price 16s., cloth,

Waitz’s Introduction to Anthropology.

Edited, from the First Volume of Anthropologie der NaturvÖlker, by J. FREDERICK COLLINGWOOD, F.R.S.L., F.G.S., F.A.S.L., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris, Honorary Secretary of the Anthropological Society of London.

Extract of a Letter from the Author to the Editor.

“I have received your translation of the first volume of my ‘Anthropologie der NaturvÖlker,’ and hasten to return you my heartfelt thanks for the great care and assiduity which you have bestowed on the task. I am fully cognisant of the great difficulties you have to contend with, especially as my style, as alluded to in your preface, possesses many peculiarities, so that even German men of science consider the reading of my books rather hard work. All these difficulties you have surmounted with the greatest skill, so as to render my work, as it appears to me, into very pleasing, readable English.”

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

“A more felicitous selection could not, we conceive, by any possibility have been made than the very one which has resulted in the publication of the book lying before us. For within the compass of the first volume of Dr. Waitz’s Anthropologie der NaturvÖlker is compacted together the most comprehensive and exhaustive survey of the new science yet contributed, we believe, in any tongue to European literature. To the English public generally, however, it is a book almost unknown, saving and excepting alone by reputation. Although merely a translation from the German, therefore, the work is virtually, if not an original work, a perfectly new work to the mass of readers in this country. So far as this same rapidly executed work of translation can be compared and collated with the original, it appears to be a version singularly faithful and accurate.... The book, as it now appears, is a work of especial value, and also one of very peculiar interest. It thoroughly fulfils its design of affording the reader of it, within a single volume, the very best epitome anywhere to be found of what is the actual ‘present state’ of anthropological science in Christendom. Dr. Waitz takes a far wider range within his ken than Prichard and Nott and Gliddon combined.”—The Sun, Dec. 14, 1863.

“The volume in every page exhibits great research; it abounds with interesting speculation, all tending the right way, and the information it presents is happily conveyed in a popular manner.”—Morning Advertiser, Nov. 16, 1863.

“So comprehensive is the view taken by the author of all that pertains to man, that a mere enumeration even of the leading topics of the work is beyond our space, and we must content ourselves with recommending its perusal to such of our readers as are interested in the subject, with the assurance that it will well repay the trouble.”—Weekly Dispatch, Nov. 29, 1863.

“This handsomely printed volume discusses at great length and with much ability the question as to the races of man.... At the hands of Dr. Waitz it has met with calm consideration, and in its English dress will prove both interesting and instructive. It displays great research, and contains a large extent of highly interesting matter.”—Liverpool Albion, Nov. 9, 1863.

“From such a bill of fare, our readers will be able to judge that the work is one of value and interest.... It is of the nature of a review, arriving at a comprehensive and proportional estimate, rather than at minute accuracy of detail, such as may be sought elsewhere in each department.”—Medical Times, Dec. 26, 1863.

“Crammed as full of hard facts as wellnigh 400 pages of large 8vo. can contain: all these facts attested by footnote authorities marshalled knee-deep at the bottom of every page; with a list of contents so copious as to eclipse everything of the kind in any recent scientific volume, and yet followed by an index more minute and ample; this work is a magazine of the infant science of Man; a model of German industry, erudition, and philosophical devotion; and a credit to the Society which has sent forth, in a shape so serviceable, what might otherwise have proved a tantalising mass of learned collectanea.... We have perused this translated volume with alternate wonder and amazement at its strange assemblage of facts, its curious classifications, its marvellous revelations of human peculiarities; and we do not hesitate to say that more food for speculation, a more cosmopolitan and comprehensive glance over all the developments of savage and civilised man has been collected here, than could have been dreamed of by those who may not have given it a perusal.”—Dorset County Chronicle, Nov. 18, 1863.

“Dr. Waitz would appear to have collected together all the authorities and contradictory statements of former writers.... The present work will be hailed with pleasure by all who are interested in the study of anthropology, and will, it is hoped, induce a more universal acquaintance with the science.”—Observer, Nov. 8, 1863.

“The Anthropological Society of London have done well in publishing a translation of Dr. Waitz’s Anthropologie der NaturvÖlker, of which this volume is the first instalment. Dr. Waitz’s work is by far the most complete that exists on the subject of which it treats. It is the fullest collection of facts, interwoven with, and made to bear upon, all the theories (and their name is legion) which have been advanced in explanation of the endless diversities and resemblances that exist among mankind. Dr. Waitz himself is wedded to no particular theory, and in this volume, at least, advances none, but he points out with great clearness the effects that may be fairly attributed to the various influences, external and internal, physical and psychical, which affect the human form and national character.”—The Press, Dec. 5, 1863.

“This volume will help to put the science of anthropology in a proper light before the scientific men of this country. Whatever faults we may have to find with this work, we feel sure that its publication marks an epoch in the study of anthropology in this country. The anthropologist can now say to the inquirer, Read and study Waitz, and you will learn all that science has yet to reveal.”—Anthropological Review, No. 3.

“The Anthropological Society deserve great praise for the energy and activity they display in prosecuting their object.... We find in this volume a fair statement and discussion of the questions bearing on the unity of man as a species, and his natural condition. He gives a very clear account of the different views held on these questions, and a full collection of the facts, or supposed facts, by which they are supported. The chief fault of the book is, indeed, this very fulness and fairness in collecting all that can be said on both sides of a question.... We must regard the work as a valuable addition to the books on this subject already in our language, and as likely, by the thought and inquiry it must suggest, to promote the great end of the Society—a truer and higher knowledge of man, his origin, nature, and destiny.”—The Scotsman, Dec. 7, 1863.

“We need hardly say, that it is quite out of our power to give any detailed account of this volume. It is itself a volume of details. Its nature, character, and value, may be gleaned from the criticism bestowed upon it by the Anthropological Society, and by the fact of its being their first offering to their members. There can be no doubt that it is the best epitome of matters anthropological now contained in our language; and will be of great service to the student as a book of reference.”—British Medical Journal, December 26, 1863.

“The difficulties which a reader experiences who studies Waitz’s original German version—difficulties attendant on the involution of his style, and the frequent mistiness of his forms of expression—vanish in the English edition, which also differs from its German prototype, inasmuch as the embarrassing references which Waitz intercalated in his text are prudently cast down by Mr. Collingwood to the foot of the page.... The student will but have to read it through, in order to feel himself endowed with an enormous power of acquired facts, which, if he duly assimilates, will enable him to wield a tremendous weapon in controversy against the unskilled anthropologist.”—Reader, November 7, 1863.

London: Longman, Green, and Co., Paternoster Row.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW;
AND
Journal of the Anthropological Society of London.

CONTENTS OF No. IV.—FEBRUARY 1864.

Price Four Shillings.

1. On the Human Hair as a Race-Character. By Dr. Pruner-Bey.

2. Pott on the Myths of the Origin of Man and Language.

3. Italian Anthropology.

4. On the Scytho-Cimmerian Languages. By R. S. Charnock, Esq., F.S.A.

5. Notes on Scalping. By Richard F. Burton.

6. Renan on the Shemitic Nations.

7. Abnormal Distortion of the Wrist. By Charles H. Chambers.

8. Human Remains from Lough Gur, County Limerick.

9. Danish Kitchen-middens. By Charles H. Chambers.

10. Miscellanea Anthropologica.

Journal of the Anthropological Society of London:—

Carter Blake on the Anthropological Papers read at Newcastle.

G. E. Roberts and Professor Busk on the Opening of a Kist of the Stone Age.

Captain Eustace W. Jacob on the Indian Tribes of Vancouver’s Island.

Dr. James Hunt on the Negro’s Place in Nature.

C. R. Markham on Quartz Cutting Instruments from Chanduy, near Guayaquil.

G. E. Roberts on Mammalian Bones from Audley End.

A. Bryson on Arrow Heads from the Bin of Cullen.

Dr. F. R. Fairbank on Flint Arrow Heads from Canada.

Count Oscar Reichenbach on the Vitality of the Negro Race.

General Meeting of the Society.

President’s Annual Address.

R. Lee on the Extinction of Races.