Comparative Anatomy of Man ¹

Abstract

I. THE great scope and interest of the subject of anthropology, as well as its most convenient subdivisions, are well illustrated by the prospectus of the teaching at the Anthropological Institute of Paris. There are at present six chairs:—(1) Comparative Anatomy in Relation to Anthropology, by Broca; (2) Biological Anthropology, or the Application of Anatomy and Physiology to Anthropology, by Topinard; (3) Ethnology, or the Study of the Races of Man, by Dally; (4) Linguistic Anthropology, by Hovelacque; (5) Palæontological and Prehistoric Anthropology, by Mortillet; and (6) Demography, which includes what we commonly call social and vital statistics and Medical Anthropology, by Bertillon. These subjects are publicly taught in a school supplied with all necessary appliances, founded partly by private munificence, but also liberally subsidised by the Municipality of Paris and the Department of the Seine. There is also at Paris a complete course of general anthropology given yearly by M. de Quatrefages in connection with the magnificent museum at the Jardin des Plantes. To these institutions we have nothing comparable in England, and neither at our Universities or elsewhere is any branch of anthropological science systematically taught. The present lectures only embrace a small portion of one of the six subdivisions enumerated above, that of biological anthropology. This science is purely one of observation, and in proportion as the materials upon which our observations are founded are multiplied, so will the value of the observations be increased. These materials are collected in museums, which at present in this country are not so complete as might be desired. The largest public collection is that of the College of Surgeons, containing about 1,200 crania of different races; the largest private collection is that of Dr. Barnard Davis, of Shelton in Staffordshire, considerably exceeding that of the College both in number and variety of specimens. Happily these are about to be united, and, under the care of the Council of the College, will be made accessible to all who wish to pursue the study of anatomical anthropology.