IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 // 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^% 
 
 
 f4^ 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 I4i|28 |Z5 
 
 |io ■^~ Mb 
 
 itt Uii 122 
 
 li£ 12.0 
 
 lU 
 lU 
 
 u 
 
 IL25 HI 1.4 
 
 I 
 
 U4 
 
 V 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 ¥!^ 
 
 # 
 
 Cn^^ 
 
 V 
 
 V 
 
 33 WIST (MAIN STRIIT 
 WIUTM.N.Y. MSM 
 
 (7l6)t7a-4303 
 
 
 i\ 
 

 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHIVI/ICIVIH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Inatituta for Historical IVIicroreproductions / institut Canadian de microreproductions historiquas 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notas techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 D 
 
 Couverture endommagie 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur^ et/ou pellicuMe 
 
 □ Cover title missing/ 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 pn Coloured maps/ 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Cartes giographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured init (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 D 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 ReliA avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La re liure serrie peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intirieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutAes 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte. 
 mais, lorsque cela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas <lt« film«es. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires supplimentaires: 
 
 L'institut a microfilmi le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a it6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite. ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la mAthode normale de filmage 
 sont indiquis ci-dessous. 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 n 
 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagies 
 
 Pages restored and/oi 
 
 Pages restauries et/ou peliiculAes 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxe< 
 Pages dicoiories. tachet6es ou piqudes 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages ddtachies 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of prir 
 
 Quality inAgale de rimp>9S8ion 
 
 Includes supplementary materii 
 Comprend du matiriei suppi^mentaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Mition disponible 
 
 I I Pages damaged/ 
 
 I I Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 
 I I Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 I I Pages detached/ 
 
 r~^ Showthrough/ 
 
 HT] Quality of print varies/ 
 
 I I Includes supplementary material/ 
 
 r~~| Only edition available/ 
 
 The co| 
 to the I 
 
 The im 
 posslbl 
 of the ( 
 filming 
 
 Origina 
 beginn 
 the iasi 
 sion, o 
 other c 
 first pa 
 sion, ai 
 or iilus 
 
 The laa 
 shall c< 
 TINUEI 
 whichc 
 
 Maps. 
 
 differei 
 
 entirely 
 
 baginn 
 
 right ai 
 
 requira 
 
 methoi 
 
 Pagan wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 4tA filmies A nouveau de fapon h 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio cheeked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filmi au taux de rMuction indiquA ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 26X 
 
 30X 
 
 y 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 a4X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 
ire 
 
 details 
 es du 
 modifier 
 er une 
 filmage 
 
 The copy filmed here has been reproduced thank* 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 IMetropditan Toronto Library 
 Canadian Hittory Department 
 
 The Images appearing here are the beat quality 
 poaaible conaldarlng the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and In keeping with the 
 filming contract speclficatlona. 
 
 L'exemplaire fllmA fut reproduit grflce h la 
 gAniroaitA de: 
 
 Metropolitan Toronto Library 
 Canadian Hittory Department 
 
 Lea Imagea aulvantea ont At6 reprodultea avec lo 
 plua grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at 
 de la nettet6 de l'exemplaire fllmt, at en 
 conformity avec lea conditiona du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Original copiea in printed paper covera are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the iaat page with a printed or iliuatrated imprea- 
 aion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copiea are filmed beginning on the 
 firat page with a printed or iliuatrated imprea- 
 aion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or iliuatrated impression. 
 
 ies 
 
 Les exemplairea originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier eat imprimte aont filmte en commenpant 
 par le premier plat at en terminant soit par la 
 derniAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impreaalon ou d'iiiuatration, aoit par le second 
 plat, aelon le caa. Toua lea autrea exemplairea 
 originaux aont film6a en commenpant par la 
 premiere page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impreaalon ou d'iiiuatration at en terminant par 
 la dernlAre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 The Iaat recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the aymbol -^ (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED "), or the aymbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever appliea. 
 
 Un dea aymbolea aulvanta apparaltra sur la 
 dernlire image de cheque microfiche, aelon le 
 caa: le aymbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le 
 aymbola V aignifie "FIN". 
 
 re 
 
 I- 
 
 Mapa, platea, charta, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one expoaure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right end top to bottom, ea many framea aa 
 required. The following diegrama illuatrate the 
 method: 
 
 Lea cartes, planchea, tableaux, etc.. peuvent Atre 
 fiimia A dea taux de rMuction diffArenta. 
 Loraque le document eat trop grand pour Atre 
 reproduit en un aeui clichA, ii eat film* 6 partir 
 de Tangle aupArieur gauche, de gauche A drolte, 
 et de haut en baa, en prenant le nombre 
 d'imagea nAceaaaire. I.e8 diagrammea auivants 
 iilustrent la mAthode. 
 
 ^ errata 
 id to 
 
 It 
 
 ia palure, 
 
 9on A 
 
 n 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 32X 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
8- 
 
 LEGITIMATE LINES OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 
 
 A^N ADDRESS 
 
 BEFORE THE : V': *^'^> 
 
 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION , 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 
 
 BV 
 
 PROF. DANIEL WILSON, 
 
 CHAinMAN OF THE SUBSRCTION OF ANTUR01>0L0UT, 
 
 AT NASHVILLE, TENN., 
 
 AUGUST, 1877. 
 
 11 
 
 SALEM : 
 
 PRINTKD AT THE SALEM rP'i:S8. 
 
 1878. 
 
 'fe '^i I, Jisti^a "iiSto 
 
 ',/^> ■':' 
 
 ■■■ii.''t 
 
LEGITIMATE LIXES OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL HESEARCH. 
 
 A.N A-DDRESS 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
 
 FOR TUB 
 
 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 
 
 BV 
 
 PROF. DANIEL WILSON, 
 
 Chairman op the Subsection of Anthropoloov, 
 
 AT NASHVILLE, TENN., 
 
 AUGUST, 187" 
 
 SALEM ; 
 
 PRINTED AT THE SALEM PRESS. 
 
 • 1878. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 PROFESSOll DANIEL WILSON 
 
 CHAIRMAN OF THE SUBSECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 
 
 ! 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : — 
 
 ■ The honor which you have conferred upon me in electing me 
 chairman of the subsection of Anthropology, imposes on me the 
 duty of delivering an opening address on some subject relating to 
 the special objects of study to which your researches are directed. 
 I greatly regret that the protracted effects of an accident from 
 which I v.m stilJ suffering, have prevented me giving the requisite 
 time and a'^udy to the preparation of an address worthy of the 
 subject, an<l of the audience to which it has to be presented. I 
 must, therefore, throw myself on your kind indulgence, and trust 
 that the varied character and high interest of the papers to be 
 communicated to this subsection, will atone for all deflciences at 
 its opening. 
 
 By the establishment of a permanent subgection of Anthropology 
 in the A. A. A. S., the growing importance of this attractive de- 
 partment of science has received a just recognition, which cannot 
 fail to give fresh stimulus to research. In its most comprehen- 
 sive aspects Anthropology includes the old-fashioned labors of the 
 antiquary in their later development into a science of Archaeology ; 
 it embraces all that pertains to that common ground of the geolo- 
 gist and archoeologist in the more recent strata in which man and 
 
 (319) 
 
 ■■' r 
 
820 
 
 ADDRESS OF DANIEL WILSON, 
 
 the traces of his primitive arts arc believed to occur in situ ; }'ct 
 at the same time it deals mainly with a class of evidence peculiarly 
 its own. The extinct life of geological periods reveals itself to 
 the instructed eye of the palueontologist chiefly by means of the 
 actual fossil remains. Or if to these have to be added illustrations 
 of habits, food, structure, etc., such as are supplied by means of 
 gnawed bones in the cave-resorts of carnivora, coprolites, footprints, 
 and the like subsidiary evidence : still all are traceable directl}' or 
 indirectly to the living organism. But with man it is otherwise. 
 His presence is manifested as the contemporary of such ancient 
 life, independently of all traces of his actual remains, by means 
 of the works of his hands ; and thus the study of the archaeologist 
 becomes an ingenious process of induction, when employed to 
 determine the social habits, the culture, and the intellectual and 
 moral characteristics, of races of men which had passed away long 
 before the very dawn of history. But the science of Anthropology 
 also comprehends the common ground of biology and physiology, 
 in which man takes his place along with all other animals, as a 
 subject of natural history'. The physical structure of the savage 
 as compared with civilized races, and of V e oldest osteological 
 traces of man with both, are legitimate subjects of investigation. 
 Craniology, and other branches of comparative anatomy, in like 
 manner come linder review, first in the comparison of races, in 
 reference to the diverse varieties of man ; and nest in the study 
 of the analogies of the Anthropomorplm with the Anthropidae, as 
 represented b}' the single genus and species Man. 
 
 In the older classifications of the naturalist, the aim has been 
 to determine for Man a place in the system of nature which shall 
 give distinct recognition to his moral and intellectual, as well as 
 to his physical attributes. The Bimana of Cuvier and Blumeu- 
 bach, and other schemes of a like kind, r/hich for the present have 
 fallen into disfavor, had this in view. But while it is legitimate 
 for the naturalist in treating of man as a vertebrate animal, to 
 take into consideration his physical structure alone ; it is not only 
 not unphilosophical, to look beyond this to the psj'chical elements 
 of his being; but it is indispensable, that the anthropologist ever 
 keep in view the double nature of man. That man is an animal is 
 unquestionable ; but that he is something more is assumed in the 
 very simple axiom which constitutes the basis of the whole argu- 
 ment for the antiquity of Man. The constructive instincts of 
 
 u - 
 
CHAIRMAN OF SCBSECTTON OF ANTHROPOLOOT. 
 
 321 
 
 i 
 
 beast, bird, crustacean, insect, and zoophyte, furnish endless sub- 
 jects for admiring stndj' ; yet so thoroughly is the use of tools 
 recognized as the exclusive attribute of man, that the discovery 
 in the glacial drift, or cave-breccia, of a single artificially fashioned 
 flint or stone — chipped thougii it may be into rudest form — is 
 sufflcient to satisfy the geologist of the contemporaneous presence 
 of man. Hence, while it is convenient to keep apart from the 
 elements of physical structure nil those evidences which relate to 
 mental phenomena, a very inadequate conception of man must be 
 formed if the latter are excluded from our estimate of him. 
 
 But it is one of the curious and unexpected results of the great 
 revolution in biological science consequent on the recognition of 
 a continuity of succession of forms of life, : based on the hy- 
 pothesis of evolution, tliat such distinctive elerr^nts of mental 
 phenomena as are embraced under tlie heads , chology, soci- 
 
 ology, etc., are no longer absolutely limited t In the com- 
 
 prehensive inquiries to which tlie novel teachings oi evolution have 
 given rise, the germs of man's intellectual and moral, as well as of 
 his physical attributes, are being sought for in the instincts and 
 habits of the lower animals ; and ihe phenomena of social life 
 which they exhibit have acquired a novel interest from their sup- 
 posed bearing on the sources of highest mental and moral develop- 
 ment. 
 
 The result of such researches tends more and more to diminish 
 the number of characteristic attributes previously adduced as the 
 basis of a true definition of Man. Rluaieubach reduced his earlier 
 and more comprehensive characteristics into the two .very simple 
 elements of the ^^ animal erectum, bimanum." But the order of 
 Bimana, subsequently adopted by Cuvier for the human family', 
 is already rejected, in spite of such high authority. Owen, again, 
 — looking to the brain as the organ of Man's grand inheritance, 
 reason, — sought to determine for him a classification distinct from 
 the other Primates, and from the Mammalia generally', under the 
 term Archencephala ; but the proposed sub-class, after protracted 
 discussion among the most eminent anatomists and physiologists, 
 has in like manner been abandoned. 
 
 It thus becomes ever more diflficult to select the special charac- 
 teristics which shall supply a definition exclusively applicabl i to 
 Man. He has been stjied the tool-using, and the tool-making 
 animal ; the fire-using animal ; the cooking animal, etc. There 
 
 A. A. A. 8., VOL. XXVI. 21 
 
822 
 
 ADDRESS OF DANIRL WILSON, 
 
 is one attribute wliioli still seems to be his riglit ; and which per- 
 tains to the source of all those differentiations. We popularly 
 use such terms as the irrational creation, the brute creation, ra- 
 tional beings, etc. ; accepting reason as the primary distinctive char- 
 acteristic of Man. Yet even in this he is now denied an exclusive 
 heritage ; nor is it now, for the first time, that some exercise of a 
 reasoning faculty is recognized as pertaining to the lower animals. 
 Physically, mentally, and morally, the ground within which he has 
 seemed to be intrenched beyond reach of encroachment by the 
 lower orders of animate nature, seems to give way. But there 
 remains one specialty indisputably his own. We habitually 
 designate all other living creatures as dumb animals ; discrimi- 
 nating in this between the inarticulate cries of the lower animals, 
 and the intelligent utterances of human speech. Hence the legiti- 
 mate selection of language as the most essential and unvarying 
 index of Man. No race of men has ever been found devoid of 
 language. No other animal has ever been known to possess 
 language in its most rudimentary form. We have, indeed, speech 
 in a certain sense, in the parrot, the starling, etc. ; but this is no 
 more than another phase of the capacity for imitating sounds, 
 familiar to us in the natural imitations of the mocking bird ; 
 and dependent ir part on physical structure. Neither in the one 
 case nor in the other, are the sounds symbols of thought, or vocal 
 signs of objects or ideas. 
 
 Hence one of the highest branches of Anthropology is the 
 Science of Language. The researches into the sources and nature 
 of speech, and into the Science of Language, which have been 
 pursued by the foremost among the philologists of Europe for up- 
 wards of half a century, have opened up novel lines of inquiry 
 not less fascinating than the most brilliant discoveries of the age. 
 But America has its own special department in this great v,'ork, in 
 the languages of a continent, isolated for unnumbered centuries ; 
 and left to develop its own philological characteristics uninfluenced 
 by any of the sources which have affected the structure of lan- 
 guages of the Old World within the historic period. 
 
 Professor Max Miiller has drawn attention to the tendency of 
 the languages of America towards an endless multiplication of 
 distinct dialects. Those again have been grouped by the synthetic 
 process of Hervas into eleven families; seven for our northern 
 continent, and four for South America. But much yet remains to 
 
i 
 
 : 
 
 CHAIRMAN -OF SUBSECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 
 
 828 
 
 be clone in this important department. One able English compara- 
 tive philologist, Mr, Hyde Clarite, invites attention to a singularly 
 fascinating line of research, in his "Kliita and Khita-Peruvian 
 Epoch." Tracing the progress of his Suraerian Race — from the 
 nnion of which with the Semites he derives the ethnological pecu- 
 liarities of the Jews, — he assigns an interval of four thousand 
 years since their settleu)ent in Babylonia and India. In like 
 manner, on the assumption of their migration from a coinmoa 
 centre in High Asia, which the division of Western and Eastera 
 Sumerian in pronouns and other details is thought to indicate ; 
 it appears probable that Peru may have been reached by a migra- 
 tory wave of earliest movement from four to five thousand years 
 ago; though Mr. Hyde Clarke conceives that it is quite within 
 compass that the same great wave of migration by which India 
 and Babylonia were reached, continued to propagate its centrifugal 
 force ; and by its means Peru was reached within the last three 
 thousand years. 
 
 The sj'stem of Agassiz, based on his idea of natural provinces 
 of the Animal World, and tlieir relation to different types of Man, 
 favored the idea of various native American centres within which 
 the diverse varieties of American Man originated ; and from whence 
 they had been distributed over the entire continent. This idea 
 proved acceptable for a time to American ethnologists, advanced 
 as it was on such high authority, and with some specially seduc- 
 tive arguments in its favor. But the progress of science has 
 effected a total revolution in refeicnce to this question. The idea 
 of a plurality of origin, and of a number of distinct races of Men, 
 was in harmony with the popular process of an endless multiplica- 
 tion of species throughout the entire animal kingdom. Hence it 
 found favor for a time in the speculations of science, and was 
 even dogmatically advanced as one of its indisputable truths. 
 But already the leadings of scientific induction point in a wholly 
 different direction, tending to the more comprehensive unitj' which 
 embraces all men in the descent from a centre common to them 
 with other animals. 
 
 It is sufficient for our present purpose to note that the abroga- 
 tion of a system which recognized in the Man of America a being 
 primarily' distinct in origin from all races of the Old World, leaves 
 us free to follow out the interesting inquiries suggested by appar- 
 ent relations between the native languages of this continent and 
 
824 
 
 ADDRESS OF DANIEL WILSON, 
 
 those of ancient Asia and Africa, unencumbered by conflicting 
 elements of scientific classification. Assuming, for the salie of 
 argument, that a common Turanian population of Asia and America 
 separated, let us say four thousand years ago: the phenomena 
 exhibited la the extreme polysynthetic characteristics of many of 
 the native languages of this continent as compared with the agglu- 
 tination of the Turanian languages of Asia, furnish a subject of 
 investigation not less interesting to American students, alike of 
 the Science of Language, and of tlie whole comprehensive ques- 
 tions which Anthropology embraces, than ' the relations of the 
 Romance Languages of Europe to the parent Latin ; or of the Latin 
 itself, and all the Aryan languages, ancient and modern, not only 
 to the Sanskrit and Zend, but to the indeterminate stock which 
 furnished the parent rots, the grammatical forms, and that whole 
 class of words still recognizable as the common property of the 
 whole Aryan family of languages. The Sanskrit was a dead lan- 
 guage three thousand years ago ; the English language, as such, 
 cann^b claim to have originated much more than fourteen centuries 
 ago, yet both partake of the same coh:<mon property of numerals 
 and familiar terms existing under certain modifications in Sanskrit, 
 Greek, Latin, German, Slavonic, Celtic, Anglo-saxon, and in all 
 the Romance Languages of Europe. What has America to show, 
 analogous to this: not only of aflSnity of languages within itself; 
 but of possible relationship to languages of other continents, and 
 of elder centuries? 
 
 , Gallatin early drew attention to certain analogies in the struc- 
 ture of Polynesian and American languages, as deserving of care- 
 fkil investigation ; and pointed out the peculiar mode of expressing 
 the tense, mood, and voice of the verb, by affixed particles, and 
 the value given to place over time, as indicated in the predominant 
 locative verbal form. The substitution of affixed particles for in- 
 flections, especially in expressing the direction of action in relation 
 to the speaker, is common to the Polynesian and the Oregon lan- 
 guages, and also has analogies in the Cherokee. We have, in 
 truth, to deal with language as the geologist has learned to do with 
 the earth's crust, and recover from the aggregations of the one, as 
 from the accumulated strata of the other, the records of a long 
 forgotten past. Subsequent observations, tliough hitherto very 
 partially prosecuted, have tended to confirm the idea of elements 
 lecognizable as common in the languages of Polynesia and 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
CHAIRMAN OF SCBSECTION OF ANTHR070L0OT. 
 
 325 
 
 I 
 
 America. This is specially noticeable in relation to the languages 
 of South America, as shown in their mode of expressing the tense of 
 the verb ; in the formation of causative, reciprocal, potential and 
 locative verbs, by affixes ; and in the general system of compound 
 word structure. The incorporation of the particle with the verbal 
 root, appears to embody the germ of the more comprehensive 
 American holophrasms. But here again while seeming to recover 
 links of connection with Polynesia, it becomes apparent, as euch 
 affinities lead us to anticipate, that we are on the track of others no 
 less clearly Asiatic. Striking analogies have been recognized be- 
 tween the languages of the Deccan, and those of the Polynesian 
 group, in which the determinate significance of the formative parti- 
 cles on the verbal root, equally admits of comparison with peculiari- 
 ties characteristic of languages of this continent. On this subject 
 the Rev. Richard Garnett remarks, in a communication to the Phil- 
 ological Society, that most of the native American languages ot 
 which we have definite information, bear a general analogy alike 
 to the Polynesian family and to the languages of the Deccan, in 
 their methods of distinguishing the various modifications of time ; 
 and he adds : *' We rnay venture to affirm in general terms that a 
 South American verb is constructed precisely as those in the 
 Tamul and other languages of Southern India ; consisting, like 
 them, of a verbal root, a second element defining the time of the 
 action, and a third denoting the subject or person." 
 
 Such indications of philological relations outside of the Ameri- 
 can continent, are replete with interest. If the languages of South 
 America have such affinities with the Polynesian archipelago, then 
 also we may expect to establish a like relationship between the 
 megalithic sculptures and cyclopsean masonry of Peru, and the 
 remarl'able ancient stone str'jctures and colossal sculpture long 
 ago noted by Captain Bcechy on sotne of the islands nearest the 
 coasts of Chili and Peru ; and since then recognized on others 
 lying towards the Asiatic Continent. We thus seem to recover 
 the trail of an ancient migration (torn Asia to America, of which 
 other traces are not wanting: as in the Polynesian practice of 
 compressing the skull, as described by Dr. Pickering, and since 
 abundantly confirmed by the forms of Kanaka skulls. By follow- 
 ing up the traces of this strange custom, perpetuated among the 
 tribes on the Pacific coasts both of Northern and Southern America 
 to our own day, we retrace the steps of ancient wanderers back- 
 
S26 
 
 Aju-DRESS of DANIEL WILSON, 
 
 ward through the islands of the Pacific, to Asia ; and so to elder 
 centuries when the Macrocephali of the Euxiue attracted the ob- 
 servant eye of Hippocrates ; and became familiar to Strabo, Flinj', 
 and Fomponius Mela. 
 
 The evidences of migration from tlie continent of Asia to the 
 islands of the Pacific are abundant, and some of them seemingly 
 of no very remote date. The direct relationsiiip of existing Poly- 
 nesian languages is not Mongol but Malay ; but this is the intru- 
 sive elemeut of a time long subsequent to the growth of that 
 linguistic element which still perpetuates traces of Polynesian and 
 American affinities. The number and diversit}' of the languages 
 of this continent, and their essentially native vocabularies, prove 
 that the latter have been in process of development from a remote 
 period, free from contact with languages which appear to have 
 been still modelling themselves according to the same plan of 
 thought in. many scattered islands of the Pacific. 
 
 In attempting to recover the traces of ancient history thns indi- 
 cated, the languages which seem to invite special study are the 
 Aymara, tiie Quichua, and tlie Maya. The Quichua was tlie clas- 
 sical language of South America, wherein, according to its native 
 historians, the Peruvian clironiclers and poets incorporated the 
 national legends ; and which occupied a place under Inca rule 
 closely analogous to that of the Norman French in England, from 
 the eleventh to the thirteenth century. The Maya language, which 
 strikingly contrasts, in its soft, vocalic forms, with the languages 
 of the nations immediately to the north of its native area, is that 
 which Stephens tells us was attirmed b}' Indian traditions among 
 the natives of Central America to be still spoken by a living race 
 in the region beyond the Great Sierra, extending to Yucatan and 
 the Mexican Gulf. To those ancient cultured languages of the 
 seats of an indigenous civilization on this continent, attention 
 must anew bo directed, with all the latest appliances furnished in 
 the new developments of the science of language. There, appar- 
 ently, we have to look for an answer to many inquiries specially 
 interesting to ourselves as occupants of this western world. If 
 the arts of architecture and sculpture, and the hieroglyphic records 
 with which they are enriched, are modifications of prehistoric 
 Asiatic civilization, it; is there that the evidence is to be looked 
 for ; and if the arts of the sculptor and architect were brought to 
 this continent by wanderers from au Asiatic fatherland, then the 
 
CHAIRMAN OF SUBSECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 
 
 327 
 
 arts of the potter and of the metaUurgist are also an inheritance 
 from the old Asiatic hive of the nations: that long-recognized 
 cradle-land of the human race. ■ ' 
 
 In searching for the origin of the peculiar native civilization of 
 America, Mr. Hyde Clarke employs philology as his chief guide. 
 He takes the recently deciphered Akkad for the typical language 
 of his Sumerian class. This he assumes to have started probably 
 from High Asia, and to have passed on to Babylonia ; while 
 another branch diffused itself by India and Indo-China, and thence 
 by way of the islands of the Pacific reached America. Hence in 
 an illustrative table of Sumerian words arranged under four heads, 
 as Western, Indo-Chinese, Peruvian, and Mexican, etc., he re- 
 marks ^' while in some cases a root may be traced throughout, it 
 will be seen that more commonly the Western and American roots, 
 or types, cross in the Indo-Chinese region." But he also recog- 
 nizes another, and older influence, related to the Agaw of the Nile 
 region, of which he discovers traces in the Guarani, Omagua, and 
 other languages of South America ; indicating evidences of more 
 remote lelations with the Old World, and with the African conti- 
 nent ; but which he conceives to have been displaced by a Sumerian 
 migration by which the A3'mara domination was established in 
 Peru, and the Maya element introduced into Yucatan. Those 
 movements are assumed to belong to an era of insular and elder 
 Asiatic civilization, during which the maritime enterprise of the 
 Pacific may have been carried on upon a scale unknown to the 
 most adventurous of modern Malay navigr^ors, notwithstanding 
 the essentially maritime character by which the race is still distin- 
 guished. 
 
 Thus the highway to the Pacific was familiar to both continents ; 
 and hence a second migration is recognized, in certain linguistic 
 relations between the Siamese and other languages of Indo-China, 
 and the Quichua and Aztec of Peru and Mexico. Here at any 
 rate are glimpses of research in the prosecution of which American 
 Anthropologists may employ their learning and acumen with results 
 which shall reveal to us a past not less marvellous, and possessing 
 a more personal interest, than all which geology has recovered 
 from the testimony of the rocks. This is one of your legitimate 
 lines of investigation, singularly fascinating in its rich promises^ 
 Already the students of science are recovering for us curious 
 glimpses of that long-forgotten crawhen the parent language of the 
 
 ' V 
 
M 
 
 fc' 1 
 
 828 
 
 ADDRESS OF DAUIBL WILSOK, 
 
 whole Aryan stock was the tongne of an ancient civilized people, on 
 the great plateau of Central Asia, speaking a language which was 
 neither Sanskrit, Greek, German, nor Slavonic; but which in- 
 cluded the dialectic germs of all. In the remote era to which this 
 points, the parent stock of primitive Aryans had realized that 
 fttndamental idea of settled civilizaiion which consists in property 
 in land ; had made .great progress in agriculture ; and as Professor 
 Max Miiller says of them, 'Hhey had recognized the bonds of 
 blood, and sanctioned the bonds of marriage ; they invoked the 
 Giver of Light and Life in heaven by the same name which you 
 may still hear in the temples of Benares, in the basilicas of Rome, 
 and in our own churches and cathedra'.s." The same lines of 
 research point hopefully to future disclosures for ourselves, helping, 
 us to bridge over the great gulf which separates America from 
 that elder historic and prehistoric world ; and so to reunite the 
 modern history of this continent with an ancient past. 
 
 Many other departments of our comprehensive study might in like 
 manner be alluded to. I might fitly refer to the undesigned, yet 
 exhaustive ethnological experiments which are being carried out 
 on this continent on the grandest scale. Here we witness the 
 transferrence of the indigenous population of Africa, of Asia, and 
 of Europe, to a continent where they are brought into new geo- 
 graphical, climatic, and social conditions. We see the African in 
 the South, the Chinese on the Pacific, the Frenchman on the St. 
 Lawrence, the German, the Celt, and the Anglo-Saxon, all sub- 
 jected to novel influences, necessarily testing the results of a 
 change of climate, of diet, and of social habits, on the ethnical 
 character of each. Here too, alike in the Red and Black races, we 
 see experiments of hybridity carried out on a scale adequate to 
 determine many points involved in the question of the origin and 
 perpetuation of the various races of mankind. Here, too, man 
 can still be studied, as among the Esquimaux, in a condition 
 closely analogous to that which is ascribed to postpliocene, if not 
 to preglacial man. Here may still be seen races practising neo- 
 lithic arts of a stone age as genuine as that of Europe's prehistoric 
 times ; on the other hand we witness influences begotten by the 
 abrupt intrusion of the matured arts of Europe on the first crude 
 efforts of the native savage with the virgin copper )ii hich he has 
 learned to hammer into weapons and implements to supply his 
 needs. Here, too, may be seen the infantile rudiments of ideog- 
 
II 
 
 i- 
 
 CHAIRMAN or SUBSKCTION OF AMTBROPOLOaT. 
 
 329 
 
 raphy and letters in the symbolic picturings of tho Indian on- bis 
 buffalo-robe or liis grave post ; and, beyond this the transitional 
 stages of a written language, through the pictorial records of 
 Mexico, the hieroglyphics of Central America, and even the first 
 approximations to true numerals and alphabetic characters. In 
 all this I but glance at some of the most salient points embraced 
 within tlie legitimate work of this section. 
 
 It is thus apparent that the department assigned to the anthro- 
 pological subsection embraces an ample and varied field in which 
 very diverse talents and acquir jments may be brought into coop- 
 eration ; and made to converge by widely separated lines of 
 thought and research, towards the common centre of great and 
 far-reaching truths involved in the science of Man. So compre- 
 hensive a field of study demands for its elucidation the mastery of 
 many distinct branches of science, and a comprehensive knowl- 
 edge both of ancient and modern languages. The researches of 
 the scholar in his study, of the archaeologist and geologist in their 
 field-labors, of the traveller in his far-wanderings and of the 
 missionary teacher in his more intimate intercourse with the 
 nations of strange lands, have all to be combined with investiga- 
 tions in other departments of sci ace ; while physiology, palaeon- 
 tology, and comparative anatomy, mineralogy and metallurgy, 
 each contribute its quota towards the interpretation of the evidence 
 with which the anthropologist has to deal. 
 
 But various causes have thus far combined to give to the 
 investigations of the American anthropologist a character essen- 
 tially distinct from that which has marked those of his co-laborers 
 in Europe. In the earlier stages of research he has seejned in 
 some respects to be placed at a disadvantage. In reality, however, 
 as the special features which pertain to such inquiries on this con- 
 tinent are fUlly matured, it will become apparent that he enjoys 
 many advantages, and has within his reach some exclusive facili- 
 ties which may be expected to give a unique character to American 
 anthropology. Whether our object be to study the characteristics 
 of savage man unafilected by extraneous influences of civilized 
 nations ; to investigate the effect of the intermingling of essen- 
 tially diverse races, in the production and perpetuation of new 
 varieties ; or in the improvement, degeneracy, or sterility of such 
 hybrid stocks; to ascertain the condition of races ignorant of 
 metallurgy; to trace the processes by which the true metal- 
 
K 
 
 880 
 
 ADDRESS OF DANIEL WILSOK, 
 
 lurg'ic arts have been evolved, fro'.n the first crude working of 
 malleable copper or lead with the hammer, to the tentative inter- 
 mingling of copper and tin in the crucible^ and the moulding and 
 casting implements and personal ornaments of bron?e, as well as 
 of gold ; or lastly, to follow in tlie steps of Humboldt, and inves- 
 tigate the analo<5ie8 to anciani Asiatic beliefs in th6 mythology of 
 the semi-civilized nations of Central and South America ; the indi- 
 cations of correspondence in their calendars and astronomical di- 
 visions of time ; or the affinities of grammar recognizable in 
 languages of the New and the Old World : in each and all of those 
 it will be found that we enjoy, as occupants of t'ns continent, 
 facilities peculiarly our own. 
 
 Our training for the work which this Anthropological subsection 
 has undertaken, is of itself peculiar. The archteologists of Eu- 
 rope had been busied for centuries in the elucidation of early his- 
 toric monuments ; and only during the present century passed 
 beyond that stage to a study of the ruder traces of primitive art, 
 and of the physical characteristics of unhistoric, if not prehistoric 
 races. The researches directed to the elucidation of the problems 
 thus originated were followed up tln-ough medieval, classical, 
 Assyrian, Indian, and Egyptian remains, to the very threshold of 
 that prehistoric period which forms the debatable land between 
 geological and historical epochs. Indeed, not the least significant 
 fact in reference to the remarkable disclosures of the past quarter 
 of a century is that some of the most characteristic drift imple- 
 ments, such as the flint spear-head found alongside of a fossil 
 elephant's tooth, in the vicinity of Gray's Inn Lane, London ; or 
 the large flint implements of the same type Trom the drift of the 
 Wavenej* Valley, at Hoxne in Surrey, underlying similar fossil 
 remains, bad been brought under the notice of archseologists, and ' 
 deposited in the British Museum, upwards of a century before the 
 idea of the contemporaneous existence of Man and the mammals 
 of the drift found any favor. 
 
 The conception of the comprehensiveness even of historical an- 
 tiquity was long 1 rammelled in Europe b}' a too exclusive devotion 
 to Greek and Roman remains ; or by profitless efforts at the inter- 
 pretation of the more ancient monuments of Egypt ; but the his- 
 torical relations of this continent with the Old World, are so recent 
 that for us the fifteenth century is its historical dawn ; and anything 
 dating before the landing of Columbus has till very recently 
 
CHAIRJIAN OF SUBSECTION OF ANTHROPOLOQT. 
 
 331 
 
 seemed to be inconceivably ancient. Hence antiquarian specula- 
 tions and historical research have been almost exclusively occupied 
 on matters of a very modern date ; and great industry has been 
 often profitlessly expended in attempts to establish derivative re- 
 lations between the sculptures and hieroglyphics of Central 
 America, Mexico, and Peru, and those of ancient Egypt. But in 
 this, as in so many other departments of the archreology and 
 ethnology of the New World, we want facts rather than theories. 
 Much has been done in recent years to add to our knowledge of 
 the antiquities of Central America and Peru. Forbes, Markham, 
 Agassiz, Hutchinson, Squier, and others, have made important ad- 
 ditions to the evidence required. Nevertheless even now it is a 
 moot point whether Central America has not yet to disclose, not 
 only still more remarkable ruined cities than any that Stephens 
 revealed, but even inhabited cities where a native civilization is 
 still in progress. 
 
 But the all-absorbing theme of archteological inquiry at present 
 embraces tlie evidence of the antiquity of Man. Tlie palseolithic 
 disclosures of the French dr'ft, belong to our own day ; and though 
 the researches of Mr. MacEnery in the famous Kent's Hole Cave 
 had, fully half a century ago, brought to light true palseolithic flint 
 implements in the same red loam with the bones of the Mammoth, 
 Tichorhine Rhinoceros, Cave Bear, and other extinct mammalia, it 
 is only now that the true significance of the disclosures of the 
 ossiferous caves oi' Europe is being understood. America was 
 indeed little behind Europe in the earlier stages of cave research, 
 for it is no V upwards of forty years since Dr. Lund and M. 
 Clausscn recovered from limestone caverns in the Brazils, the 
 remains of Man alongside of many fossil bones of extinct 
 mammals; and — with special significance in relation to more 
 recent speculations — including those of extinct genera of fossil 
 monkeys. 
 
 It is not necessary that I should now detail the isolated and du- 
 bious illustrations of American palseolithic art which have thus far 
 rewarded zealous research. Flint implements from the auriferous 
 gravel of California were produced at the Paris Exposition of 
 1855 ; and have since been described among the disclosures of the 
 drift in Illinois, Georgia, and California. Still more, from the 
 auriferous drift of the latter state there has been produced to you 
 in previous years, not only a highly polished stone plummet, but 
 

 882 
 
 ADDRESS OF DANIEL WILSON, 
 
 the far more startling disclosure of a complete human skull. I 
 shall not now enter on a discussion of the sc entiRc value of such 
 evidence. Chance — found, isolated examples of flint implements 
 must ever be received with caution, as evidence of palseolithic art, 
 on a continent where the indigenous population have not even now 
 ceased to manufacture tools and weapons of flint and stone. The 
 striking feature of archaeological exploration in Europe has been 
 that the tool-bearing drift has been determined by its geological 
 characteiistics ; and the traces of Palaeolithic Man are now sought 
 for with the same confidence as the well recognized fossils of any 
 geological strata. 
 
 To th'~, same stage of geological and archaeological systematic 
 research we have now happily arrived in America ; and I may 
 preiume that at your present meeting an opportunity will be 
 afforded of judging of the significance of the highly suggestive 
 discovery of Dr. Chas. C. Abbott, in the drift of the Delaware 
 Riv3r Valley, at Trenton, New Jersey, already produced in the 
 B«;port of the Peabodj' Museum of American Archoeology and 
 Ethnology for the present year. You have there set forth the 
 discovery of data from which it is assumed that man may be shown 
 to have existed on this continent during the process o^ formation 
 of the great gravel deposits, now ascribed to glacial action, which 
 extend from Labrador as far south as Virginia, and are but one of 
 the many indices of the Ice Age of tliis Western Hemisphere. 
 The great importance which attaches to the discoveries now referred 
 to, is due to the fact tiiat they are the result of systematic research, 
 based on the scientific analogies of European archaeology. The 
 locality selected for this investigation is tlie valley of the Dela- 
 ware, at Trenton, N. J. There Dr. Abbott has found, in situ, 
 rude stone implements formed of a granular argillite, which he 
 believes " were fashioned by man during the glacial period, and 
 were deposited with the associated gravels as we now find them." 
 The implements are of peculiar form, due in part to the material 
 of which they are fashioned. To the most characteristic of these 
 Dr. Abbott gives the name of the " turtle-back celt." But besides 
 this class of rudely chipped stone implements, were also discov- 
 ered one or more flint spear-het*ds, to which a like antiquity is 
 ascribed. Judging from its material, size, and configuration, as 
 indicated in the published report, the question of the contempora- 
 neous origin of the figured spear-head appears to me to require 
 
 I ' 
 
CHAIRMAN OF SUBSECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 
 
 833 
 
 careful consideration. Assuming, however, that the whole evi- 
 dence will be submitted to th^^ section, it is sufficient that I now 
 refer to a subject which cannot fail to receive adequate attention 
 from tboije best qualified to determine the true significance of the 
 evidence adduced. 
 
 It is an event which may be hailed as a good omen for this an- 
 thropological department of the scientific work of the Association, 
 that the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Eth- 
 nology is able to produce such practical fruits of the wise patro- 
 nage which it is enabled to extend to arcbseological research. We 
 are but on the threshold of this young science, pregnant with 
 marvellous disclosures relative to the history of man. Let us not 
 be hasty in the acceptance of crude theories, nor rash in the need- 
 less overthrow of old way marks in the progress of knowledge. 
 There is a danger at the present stage, of our becoming enamoured 
 of theories just in so far as they conflict with hitherto received 
 opinions, or charm by reason of the vastness of their assumptions. 
 Opinion is advancing with rapid strides. Tliere is a danger that 
 fancy shall far outspeed fact. I can remember the time when, in 
 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the idea 
 of races in Britain prior to the Ccltse, was scouted with scarcely 
 disguised contempt. Now the tendency is to look upon the 
 assumed traces of fossil man in the Tertiary deposits, as compara- 
 tively recent. On any hj'pothesis of evolution which includes 
 man they must indeed be e;o ; for the most ancient well-authenti- 
 cated human crania thus far discovered help us in no degree to the 
 recovery of any anthropomorphic stage of intermediate transition 
 from lower forms of life. The Cromagnon skulls of the French 
 Reindeer period exceed, rather than fall short of the cerebral 
 capacity of the average modern Frenchman ; nor is the famous 
 Neanderthal skull, with its enormous superciliary arches, — so 
 suggestive of analogy to tl>e anthropoid apes, — by any means 
 deficient in indications of cerebral development. We stand in 
 need of ampler evidence, not of more comprehensive hypotheses. 
 The latter cannot be received with too great caution. Our duty 
 is, while honestly and fearlessly accepting whatever evidence may 
 offer, and following out tho leadings of truth to whatever results 
 they may tend, to carefully guard against the adoption of hasty 
 assumptions. We have first to establish beyond all doubt the facts 
 of science ; we must next be sure that our inductions follow logi- 
 
334 
 
 ADDRESS OF DANIEL WILSON. 
 
 cally from such premises. The construction of startling hypoth- 
 eses is at no time a matter of difflculty. It is otherwise with the 
 patient, diligent accumulation of all the evidence on which a sound 
 scientific induction can alone be based. The truths which we are 
 now in search of specially demand from us the elimination of all 
 uncertain, still more, of all spurious or misleading elements. Truth, 
 whatever it may be, must triumph in the end ; and whatever tempts 
 us to neglect the calm, philosophic spirit of inductive research will 
 only retard that triumph. The work before you for years to come 
 must be the accumulation of evidence, the cautious sifting of it in 
 all its bearings, and the ascertaining what its teachinpjs really are. 
 The work which has thus to be done is laborious ; but the truth 
 when finally established will bring with it its own abundant 
 reward. 
 
 iPrinted at the Salem Press, June, 1878]. 
 
 t > , ^ i' 
 
 ■;'!,'