The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-04 00:00:00

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426' •
ANTHROPOLOGICIa
•
Yesterday afternoon the anniv i F.A
„,
the fellows of this society was helcrlfrAlieir r A,
6
in St. Martin's-place. After the dispoSal theS
usual routine business, including the reading of the
reports of the treasurer, the curator, and librarian,
The president, Dr. JAMES IIuNT, delivered the
anniversary address. He adverted, in the first
place, to the deaths during the past year of those
gentlemen who held a prominent position in the
society, including Mr. Roberts, Mr. Cassell, and
Governor- Freeman. Ile then took into considera-
tion the definitions that had been given of the term
anthropology, and he contended that, as the veri-
table science of man, it should take a high rank
among the sciences. Tile, science might be divided,
he said, into de.scriptive anthropology, archaic an-
thropology, historic anthropology, and comparative
anthropology, and he explained the bearing of each
division on anthropology in general, so as to con-
stitute a complete science of man. The president
then commented with much severity on the manner
in whiCh that science had been treated at the last
meeting of the British Association at Birmingham,
where, owing to the hostility of some members of
the geographical section, anthropology had been re-
fused distinct recognition, by the rejection of the
motion to have a separate section devoted to it. He
took occasion also to animadvert on the conduct of
some members of the Ethnological Society, and to
predict that in the course of time ethnology would
become extinct as a separate science, and would
be merged in the more comprehensive objects
of anthropology. Nor did he allow Sir Ro-
derick Murchison, who took a prominent part
in opposing the application of the Anthropo-
logical Society of Birmingham, to pass without com-
ment ; and he alleged that, as president of the Geo-
logical Society, he had made the meetings of that
society rather a fashionable reunion than a means of
promoting geography. The importance of anthro-
pology, he observed, had never been adequately ap-
preciated in this country, and, among public men
who had shown their ignorance of it, lie particularly
mentioned the present Prime Minister of England,
who had ignored the first principles on which an-
thropology depends, by ignoring race character. It
was, he said, a study to which statesmen should par-
ticularly apply themselves, and he hoped the time
was not far distant when a knowledge of the prin-
ciples of anthropology would be considered essential
in the education of all public men. He alluded pro-
minently to the late outbreak in Jamaica as an oc-
currence which might have been predicted from the
power which had been given to the negroes in that
island. He eulogised, in strong terms, Governor
Eyre, as a man of whom England should be proud,
as he had preserved the white inhabitants from the
outrages which the negroes would otherwise have
perpetrated. It was by such men only that the
negro could be ruled, and it was absurd to ignore
all distinctions of race character in governing them,
for it was impossible to make laws that were equally
applicable to Europeans and to men of African
blood. In the course of his address the president
also alluded to the bitter attacks that had been made
on the Anthropological Society by the religious
press, on account of the papers and discussions on
the results of missionary labours in Africa ; and he
defended the society from those attacks, observing
that the society merely investigated facts, and that
they did not wish to interfere with religious belief.
He concluded with hopeful expressions of the future
of the society, and by urging the members to make
increased exertions to promote its prosperity.
Thanks having been given to the president for
his address, the scrutineers of the ballet-boxes re-
ported that the officers named by the council for
the present year had been elected unanimously, in-
cluding the continuance in office of Dr. Hunt, as
president, and of Mr. Bollaert and Mr. H.J. Beavan
as secretaries. The Rev. Dunbar Heath was elected
treasurer, in the room of Dr. Charnock, who had
resigned. The meeting then adjourned, and a num-
ber of the fellows afterwards dined together at St.
James's Hall.

Christmas Lectures at the Royal Lati-

tution.
Yesterday Professor Tyndall delivered the fourth
of his Christmas lectures "On Sound," at the
Royal Institution. The musical notes produced by
the vibration of strings and elastic plates formed
the branch of the subject to which he directed at-
tention. He showed, by various illustrations, that
when a stretched string is vibrated, it divides itself
generally into vibrating parts, which are separated
from each other by points called " nodes," that re-
main nearly at rest. He illustrated this condition
of a vibrating string, in the first instance, by means
of a vulcanised indiarubber tube, filled with sand,
suspended from the top of the lecture-room. By
jerking one end, an undulation was formed on the
tube, which moved upwards to the top, whence
it was reflected and returned to the hand.
When the elastic tube thus vibrated as a whole, it
represented the vibrations of the fundamental note
of a string or wire, but, by repeating the jerks in
more rapid succession, the undulations proceeding
upwards were met by those returning; and at cer-
tain points, depending on the rapidity of the action,
the vibration ceased, and those nodes served to
divide the vibrations of the string in the same man-
ner as if it had been held at those points. By a
slow succession of movements the tube was divided
first into two vibrating parts, then in three, and into
the
y the combination
five. A similar effect was shown to take place by
vibration of a long steel wire, the divisions into
nodes and " ventral segments" being exhibited by
e
s c r e throwingeno
fba me stringean s magnified
o f
are causedelectricshadowb
ofthe wirese on
divi-
sions a
lamp. Th
of direct and reflected undulations, and they are
called the " harmonies" of a string. A consider-
able portion of the lecture was devoted to the fur-
ther illustration of the divisions of a stretched string
into its harmonies, one of the most remarkable ex-
periments being performed with a wire upwards of
20ft. long stretched horizontally. Several red and
white pieces of paper were laid across the wire at
equal divisions, and when one division of the wire,
separated from the rest by pressing against it, was
vibrated, the white pieces of paper placed at the
nodes remained unmoved while all the red pieces
were thrown off. Some beautiful experimentsillus-
trating the same effect on elastic plates were also
exhibited. White sand was sprinkled on several
metal discs and flat plates placed horizontally and
fixed in their centres so as to allow them to vibrate
freely, and when the bow cf a violin was drawn
along the edges the vibrations of the plates and discs
caused the sand to collect at the nodes and to be
thrown off the vibrating parts, and thus formed
very regular patterns. As an exemplification of the
harmonious effect produced by the vibrations of thin
surfaces, Professor Tyndall exhibited a glass fiddle
and a magnificent set of musical glasses constructed
by Mr. Bird, of Birmingham, who was present
and played tunes on these instruments. The glass
fiddle consisted of a number of small glasses shaped
like goblets fixed on a board, with a fiddle bow in
each hand. Mr. Bird succeeded in playing " Rous-
seau's Dream" with admirable effect, the sound
having the same melodious tone as the larger musi-
cal glasses and greater variety. This interlude in
the scientific lecture was greatly appreciated by the
audience, both young and old.

Tin DAVENPORTS' EXIIIBITION.—By the last mail
from America intelligonco was brought that Mr. Fay,
"recently agent for the Davenport Brothers," had proved
false to his associates, by explaining the manner in which
their delusions were practised. This Mr. Fay has been
sadly handled since, and has been called traitor and. all
sorts of other bad names. A Mr. W. M. Fay, however,
writes to say that ho loft Now York with the Davenport
Brothers in 1864, and has been with them ever since, and
is now on his way to Ireland with them.
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