The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-21 00:00:00

THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

The Ethnological Society commenced its sessions
last evening under the presidency of Mr. J. Craw-
furd, who read a very highly practical paper " On
the Connection between Ethnology and Physical
Geography," in which he pointed out the constant
relation met with in the barbarous or civilised con-
ditions of the races of man in proportion to the
quality of the race and the physical character of tho
country to which it belonged. Mere intemperance
of climate was sufficient to prevent a race from mak-
ing any advance towards civilisation as was to be seen
in the condition of the inhabitants of the Arctic and.
Antarctic regions ; while some lands, such as Spitz-
bergen and Nova Zembla, seem incapable of
supporting human life at all. The absence of moun-
tains and large rivers, and the obstacles presented
by the great growth of forests, were exhibited in
the characters of the effete Australians, and the
tropical Andaman Islands exhibited a race of small
abject savages, among the lowest in the world,while
they were at no considerable distance, on the one
hand, from the handsome and civilised Hindoos,
and on the other from the well-fed and well-clothed
Burmese. In the Southern Hemisphere New Zea-
land, with its fertile soil and high mountains, secu-
ring a perennial supply of water, presented inhabi-
tants that, of all wild races with whom the Euro-
peans had come into contact, showed themselves the
most courageous and spirited, although they had
sprung from the effeminate people of the intertro-
pical isles of the Pacific, a difference of character
which could hardly have arisen from any other
cause than that of a comparatively rigorous climate
necessitating exertion. On the vast continent of
America, possessed of many of the essential pro-
perties requisite for a high civilisation, the progress
of civilisation had been arrested by the insuperable
barrier presented by its great forests to the feeble
efforts of savages. BO- its greatest defect was in
being peopled by a race below even the negro of
Africa in intellect and physical strength. The
physical deficiencies of Africa are impressed in the
debased condition of its inhabitants. The early ad-
vance of the Egyptians was consonant with the pe-
culiar fertility of their country, conferred by the
floodings of the Nile, and so throughout every great
region of the world examples were selected show-
ing the coincidences of the conditions of races
with the geographical conditions of their locali-
ties. The dominant superiority of the European
races was strongly shown in our subjugation of
India and in the dictation of the Chinese Treaty
by the Generals of a small English and French
army to the lord of 400 millions of one of the
most efficient of the Asiatic races. Of the effects
of the physical geography of a country on a race,
our own Wales and the Highlands of Scotland gavo
prominent examples, for it is certain that if our
whole land had been in the like state we never
could have become the great, populous, and opulent
people we are. The paper created a considerable
discussion, there being no less than 13 speakers.
Dr. Hunt also read a paper on the papers read be-
fore the Ethnological Section of the British Asso-
ciation at Manchester, in which he complained of
the great paucity of good papers on that occasion.
14 new Fellows were elected, viz.:—Sir W. Clay,
Sir J. T. Davies, Mr. J. Dickenson, Captain K.
Erskine, Mr. C. H. Hox, Captain D. Galton, Mr.
E. Lloyd, Lord Edward St. Maur, Mr. H. Paget,
Mr. G. Pollard, Lieut. H. C. Rowcroft, Mr. S.
R.
Solly, Dr. Spence, and Mr. H. Sandwith, C.B.