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advantage and instruction of British anthropologists, an invaluable series of specimens otherwise probably destined to have been dispersed or lost to the country for ever. This collection consists of 24 skeletons and 1,539 crania, making, with the remainder of the College collection, a total of 3,032 specimens illustrating the osteological modifications of the human species. These are all in excellent order, clean, accessible, and catalogued in a manner convenient for reference, although somewhat too crowded in their present locality to be readily available for observation.

Large as is this collection, and rich in rare and interesting types, it is far from exhaustive; many great groups are almost or entirely unrepresented even by crania, and the series of skeletons is (with the exception of one race only, the Andamanese) quite insufficient to give any correct idea of the average proportions of the different parts of the framework. In fact, such a collection as would be required for this purpose must be quite beyond the resources of, as well as out of place in, any but a national museum.

The collections illustrating anatomical anthropology in the University museums of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Dublin have all greatly increased of late, but for the reasons just given they can never be expected to attain the dimensions required for the study of the subject in its profoundest details. The small, but very choice collections formed by the officers of the Medical Department of the army, and kept in the museum of the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley, and that of the navy at Haslar Hospital, are, I believe, in a stationary condition, but in good preservation. Our own collection, which also contains some valuable specimens (notably the complete skeleton of one of the extinct Tasmanian aborigines, presented by the late Mr. Morton Allport), and which during the past year has been catalogued for the first time by Mr. Bloxam, has not been added to, owing to a feeling which the Council has long entertained, and which induced them to part with the ethnological collection,

that a museum, entailing as it does, if worthily kept up, a very considerable annual expense, is not within the means of the Institute-at all events not until the more pressing claims of the library and the publications are fully satisfied.

This leads me to speak, in conclusion, of the work accomplished during the past year by the Institute, and of its present position and future prospects.

I must first refer to that portion of the retrospect of the year which always casts a certain sadness over these occasions-the losses we have sustained by death. Happily these have not been numerous, and do not include, as has been the case in many former years, any from whom great work in our own subject might still have been expected. Though we were all proud to number William Spottiswoode, the President of the Royal Society, among our members, and though we all honoured him for his accomplishments in other branches of science, and loved him for his worth as a man who rose high above his fellows in his chivalrous sense of honour and simple dignity of demeanour, we could not claim him as a worker at anthropology.

Lord Talbot de Malahide's antiquarian pursuits frequently verged upon our own subjects in their proper sense, and he was often present at our meetings, and a very recent contributor to our Journal. He had, however, reached the ripe old age of eighty-two.

From the list of our honorary members we have lost a still more venerable name, that of Sven Nilsson, Professor in the Academy of Lund. He was born on March 8th, 1787, and died on November 30th of last year, and was therefore well on in his ninety-seventh year. His long-continued and laborious researches in the zoology, paleontology, anthropology, and antiquities of his native land gave him a high place among men of science. Among a host of minor contributions he was the author of a standard work on the Scandinavian fauna; but that by which he was best known to us is the book of which the English translation, edited by Sir John Lubbock, bears the title of "The

Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia: an Essay on Comparative Ethnography, and a Contribution to the History of the Development of Mankind."

The number of our ordinary members has been fairly kept up, the additions by election having slightly exceeded the losses by death and resignation; but a larger increase in the future will be necessary in order to carry on the operations of the Institute in a successful manner, especially under the new conditions to which I shall have to advert presently. Even by the most careful management our Treasurer has not succeeded in bringing the expenditure of the year quite within our ordinary income.

The Journal, I am glad to report, has been brought out with exemplary punctuality, under the able and energetic supervision of our director, Mr. Rudler. To this part of our operations I think we may look with unmixed satisfaction, the number, character, and variety of the communications contained in it being quite equal to those of former years.

With regard to our future, the next year will probably be one of the most momentous in our annals, as we have determined upon a great step, no less than a change of domicile. It was ascertained in the course of last summer that we could only remain in our present quarters at an increased rent upon that which we had hitherto paid, and upon a very uncertain tenure. We therefore considered whether it would be possible to obtain as good or better accommodation elsewhere. It happened fortunately that the Zoological Society was about to move into new freehold premises at No. 3, Hanover Square, and would have spare rooms available for the occupation of other societies. A committee of the Council was appointed to examine and report upon the desirability of moving, and negotiations were entered into with the Council of the Zoological Society which have ended in our becoming their tenants for the future. We shall have for the purposes of our library, office, and Council meetings, two convenient rooms on the second floor immediately above the library of the Zoological Society, and for the purpose of storing

our stock of publications a small room on the basement. We shall also have the use of a far more handsome and commodious meeting-room than that which we occupy at the present moment, and in a situation which is in many respects more advantageous. Let us trust that this change may be the inauguration of an era of prosperity to the Institute, and of increased scientific activity among its members.

It was moved by Mr. HYDE CLARKE, seconded by Prof. THANE, and carried unanimously, that the thanks of the meeting be given to the President for his address, and that he permit it to be printed in the Journal of the Institute.

The Scrutineers gave in their report, and the following gentlemen were declared to be duly elected to serve as Officers and Council for the year 1884:

President.-Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S.

Vice-Presidents.-Hyde Clarke, Esq.; John Evans, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S.; Francis Galton, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S.; Lieut.-General Pitt Rivers, F.R.S., E. B. Tylor, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S.

Director.-F. W. Rudler, Esq., F.G.S.

Treasurer.-F. G. H. Price, Esq., F.S.A.

Council.-J. Beddoe, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.; S. E. B. BouveriePusey, Esq.; E. W. Brabrook, Esq., F.S.A.; C. H. E. Carmichael, Esq., M.A.; W. L. Distant, Esq.; C. I. Elton, Esq., B.A.; A. W. Franks, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; J. G. Garson, Esq., M.D.; Prof. Huxley, F.R.S.; Prof. A. H. Keane, B.A.; A. L. Lewis, Esq.; Sir J. Lubbock, Bart., M.P.; R. Biddulph Martin, Esq., M.P.; Henry Muirhead, Esq., M.D.; J. E. Price, Esq., F.S.A.; Lord Arthur Russell, M.P.; Prof. G. D. Thane; A. Thomson, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.; Alfred Tylor, Esq., F.G.S.; and M. J. Walhouse, Esq., F.R.A.S.

Mr. JAMES HEYWOOD moved, and Mr. PARK HARRISON seconded, a vote of thanks to the retiring members of the Council, which was carried unanimously.

A vote of thanks to Mr. RUDLER for his services as Director and Editor of the Journal was moved by Dr. GARSON, seconded by Mr. A. L. LEWIS, and carried unanimously.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL MISCELLANEA.

An EXAMINATION of some OFFICIAL STATISTICS relating to the POPULATION of FINLAND. By A. L. LEWIS, F.C.A., M.A.I.

A SHORT time ago I became possessed of a small work entitled "Renseignements sur la Population de Finlande," by C. E. F. Ignatius, Chief of the Statistical Bureau, and published at Helsingfors in 1869 at the expense of the Government. This little work, which I have now the pleasure of presenting to our library, is very well got up, and contains nine nicely executed maps of the country, coloured to illustrate the tables of statistics.

The Grand Duchy of Finland was united to the Russian Empire in 1809, but continued to enjoy its own government, constitution, and laws; it is about two-thirds the size of France, and the climate, though naturally much more severe than our own, is said to be, like that of Scandinavia, milder than that of Siberia, Labrador, Greenland, and other parts of the world in the same latitude. Although the registered population in 1865 was only 1,843,253, it was of considerable interest from an anthropological point of view, as it included Finns (so called), Lapps, Swedes, and Russians, besides more than 40,000 Greeks.

The country is divided into 50 arrondissements, of which the most northerly one is inhabited by Lapps, who in 1865 were 6,415 in number-less than one to a square kilomètre. The statistics show a lower average of crimes, deaths, marriages, and births amongst the Lapps than amongst the other populations as a whole, which may partly be accounted for by the difficulty of registration amongst such a people in such a country. The illegitimate births registered there are low-3 to 5 in every hundred.

As

The arrondissement of Euröpää, no part of which is more than thirty miles from St. Petersburgh, is set down as exclusively Russian; its population in 1865 was 32,694. The crimes registered in this department were rather low; the births, deaths, and marriages at a medium rate; and the growth of population from 1840 to 1865 decidedly low, as compared to those in other arrondissements. the density of the population was at the highest rural rate, namely, between 10 and 20 to the square kilomètre, it may be supposed that the slower growth of the population is due to the fact of its having been more fully populated before 1840 than other arrondissements. The illegitimate births were low-3 to 5 in every hundred.

The Swedes (and I suppose the Greeks, though they are not

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