Edited, from the First Volume of Anthropologie der Naturvölker, by J. FREDERICK COLLINGWOOD, F.R.S.L., F.G.S., F.A.S.L., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris, Honorary Secretary of the Anthropological Society of London.
Extract of a Letter from the Author to the Editor.
“I have received your translation of the first volume of my ‘Anthropologie der Naturvölker,’ and hasten to return you my heartfelt thanks for the great care and assiduity which you have bestowed on the task. I am fully cognisant of the great difficulties you have to contend with, especially as my style, as alluded to in your preface, possesses many peculiarities, so that even German men of science consider the reading of my books rather hard work. All these difficulties you have surmounted with the greatest skill, so as to render my work, as it appears to me, into very pleasing, readable English.”
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“A more felicitous selection could not, we conceive, by any possibility have been made than the very one which has resulted in the publication of the book lying before us. For within the compass of the first volume of Dr. Waitz’s Anthropologie der Naturvölker is compacted together the most comprehensive and exhaustive survey of the new science yet contributed, we believe, in any tongue to European literature. To the English public generally, however, it is a book almost unknown, saving and excepting alone by reputation. Although merely a translation from the German, therefore, the work is virtually, if not an original work, a perfectly new work to the mass of readers in this country. So far as this same rapidly executed work of translation can be compared and collated with the original, it appears to be a version singularly faithful and accurate.... The book, as it now appears, is a work of especial value, and also one of very peculiar interest. It thoroughly fulfils its design of affording the reader of it, within a single volume, the very best epitome anywhere to be found of what is the actual ‘present state’ of anthropological science in Christendom. Dr. Waitz takes a far wider range within his ken than Prichard and Nott and Gliddon combined.”—The Sun, Dec. 14, 1863.
“The volume in every page exhibits great research; it abounds with interesting speculation, all tending the right way, and the information it presents is happily conveyed in a popular manner.”—Morning Advertiser, Nov. 16, 1863.
“So comprehensive is the view taken by the author of all that pertains to man, that a mere enumeration even of the leading topics of the work is beyond our space, and we must content ourselves with recommending its perusal to such of our readers as are interested in the subject, with the assurance that it will well repay the trouble.”—Weekly Dispatch, Nov. 29, 1863.
“This handsomely printed volume discusses at great length and with much ability the question as to the races of man.... At the hands of Dr. Waitz it has met with calm consideration, and in its English dress will prove both interesting and instructive. It displays great research, and contains a large extent of highly interesting matter.”—Liverpool Albion, Nov. 9, 1863.
“From such a bill of fare, our readers will be able to judge that the work is one of value and interest.... It is of the nature of a review, arriving at a comprehensive and proportional estimate, rather than at minute accuracy of detail, such as may be sought elsewhere in each department.”—Medical Times, Dec. 26, 1863.