Count Oscar Reichenbach, Vitality of the Coloured People in the United States.
The Council hope that during the next year some most important and valuable memoirs will be laid before the Society.
The discussions have been satisfactory, and many Fellows and visitors had taken part in them.
Transactions. The Council, at the early part of the year, made arrangements with Messrs. Trübner and Co. to publish the Journal of the Society in connection with the Anthropological Review. This has hitherto been carried out, and the Council think that the connection between the Review and Journal will soon be better understood. At first the Journal was printed as part of the Review, but the Council have now made arrangements that the Journal shall be paged differently, and it will then be seen for which part of this publication the Society is alone responsible. The Journal for the ensuing year will occupy a far larger space than it has hitherto done. An offer was made to the Council of the copyright of the Anthropological Review, which the Council felt it their duty to decline. The Memoirs have not yet been published, but a volume is now in the press. A general wish of the Fellows induced the Council to order the separate publication of the President’s paper “On the Negro’s Place in Nature,” which will, however, again appear in the forthcoming volume of Memoirs.
Museum. Many valuable donations have been made to the Museum, and many other presents have been offered when a suitable place has been found for the deposit. The following gentlemen have made donations to the Museum:—Dr. James Hunt, Rev. H. F. Rivers, W. W. Reade, Esq., George Witt, Esq., Erasmus Wilson, Esq., C. Carter Blake, Esq., Dr. R. Fairbank, Captain R. F. Burton, R. T. Gore, Esq., T. Bendyshe, Esq., and A. A. Fraser, Esq.
Library. The Library now consists of more than two hundred volumes. The Council have only recently made an effort to establish a Library; but they trust ere long to have such an Anthropological Library for the use of the Fellows as has never before existed in this metropolis. The Council also beg to suggest to the Fellows that they may all have works which, comparatively valueless in themselves, would yet be of the highest value in an Anthropological Library. Donations have already been received from the following gentlemen:—Dr. James Hunt, (one hundred and eighteen volumes) T. Bendyshe, Esq., J. Jones, Esq., Professor Busk, Dr. W. Bell, M. Boucher de Perthes, the Anthropological Society of Paris, M. Paul Broca, M. Pruner-Bey, George Tate, Esq., Professor R. Owen, M. Camille Dareste, Professor Nicolucci, Sir Charles Lyell, Dr. Hughlings Jackson, C. Carter Blake, Esq., M. D’Omnalius D’Halloy, Professor Dana, the Smithsonian Institution of New York, A. Stair, Esq., David Carrington, Esq., Professor Eckhard, Hekekyan Bey, Royal Institution of Cornwall, Dr. Beke, Sir W. Jardine, Dr. Cuthbert Collingwood, the Royal Geographical Society, Imperial Academy of Science of Vienna, the Society of Antiquaries, G. McHenry, Esq., J. Frederick Collingwood, Esq., Jacob Boys, Esq., R. S. Charnock, Esq., R. T. Gore, Esq., H. C. Atkinson, Esq., M. de Quatrefages, Dr. F. C. Webb, the upper Hesse Society für Natur- und Heilkunde, Rev. W. Houghton, W. Spencer Cockings, Esq., the Royal Society of London, George Witt, Esq., Professor R. Wagner, Professor Tennant, G. E. Roberts, Esq., A. Higgins, Esq., C. von Martius, Dr. Beddoe, and G. Pouchet.
Translations. The Council are glad to report that they have printed the first volume of a translation of Waitz’s Anthropologie der Naturvölker, and they feel that their best thanks are due to Mr. J. Frederick Collingwood, for the care and attention with which he edited this work. Mr. Collingwood has fully explained the reasons which induced the Council to select this work, and they feel it right to acquaint the Fellows of their determination during the ensuing year to issue works which shall not advocate the same opinions as those put forward by Professor Waitz. The Council are fully impressed with the necessity of their exercising a strict impartiality in selecting works for translation. The Council have entrusted the chief management of the publications of the Society to a Publishing Committee, and they feel the thanks of the Society are due to this Committee for the efficient manner in which they have discharged their duties.
It is proposed that the following works should be next undertaken by the Society:—
Broca. Sur l’Hybridité Animale en général, et sur l’Hybridité Humaine en particulier. 8vo, Paris, 1860. Edited by C. Carter Blake, Esq., F.G.S., Hon. Sec. A.S.L. (In the Press.)
Pouchet. Pluralité des Races Humaines. 8vo, Paris, 1858. Edited by T. Bendyshe, Esq., M.A., F.A.S.L. (In the Press.)