Address to the Ethnological Society of London, delivered at the anniversary meeting on the 27th May, 1853 / by Sir B.C. Brodie ; followed by a sketch of the recent progress of ethnology, by Richard Cull.

  • Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1st Baronet
Date:
[1853]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the Ethnological Society of London, delivered at the anniversary meeting on the 27th May, 1853 / by Sir B.C. Brodie ; followed by a sketch of the recent progress of ethnology, by Richard Cull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    language abound in the Eugubian tables, which are Umbrian. Yet he admits that the dialect of these tables displays considerable analogies with the Greek. And Grotefend had long ago shewn that the Umbrian and Latin have an extensive vocabulary in common, and that they abound in analogous grammatical forms both in verbs and nouns. Here are difficulties for criticism to reconcile. But whatever was the medium through which the Keltic element was introduced into the Latin language, we shall agree with the Professor that the Keltic is the intrusive element, because, in numerous instances, the word which is common to the two languages is isolated in the Latin, while in the Keltic it is one of a family. The question may still be asked, Who are the Umbrians? It is true that the Umbrian language is cognate with the Latin, but its precise affinity has yet to be shewn. Dr. Latham (“ Varieties of Man,” p. 554), because Livy says the lan- guages of Etruria and Rhastia are alike, thinks the Etruscans ■ and Rhaetians are one people; the former at their highest refine- ment, the latter at their greatest rudeness : and also considers ] the stock to be indigenous to Northern Italy. It appears to me that we lack evidence, and, unfortunately for their reputation, scholars are drawing wider conclusions than are warranted by the facts. An able paper on the Romanic languages of the Grisons and Tyrol was read last Session by Dr. W. Freund, one of our Fellows, in consequence of which the Berlin Royal Academy of Sciences has given him the charge of a commission to proceed, at the Government expense, to ancient Rhaetia, to make philological and archaeological researches, so as to throw a light, by the col- lection of new facts, upon the ancient inhabitants of Etruria, the Grisons, the Tyrol, and the south-east of upper Italy. The next contribution to European Ethnology during the year is an account of the ancient inhabitants of Yorkshire, in Mr. Phillips’ excellent work, “ On the Rivers, Mountains, and Sea- coast of Yorkshire.” Mr. Phillips reproduces Yorkshire in the time of the Romans, and shews its successive phases under the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. His synopsis of its history during that long period is concise and clear. In an able chapter on the “ Races of men in Yorkshire,” Mr. Phillips says : “If, without regard to any real or supposed evidence of their national origin,