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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



on any small island nor in such cold regions 

 as would expose him to death from that 

 cause, nor anywhere where the remains of 

 the highest animals below him were absent. 

 This reasoning excluded Australia, all of 

 America, South Africa, South India, north- 

 ern Europe, and northern Asia. Nor did it 

 permit the acceptance of the ancient Atlantis 

 as that sunken land which Haeckel named 

 Lemurea. It left only, in fact, the southern 

 slope of that great mountain chain which 

 began on the east with the Himalayas and 

 extended to the farthest west of Spain. 

 There also were found man's very oldest 

 remains and weapons, and the oldest of them 

 all in western Europe, in France and Spain. 

 On the present evidence it must be said that 

 man originated in western Europe or north- 

 ern Africa. The earliest man was of the 

 average height of men of to-day, muscular 

 and strong, walking not always erect, but 

 stooping forward. His skin was hairy, of a 

 reddish color, and the women were some- 

 what smaller than the men. His forehead 

 was low, but his brain was fairly well devel- 

 oped. He knew the use of fire, how to make 

 weapons of stone, bone, and wood, traps for 

 animals, and some kinds of boats. Then he 

 used some sort of shelter ; he lived in com- 

 munities ; he had a language ; he loved his 

 family and took care of the sick, but he did 

 not seem to have had a religion. He was 

 brave in battle and loved to roam. All this 

 can be proved by a careful study of his re- 

 mains. It was concluded, therefore, that the 

 earliest men were of the same spirit and soul 

 with ourselves, endowed with like faculties 

 and with a similar capacity to advance. 



Inheritance Taxes. Mr. Max West, in his 

 study of that subject (Columbia College Series 

 in History, Economics, and Public Law), finds 

 the recognized origin of the inheritance tax 

 in its imposition by Augustus in Rome, 6 

 A. D. ; but thinks it probable that the Romans 

 borrowed the idea from the Egyptians. There 

 are evidences that Egypt had an inheritance 

 tax, probably of not less than a tenth, from 

 which even direct heirs were not exempt. A 

 papyrus has been found which relates that a 

 certain Hermias was sentenced in a heavy 

 penalty for failing to pay the tax on suc- 

 ceeding to his father's house. Another in- 

 scription records a sale of property by an 



old man to his sons at a nominal price, ap- 

 parently for the purpose of evading the in- 

 heritance tax. Mr. West's review of the 

 history of the tax in different countries 

 and through its various phases leads him to 

 the conclusion that it is pre-eminently an in- 

 stitution of democracy. It is found in nearly 

 every civilized country, but it is only in the 

 most democratic countries Great Britain, 

 France, Switzerland, Canada, and the Aus- 

 tralasian colonies that it reaches its fullest 

 development, with high and usually progress- 

 ive rates, and becomes an important source 

 of revenue. The United States seems thus 

 far to be an exception to this rule, but the 

 increasing popularity of this mode of taxa- 

 tion, and its rapid extension from State to 

 State, indicate that at no distant day it may 

 be general in America. In the assessment of 

 the tax a graduation according to relation- 

 ship is nearly universal in practice. Direct 

 heirs are in many cases exempted, and in 

 others are taxed very lightly, as compared 

 with collateral and distant heirs. A progres- 

 sion in the rate of the tax corresponding with 

 increase in the amount of the estate is some- 

 times adopted. Bequests for public, benevo- 

 lent, and educational purposes might well be 

 exempted, for in such cases,, if the gift is 

 wise, the whole amount accrues for the bene- 

 fit of the community. The question of what 

 to regard as inheritances for purposes of tax- 

 ation is sometimes a difiicult one. A bequest 

 of freedom to a slave has been held to be 

 taxable. A succession is sometimes defined 

 as any beneficial interest in property accruing 

 in possession or expectancy on the death of 

 any person. The English law includes in- 

 terests accruing by survivorship in the case 

 of joint ownership, by general powers of ap- 

 pointment, and by the extinction of deter- 

 minable charges ; but life insurance is ex- 

 cluded. That the inheritance tax is regarded 

 as something more than a purely fiscal meas- 

 ure is shown by frequent proposals to use 

 the proceeds for benevolent or educational 

 purposes. Such proposals have sometimes 

 borne fruit in legislation. 



Fish Culture in America and Europe. 



It appears from a statistical review of fish cul- 

 ture in Europe and North America, prepared 

 by N. Borodine, of the Russian Association of 

 Pisciculture and Fisheries, that the eighty 



