412 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and creates gross errors of administra- 

 tion. (2) It shifts the duties of the 

 whole community on to the shoulders 

 of a generous minority. (3) It demoral- 

 izes those who give. (4) It demoralizes 

 those who receive. (5) It intensifies the 

 very evils it was designed to cure." 

 The facts adduced in support of this in- 

 dictment are very striking, and, we do 

 not hesitate to say, conclusive. "We are 

 glad to notice that this article only pur- 

 ports to be a first installment of a longer 

 discussion. No subject could be more 

 timely, and we trust that the writer 

 and those who with her appreciate the 

 full evil wrought by a misguided senti- 

 mentality will persevere in their efforts 

 to enlighten the public, with a view to 

 the overthrow of methods that are so 

 obviously hurtful, and the substitution 

 therefor of a rational dependence on law 

 in the widest sense. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The American Race : A Linguistic Classi- 

 fication and Ethnographic Description 

 of the Native Tribes of North and 

 South America. By Daniel G. Brinton. 

 New York : N. D. C. Hodges. Pp. 392. 

 Price, $2. 



This is the first attempt Dr. Latham's 

 previous work of nearly forty years having 

 been only partly in that direction known 

 to the author, at a systematic classification 

 of the whole American race on the basis of 

 language. While the value of physical data, 

 culture, and traditional history is not depre- 

 ciated, they are in this work constantly 

 made subordinate to relationship as indi- 

 cated by grammar and lexicography. Dr. 

 Brinton is not alone in recognizing this 

 fact, for the linguistic classification is also 

 employed as the predominant criterion by 

 the Bureau of Ethnology of the United 

 States and the similar departments in the 

 Governments of Canada and Mexico. The 

 grammatical structure of the language is 

 recognized as superior to the lexical ele- 

 ments in deciding on relationship ; and this, 

 too, is in agreement with the general opin-* 

 ion of the best scholars. Especial attention 

 is paid to those parts of the continent 



whose ethnography remains obscure. The 

 various theories of the origin of American 

 man are reviewed. As to the time of his 

 appearance here, the author agrees with 

 most contemporary anthropologists that it 

 was during the Glacial epoch. Too much 

 importance should not be attached to the 

 indications of an extremely early origin af- 

 forded by certain finds of human relics on the 

 Pacific slope for allowance has to be made 

 for the disturbances to which the soil has been 

 subjected in those regions. The hypothesis 

 of an elevation of the bed of the North At- 

 lantic above water during the Glacial period 

 is accepted to account for the access of man 

 to this continent. The physical traits of 

 the American man of to-day are supposed to 

 have been developed since his arrival, and 

 while he was in his first American home, 

 which is supposed, on the evidence of the 

 superior adaptability of even the tropical 

 Indian to a temperate climate, to have 

 been east of the Rocky Mountains and be- 

 tween the receding wall of the continental 

 ice-sheet and the Gulf of Mexico. The 

 physical characteristics of the Indians North 

 and South are found to be subject to consid- 

 erable variations, but, " on the whole, the 

 race is singularly uniform in its physical 

 traits, and individuals taken from any part 

 of the continent could easily be mistaken for 

 inhabitants of numerous other parts. This 

 uniformity finds one of its explanations in 

 the geographical features of the continent, 

 which are such as to favor migrations in 

 longitude, and thus prevent the diversity 

 which especial conditions of latitude tend 

 to produce." Beyond all other criteria of 

 a race must rank its mental endowments. 

 Judged by accomplished results, rather 

 than supposed endowments, " the American 

 race certainly stands higher than the Aus- 

 tralian, the Polynesian, or the African, but 

 does not equal the Asian. No hard-and- 

 fast line of difference in degrees of culture 

 can be drawn between the tribes ; and, 

 when closely analyzed, the difference be- 

 tween the highest and the average culture 

 of the race is much less than has usually 

 been taught." America everywhere at the 

 time of discovery is found to have been in 

 the polished stone age. The religious sen- 

 timent was awake in all the tribes of the 

 continent, and even the lowest tribes had 



