24 o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



ment of the Bantu boy arrested, but that actual retrogression 

 takes place, with the result that the adult white man shows 

 a marked and presumably innate superiority to the adult 

 Bantu man. Physiologists will probably have something to 

 say upon the causes of this strange retrogression before very 

 long. Mr. Bryant's most startling observation has yet to be 

 mentioned. He states that in the female Bantu, both as regards 

 young girls and as regards adult women, he was unable to find 

 any inferiority as compared with the European female. Unfor- 

 tunately, the author does not develop this particular thesis, 

 and he does not institute any direct comparison between Bantu 

 women and Bantu men. But if the Bantu woman be really 

 the mental equal of the white woman, is she not in advance of 

 her own men ? Further, if the average of the Bantu women 

 is equal to the average of European women, it is very possible, 

 though not a necessary consequence, that the range of varia- 

 tion in the females of the two races is equally great. Now it 

 will not be disputed that the mental powers of a considerable 

 minority of white women — probably about 10 per cent. — are, 

 even in tht>se departments, such as ratiocination, which as 

 Romanes pointed out long ago constitute the special masculine 

 province, appreciably superior to the powers of the average 

 white man, whilst a small minority of women soar far above 

 the ordinary man. Are we to believe that the Bantu nations 

 have possessed intellects such as these ? It may be so ; the 

 intellects may have existed and have yet been unable to make 

 themselves felt owing to adverse social conditions. The idea 

 must not be scouted merely because to most of us it happens 

 to be unexpected. 



The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute for the 

 first half of 19 16 (vol. xlvi.) is more than usually full of inter- 

 esting material. The first paper is Prof. Keith's Presi- 

 dential Address, which is entitled " On certain Factors con- 

 cerned in the Evolution of Human Races." This is a disserta- 

 tion on what the author calls " clannishness," as a psychological 

 factor tending to produce that isolation which was necessary 

 to the evolution of distinct races from an original supposedly 

 homogeneous mankind. Prof. Giddings has used the term 

 " consciousness of kind " to express the attraction of like 

 animal to like animal, and this combined with the instinct of 

 gregariousness produces the clannishness to which the author 



