238 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



nalist habitually makes the most grotesque errors. This is 

 the more to be regretted because the subject, though much 

 more complex than the average Englishman supposed before 

 the war (he must now be utterly bewildered by the torrent of 

 unfamiliar names), is not so difficult that an outline of the 

 facts could not be made comprehensible in quite a brief explica- 

 tion. The chief complexities relate, of course, to Eastern and 

 East-Central Europe. A most important and valuable contri- 

 bution to this part of the subject has been published in the 

 Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, vol. lxxxi. pt. 2, March 

 191 8, in the shape of a paper by Geoffrey Drage entitled " Pre- 

 war Statistics of Poland and Lithuania." The article (which 

 is nearly 100 pages in length) is partly of sociological and 

 partly of ethnographical interest ; but it is, of course, only the 

 latter aspect with which we are here concerned. It appears 

 that the total Polish population of the world is about 26,000,000, 

 of whom 23,000,000 still live in Europe, nearly all (except half 

 a million who have migrated to Western Germany) dwelling 

 of course in the sundered territories of historic Poland. It 

 is important to note, however, that the Poles constitute less 

 than 40 per cent, of the population of historic Poland. The 

 Poles in their day were an imperial race, and they imposed 

 their rule upon millions of Russians. Thus certain provinces 

 of historic Poland became part of Russia proper, not merely 

 of " Russian Poland," and Russian they ought to remain. 

 Minsk and Volhynia have only 10 per cent, of Poles, Moghileff 

 and Kieff have but 3 per cent. On the other hand, in the 

 so-called Kingdom of Poland 75 per cent, of the population 

 are Polish. The Poles are in a very large majority in Western 

 Galicia. In Prussian Poland the Poles are a majority in 

 Posen and Silesia, but not in the province of West Prussia. 

 The paper also gives interesting and important data relating 

 to the Lithuanians, Letts, White Russians, Ukrainians, and 

 Jews. Mr. Drage says that the total Hebrew population of 

 the world is slightly under 12,000,000, almost exactly half this 

 number being Polish Jews. The Jews constitute about 15 per 

 cent, of the population of the so-called Kingdom of Poland, 

 and 10 per cent, of that of Galicia. Several maps are appended 

 to the paper showing the distribution of the Poles. 



Among the more interesting of recent contributions to Man 

 are two fairly long articles on Witchcraft by Margaret A. 



