RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 209 



in time with the land platform which united Africa with India 

 during Cretaceous times. 



British Eocene insects, in the collections of the British 

 Museum of Natural History, are described by Dr. T. D. A. 

 Cockerell, of the University of Colorado. " The most remark- 

 able find," we are told {Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v, No. 27), 

 " is a large wing belonging to the Mesozoic family Pseudosiricidae. 

 Its discovery is almost as startling as that of a Tertiary dinosaur. 



Finally, mention must be made of a small volume on 

 Invertebrate Palceontology, by Mr. Herbert Leader Hawkins, 

 (Methuen & Co.). In the first part of the book the author endea- 

 vours to " show something of what is meant by ' Palaeon- 

 tology.' " The second part is designed to give an epitome of 

 the sequence of evolution as it has been unfolded in geological 

 time. The result is admirable. 



ANTHBOFOLOGT. By A. G. Thacker, A.R.C.S., Zoological Laboratory, 



Cambridge. 



The Journal 0} the Royal Anthropological Institute for the second 

 half of 1 91 9 (vol. xlix, pt. 2) is now to hand. The journal con- 

 tains an extraordinary number of articles dealing with Indonesia, 

 but the first article is concerned with a problem nearer home. 

 This is by Harold Peake, and is entitled " The Finnic Question 

 and Some Baltic Problems." As all readers' will be aware, it 

 was universally held, until quite recent years, that the true Finns 

 were rightly classed as an Asiatic and Mongoloid race, compar- 

 able to the Lapps and Samoyeds. Recently, however, an 

 entirely different view has been put forward, and has gained 

 some acceptance. Ripley, Giuffrida-Ruggeri, and others con- 

 tend that the true Finns are represented by the typical Nordic 

 inhabitants of the country ; and that the language, and the 

 very special Finnish folk-lore and culture, have been only 

 secondarily imposed upon the Mongoloid people of the district. 

 It will be remembered that, on the old theory, the Nordic element 

 (which undoubtedly exists in Finland) was merely considered 

 to be due to a Scandinavian, particularly, of course, a Swedish, 

 infusion. Peake argues the whole question at length. He 

 shows that the great bulk of the population of Finland is short 

 and brachycephalic, and that in districts where the tall dolicho- 

 cephalic element exists in considerable numbers, the Swedish 

 language is also significantly prevalent. And the author con- 

 tinues : " Now the tall, blonde, long-headed Finns seem, as a 

 rule, to be indistinguishable from a similar type in Courland, 

 from the Letts, Lithuanians, Swedes, and the tall fair type of 

 Englishman. AH those west of Finland and south of the Livs 

 speak Aryan languages, nearly all of them Teutonic dialects. 

 On the other hand, we find the Finnic tongue spoken in the 



