652 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1882. 



processes, but also by the violent action of impulses within the coiiiuui- 

 nity itself. (J. Anthrop. lyist., xii, pp. 30-46.) 



As a preparation for the statistics of crime in the United States 

 for the Tenth Census, Mr. Fred. H. Wines prepared a pamphlet entitled 

 ''The Nomenclature of Crime, or an analytical list of offenses against 

 the statutes of the United States and the States of the Federal Union." 

 In the letter of transmittal, Mr. Wines suggests some cautious about 

 drawing conclusions concerning the criminality and morals of a State 

 from the number of arrests or imprisonments, that being punishable in 

 one State which is venial or differently treated in another. Before 

 speculating upon criminality, therefore, it is necessary to find out what 

 is considered to be crime. Nearly one thousand offenses are enumer- 

 ated and classified. An alphabetic index at the end of the pamphlet 

 enables one to find each crime and to study its relations. (F. H. Wines, 

 111. State Bd. of Charities, Springfield, 111.) 



IX. — PNEUMATOLOGY. 



Dr. Daniel G. Brinton's American Hero-Myths is the most thorough 

 work upon American Indian religion which has appeared during the year. 

 Says the author: "What 1 think to be the essence of all religions 

 is their supposed control ov^er the destiny of the individual. At heart 

 all prayers are for preservation, the burden of all litanies is a begging 

 for life." " At the foundation of all myths lies the mental process of 

 personification, which finds expression in the rhetorical figure of pros- 

 opopoeia. Most of the American languages favor these forms of per- 

 sonification. Other rhetorical figures, — paronyms, homonyms, otosis, 

 polyonomy, and henotheism,have lent their aid in transforming what was 

 once commonplace or purely ideal into a concrete myth. The natives 

 of this continent had many myths, and among them there was one which 

 was very prominent. It is that of a national hero, their mythical civ- 

 ilizer and teacher of the tribe, who, at the same time, was often iden- 

 tified with the supreme deity and creator of the world." Mr. Brinton's 

 interpretation of these myths of Michabo, loskeha, Quetzalcoatl, Itza- 

 mua, Kukulcan, and Viracochais as follows: "The most important of all 

 things to life is Light. This the primitive savage felt, and, personifying 

 it, he made Light his chief god. The beginning of the day served, by 

 analogy, for the beginning of the world. Light comes before the sun — 

 brings it forth, creates it, as it were. Hence, the Light-God i» not the 

 Sun-God, but his antecedent and creator." Out of this idea of dawn 

 and darkness, light and knowledge. Dr. Brinton brings his theory of the 

 creeds and cults of the North American aborigines. The same author 

 has published "The names of the Gods in the Kiche myths, and The 

 Chronicles of the Mayas," Vol. i. 



A very learned work on comparative religion is the volume of Hib- 

 bert lectures, by Dr. A. Kuenen, entitled "National Religions and Uni- 

 versal Eeligions." In 1874, by invitation of Dean Stanley, Prof. Max 



