842 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



COMPARATIVE TECHNOLOGY. 



In several quarters a fresh impulse lias been given to the intimate 

 studj^ of modern savage technique. 



The fact that we have no other clue.to the industrial history of the 

 past or to the explanation of the discoveries of the archneologist ought 

 to have directed attention sooner to the necessity of describing savage 

 processes down to the minutial. 



Dr. Washington Mathews, in his paper on Navajo weaving, has pro- 

 duced a paper of this class worthy of imitation. Its highest commenda- 

 tion is that any modern weaver could from the description reconstruct 

 the apparatus and produce a Navajo blanket or belt. 



Col. F. A. Seeley, of the United States Patent Office, has published 

 a second paper on the genesis of inventions from the standpoint of the 

 patent examiner. A convenient term, eurematics, is used to define the 

 study of inventions as to their order and their laws. 



Prof. Cyrus Thomas publishes in the third report of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology an elaborate examination of the " Tableau des Bacabs," Codex 

 Cortesianus, and plate 44, Fejervary Codex, to show the intimate rela- 

 tion between the Maya and the Mexican symbols and calendars in their 

 method of representation. 



Dr. Brinton's paper on the lineal measures of the semi-civilized na- 

 tions of Mexico and Central America reaches the following conclusions: 



1. In the Maya system of lineal measures, foot, hand, and body meas- 

 ures were nearly equally prominent, but the foot-unit was the customary 

 standard. 



2. In the Cakchiquel system hand and body measures were almost 

 exclusively used, and of these those of the hand prevailed. 



3. In the Aztec system body measurements were unimportant, hand 

 and arm measures held a secondary position, while the foot measure 

 was adopted as the official and obligatory standard both in commerce 

 and architecture. 



4. The Aztec terms for their lineal standard being apparently of Maya 

 origin suggests that their standard was derived from that nation. 



5. Neither of the three nations was acq;iainted with a system of esti- 

 mation by weight, nor with the use of the plumb-line, nor with an accu- 

 rate measure of long distances. 



SOCIOLOGY. 



As a means of realizing a vast amount of material for sociological 

 purposes, the only safe method in such investigations. Dr. Francis Gal- 

 ton has made use of family records, printed questions put in the hands 

 of great numbers of people to be filled up. The results of this inquiry 

 are partially summed up in the vice-presidential address before the 

 section of anthropology in the British Association with the title " Types 

 and their Inheritance." Especial attention is given to stature, for rea- 



