26o NATURAL SCIENCE. April. 



plants, by the distasteful or poisonous cell-sap. Nor is the fact that 

 the plant is not protected against an enemy, which it has no need to 

 fear, in the least surprising. Indeed it is what might be expected. 



Anthropology. 



This section of the Reports is the work of Dr. E. C. Stirling and 

 Mr. F. J. Gillen. 



For a primitive race, the aborigines of Australia are fairly 

 numerous, the total population being estimated at 100,000 ; and when 

 we bear in mind the fact that they cover an area of about 3,000,000 

 square miles, they may be considered to form a remarkably homo- 

 geneous group of people. In some anatomical features, such as the 

 capacity of the cranium, the square orbits, the pronounced brow 

 ridges, the shape of the vertebral column, and the form of the tibia, 

 they are undoubtedly more ape-like than any other large race of human 

 beings. On the other hand, in their stature, in the character of their 

 hair and in other respects, they differ in a most remarkable degree 

 from those primitive little groups of negroid people which are, or were 

 quite recently, found in Tasmania, the Andaman islands, the highlands 

 of the Philippines, the centre of Africa and elsewhere. 



Now, our knowledge of the Austrahan race, so far as it is accurate 

 and trustworthy, has hitherto been founded on the facts collected by 

 travellers among the tribes of the coast or of the boundaries of the 

 European settlements ; and it has been a matter of some difficulty 

 even to anthropologists to eliminate satisfactorily from the purely 

 aboriginal features, those due to contact, in recent times, with the 

 Mala) s, the Papuans and the European settlers. A thorough investiga- 

 tion of a tribe of Central Australians has been, therefore, a profound 

 desideratum ; and to the members of the Horn Expedition the thanks 

 of the scieniific world are due for the care and skill they have displayed 

 in filling up the vacant places in our information. 



If, however, the anthropologist expects to find in the volume now 

 before us, anything very startling or novel, he will be doomed to dis- 

 appointment. No living Pitliecanthropns erediis, no little negroid race, 

 practicall3Mio new or important weapons, customs or myths, have been 

 found. The value of this excellent contribution to our knowledge of 

 the Australians lies in the fact that it will strengthen and confirm our 

 views, which have hitherto been based on insufficient data, concerning 

 their position in the great family circle of human beings ; and by all 

 who wish to promote the true interests of science this will be as much 

 appreciated as would have been a series of startling novelties. The 

 evidence that is now before us points to the conclusion that the 

 Australians have sprung from a primitive stock, less primitive perhaps 

 than that which gave rise to the Tasmanians, Andamanese, and other 

 curly headed negroid races, but more primitive than that which gave 

 rise to other races of mankind. It seems that having taken some steps 

 in advance they finally began to degenerate socially. 



