CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 155 



covery of Mendel's work, and also by the writings of Galton. Four years or more have 

 passed since the inheritance of eye-colour in the white race was shown to conform to 

 expectations based on the Menddian theory. The question of hair-colour subsequently 

 received attention, with results similar in kind though less marked in degree. Further 

 evidence of the same sort was published next (1909) in relation to certain defects and 

 diseases, of which the condition known as " night-blindness " provides a striking and 

 instructive example. Another field of enquiry was successfully opened up in 1910 by 

 the results of Professor Davenport's l observations on the offspring of white and negro 

 parentage. Again (in 1911) the Jewish and Anglo-Saxon types of physiognomy 2 were 

 subjected to analysis, with the result that a strong claim (if not an absolutely convincing 

 one) is made to the effect that in the offspring of mixed parentage these facial types 

 segregate according to Mendel's law. The work of Dr. Eugen Fischer 3 (1912) marks 

 a further advance. Here the subjects are a hybrid population, the offspring of Dutch 

 Boers and Hottentots in German South-west Africa. Many characters usually deemed 

 distinctive of " race " were investigated, and the fact that such characters " mendelize " 

 out in the hybrid offspring, furnishes an argument of enormous force against any theory 

 of the origin of racial or sub-racial types through admixture. Other noteworthy results 

 of Dr. Fischer's work include a clear demonstration of the complete and marked fertility 

 of the hybrids inter se, and again the definite demonstration of the increased bulk of 

 offspring of mixed parentage (as compared with their parents), even in the absence 

 of all noticeable change in the environment. 



Another and very different line of research has been opened up by Dr. Brownlee 4 

 (1911). He proposes to employ the Mendelian theory as a basis for the analysis of 

 racial mixtures. Should the method withstand criticism and should the assumptions 

 which are necessary be found justifiable, the anthropologist will have been furnished by 

 Dr. Brownlee with an invaluable instrument of racial analysis. 



The contribution to the study of environment provided by Dr. Boas in his report 5 

 on the immigrants into the United States of America deserves special mention here. 

 Two striking announcements are made in that report. In the first place, it is claimed 

 that in regard to head-form, the offspring of immigrants stand in distinct and even 

 marked contrast to their parents. Again the data are said to show that a change in 

 every case takes place in the direction of convergence towards a common form or type. 

 So that whether the parents themselves be long-headed or of the bullet-headed type, 

 these characteristics are not transmitted. The offspring of either type tends towards 

 an intermediate form. Environment is made prominent in the speculations as to the 

 influences determining these results. The latter are extraordinary for two reasons. 

 First on account of the intensity of the acting force, and again for the rapidity with 

 which it acts. Acceptance of the conclusions in such a matter must depend on the 

 nature of the evidence, including inter alia the method of collection and the actual 

 numerical differences shown by the figures. Having regard to such points, the severe 

 criticism 6 which has been passed on these statements is not without justification, and 

 it is clear that further support is needed before anything like complete recognition can 

 be accorded to the conclusions. At the same time it would be of interest to learn 

 whether Galton's law of regression finds any demonstration here. 



(W. L. H. DUCKWORTH.) 



II. Cultural Anthropology. 



Prehistoric Archaeology. In the domain of prehistorics the most recent discoveries 

 are full of interest. As regards the supreme question of the antiquity of man, there must 

 always be a point at which the certain shades off into the purely problematic. This 



1 Davenport, American Naturalist, 1910. 



2 Salaman, Eugenics Review, vol. iii, No. 3, 1911. 



3 Fischer, Die Rehobother Bastards, Jena, 1912. 



4 Brownlee, Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst., 1911. 



5 Boas, The Immigration Commission, U. S. Senate Document, No. 208, 1910. 



6 Radosavljevich, American Anthropologist, p. 394, 1911. 



