190 



NATURE 



\yune 29, 1876 



condition and its aim : the condition, an audience of 

 weary working-men, with little time to give, and who 

 reject all instruction which is not easily grasped and 

 enlivened by amusing spectacles : the aim, to communi- 

 cate entertaining knowledge in a utilitarian spirit, to open 

 a glimpse of intellectual enjoyment such as may at the 

 same time bear practically on the comfort and happiness 

 of daily life. In the experience necessary for such a taste 

 Mr. Twining probably stands alone, and in reviewing the 

 forms his efforts have taken we may fairly bow to the 

 judgment which shaped them. 



But the main objection to this curious and novel system 

 will occur to everyone. Is it possible that any man 

 uttering the knowledge and the thoughts of others on a 

 subject with which he is quite unfamiliar can import into 

 his task the enthusiasm necessary to kindle and inform 

 an audience ? A purchased sermon read from a pulpit 

 never yet edified anyone ; will it be more inspiring to 

 receive scientific truth from the lips of a man who articu- 

 lates by rote instead of teaching from that lofty stand- 

 point of superior knowledge which converts hearers into 

 disciples ? Mr. Twining speaks gratefully of the admir- 

 able readers he has been fortunate enough to find in 

 London. They were probably not mere elocutionists 

 but possessed of dramatic minds, and able to generate at 

 will enthusiasm in a noble though unfamiliar subject, 

 and their like will not be met with every day. Mr. 

 Twining shows his uneasiness on this point by his strong 

 injunctions to careful practice on the part both of reader 

 and demonstrator, and whoever attempts to carry out the 

 scheme will have to lay special stress on this. Nor can 

 we omit to mention the subject of expense. The appa- 

 ratus necessary only for the six lectures b2fore us costs, 

 exclusive of plans and diagrams, from 44/. to 48/. vos. A 

 club, society, or institute, including dexterous workmen 

 amongst its members, could probably obtain all that is 

 wanted at half this price, but in many places the difficulty 

 of meeting the expense might turn the scale against the 

 introduction of the lectures. 



These difficulties have, no doubt, been well considered 

 by the author of the scheme, and are thought by him to 

 be not insurmountable. We most sincerely hope that 

 it may be found so. His enterprise will be watched 

 with no slight inteiest by all who feel that the spread 

 of scientific knowledge among the operative classes is a 

 pressing national necessity, and that one who devotes to 

 it, as Mr. Twining has done, experience, thought, and 

 toil, deserves the gratitude and the help of his country- 

 men. W. T. 



OUR BOOKSHELF 



Life with the Hamran Arabs. An account of a 

 Sporting Tour of some Officers of the Guards in the 

 Soudan during the winter of 1874-5. By Arthur R. 

 Myers, Surgeon, Coldstream Guards. With Photo- 

 graphs. (London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 1876.) 



The sporting tour of which Mr. Myers gives the narrative 

 in this volume was made at the same time as that described 

 by the Earl of Mayo in the work which we recently 

 noticed. Indeed the two parties started together, and 

 their work lay in regions not far distant from each other. 

 Mr. Myers and his party were much more fortunate than 

 the Earl's party. They did not meet with so many 

 hindrances, and were much more fortunate in the number 



and variety of animals that came in the way of their 

 rifles. The region to which Mr. Myers's work refers 'is 

 on the borders of Abyssinia and Egypt, and has been 

 already made familiar to English readers by Sir Samuel 

 Baker in his " Nile Tributaries." Mr. Myers simply 

 pretends to tell of his sporting adventures, and there- 

 fore we have no reason to complain if he adds little to 

 our knowledge of the country of the Hamran Arabs. 

 He writes in an unpretentious style, and his work will be 

 found interesting by the general reader, and specially so 

 by those who love sport. It contains photographs of 

 some of the trophies brought home, arranged by Ward 

 and Co. ; they give a good idea of the variety of animal 

 life to be met with in this part of the Soudan. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself respotuible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. \ 



The Decrease of the Polynesians 1 



I BELIEVE there are some errors popularly received respecting 

 the rapidity with which the inhabitants of Polynesia, as a whole, 

 are disappearing before an advancing civilisation. I wish to 

 make a few statements on this subject in connection with a 

 review of Miss Bird's book on "The Hawaiian Archipelago," 

 which appeared in Nature, vol. xi. p. 322. 



The primary source of error is the excessively high estimates 

 as to the population of different islands in; Polynesia made by 

 early visitors and residents. In most of the islands the people 

 live chiefly," or entirely on the coasts ; whereas, in the esti- 

 mates, allowance is made for a proportionate population in the 

 interior. 



Another error, I believe, is the supposition that the decrease 

 of the people is entirely (or almost entirely) owing to their 

 contact with foreigners. From personal knowledge of Polynesia 

 I feel convinced that the people were rapidly decreasing before 

 their intercourse with civilised races commenced. 



It is also a mistake to suppose that decrease is by any means 

 universal at the present time. While in some islands the decrease 

 of the natives has been accelerated since they have come into 

 contact with modern civilisation and its attendant evils, in other 

 islands the previous decrease has been greatly retarded, or even 

 changed into an increase, by the beneficial influences of a 

 Christian civilisation. This change has been brought about by 

 such causes as the following : — The partial or complete cessation 

 of wars ; the discontinuance of human sacrifices (in some islands 

 the ces!-ation of cannibalism may be added) ; the cessation of 

 infanticide ; the greater respect paid to women, which leads to 

 their release from some of the hard work which, in heathen 

 times (in some portions of the Pacific) fell almost entirely to their 

 share, and the consequent increase of living and healthy progeny ; 

 the increased care taken of infants and aged people, and the 

 general progress of industry resulting from more settled habits, 

 which leads to a more regular supply of food. 



As an example, in proof of the correctness of my statements I 

 will cite the Samoan Islands. In the "Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica " (eighth edition) we read : — " The population of Samoa 



' I wrote this paper some months ago, intending to send it for publication 

 ir Nature, but I afterwards dettrmii^ed on withholciiig it for the present, 

 hoping at some future time to discuss in a more systematic and thorough 

 manner this subject, tcgether with some other questions bearing on the 

 ethnology and anthropology of Polynesia. 1 am now, however, induced, by 

 the reference in Prof. Rolleston's address before the British Association at 

 Bristol, to publish it as it was first written, hoping it may pros'C a small con- 

 tribution towards a correct understanding of this subject. 



I take this opportunity to thank Dr. Kolleston for putting in its true light 

 the relation which the work of missionaries bears to the decrease of Abori- 

 ginal populations. It is high tnne that the ignorance, prejudice, and narrow- 

 ness manifested by many literary and scientific men gave place to a broad, 

 common-sense, and enlightened view of the matter. Missionaries are some- 

 times represented as if they were the actual destroyers of the weaker races ; 

 a view somewhat smartly s^t forth in one of Mr. Bernard Quaritch's scientific 

 bojk catalogues (No. 294, Jan. 1875) in the following words : — ''The mis- 

 sionary is a grand and striking figure .in the history of the world. Robed in 

 black, and bearing the Word of Life, he moves among the weaker races of 

 mankind ; around his path they sicken and perish, and countless nations of 

 men are swept away." In Polynesia, the agents of the London Missionary 

 Society, at least, usually dress in white, and not in black, and I imagine 

 most sensible missionaries who live in the tropics, do as we do in this 

 respect. But whether we wear the ominous black, or adopt the more hope- 

 ful (or comfortable) white, I fancy Mr. Quaritch is guilty of what the 

 logicians call an ig7ioratio elenchi. S. J. W. 



Samoa, Dec. 30, 1875 



