552 



NATURE 



[April 17, 1879 



low stage of development. But this would seem to be 

 altogether incredible, when we reflect on the immense 

 lapse of time intervening since the dispersion, as shown 

 by the vast accumulations of kitchen middens on many- 

 parts of the coast, and by the numerous stone implements 

 that are constantly being turned up, some belonging to an 

 age answering to the Neolithic, some even to the Palaeolithic 

 period of Europe. " Chips for cutting and scraping, 

 fragments of tomahawks and pieces of black basalt are 

 found on the low silurian ranges near the rivers and 

 creeks in all parts of Victoria ; and wherever the soil is 

 dug or ploughed over any considerable area, old toma- 

 hawks are turned up, thus showing the immense period 

 of time that the land has been occupied by the native 

 race." Introd. Ivii. Some of the kitchen refuse heaps 

 are over an acre in extent, and " there are also some 

 large shell-mounds on the coast, especially near Cape 

 Otway, where the largest is about 300 feet long, 40 or 50 

 feet wide, and 16 feet high. It must have taken ages for 

 the fish-eating natives of the coast to build up such 

 heaps" (ii. 234). It seems inconceivable that during all 

 these ages they should never have made a single step in 

 advance of the numeral "two," assuming that this had 

 been inherited from the outset. Hence the first hypo- 

 thesis appearing to be the most reasonable, the argument 

 for racial unity based on the general currency of the word 

 for "two" falls to the ground. All the reasons for the 

 prevalent belief in the original unity of the Australian 

 languages are briefly resumed at pp. 43 and 44 of Intro- 

 duction. None of them, except that drawn from their 

 common phonetic system is, perhaps, very cogent ; but 

 altogether, taken in connection with other circumstances, 

 go a long way towards justifying the general conclusion 

 arrived at by Threikeld, Grey, Schiirmann, Moore, 

 Bulmer, Hartmann, Hagenauer, and nearly all recent 

 Australian philologists. 



The work is rendered still more complete by a final 

 section devoted to the Aborigines of Tasmania. Here 

 nearly everything is brought together that is ever likely 

 to be known regarding the physical and mental charac- 

 teristics, habits, speech, implements, dress, ornaments, 

 &c., of that extinct race. The difficult question of their 

 origin and affinities is fully discussed, and ethnologists 

 will feel specially thankful for the reprint of Dr. Joseph 

 Milligan's valuable paper "On the Dialects and Lan- 

 guage of the Aboriginal Tribes of Tasmania and on their 

 Manners and Customs,' ' which appeared originally in the 

 Journals of the Royal Society of Tasmania. The im- 

 portance of this contribution to Tasmanian ethnology is 

 due to the fact that the compiler " was for many years 

 Medical Superintendent of the Aborigines' Establish- 

 ment, first at Flinders Island, and afterwards at Oyster 

 Cove, to which the remnant of the race was removed in 

 the year 1848" (ii. p. 480). 



Mr. Smyth evidently regards the Tasmanians as be- 

 longing to a different stock from the Australians. They 

 "are darker, shorter, more stoutly built, and generally 

 less pleasing in aspect than the people of the continent. 

 Their hair was woolly and crisp, and some bore a likeness 

 to the African negro. Their aspect was different from 

 that of the Australians. In their form, their colour, and 

 their hair they were rather Papuan than Australian" 

 (Introd.," Ixix.). This last sentence probably goes very 



near the truth, and there can be little doubt that the 

 island was peopled "by some members of the dark- 

 skinned populations of the north " (Ixxi.). Their 

 woolly ^ or at least frizzly hair is alone conclusive as to the 

 presence of Papuan blood. But there are, on the other 

 hand, scarcely less clear indications of Australian affinities. 

 The compiler himself admits that "they were not all 

 alike," adding that " there is reason to believe that the 

 members of some tribes were scarcely distinguishable 

 from the Australians" (ii. 379). On the whole, the 

 balance of evidence goes to show that they were a mixed 

 race in which the Papuan element was predominant, and 

 in which special features had been developed by long 

 local seclusion. 



This race is generally stated to have become extinct 

 with William Lanney and Truganina (" Lalla Roo'ich"), 

 the former of whom died in March, 1869, the latter in 

 June, 1876, but some half-castes are still living, "and it 

 is nearly certain that the blood will mix with that of the 

 whites and never be lost. But the race, the traditions of 

 the race, and the language are lost for ever" (ii. 384). 



It remains to be stated that the work is well printed 

 and richly illustrated throughout. It is also supplied 

 with an index, which might be fuller, and with two maps 

 on a large scale— the Australian Continent and a tribal 

 map of Victoria. The few misprints that occur will 

 doubtless be corrected in future editions, when the curious 

 English sentence at p. 79, vol. ii., beginning with " How- 

 ever I am inclined," might also be re-cast. There seems 

 to be also something wrong with the paradigm given at 

 p. 30, vol. ii. of the verb to go, unless it be made up of 

 three different roots {Yangan, Manga, Sindplapa) ; but if 

 so, the fact should be stated. As it stands, the arrange- 

 ment of tenses is about as intelligent as that of the same 

 verb in popular English and French grammars. 



A. H. Keane 



ON THE MAGNETISM Oh ARTIFICIAL 

 MAGNETS 

 Stir le Magn'etisme des Aitnants Artificieh. Par V. S. M. 

 van der Willigen. (Haarlem : Les Hdritiers Loosges, 

 1878.) 



VISITORS to the Loan Collection of Scientific Appa- 

 ratus at South Kensington in 1876 will remember 

 a remarkable series of permanent steel magnets contri- 

 buted from the museum of the Teyler Foundation of 

 Haarlem. Most of these were the work of a famed 

 artificer of the name of van Wetteren, who during a 

 period of thirty years has been occupied in the construc- 

 tion of magnets of excellent quality, under the advice and 

 with the co-operation successively of MM. Logeman, 

 Elias, and van Willigen. The last named of these, 

 whose posthumous monograph lies before us, devoted 

 himself for the last four years of his life to important 

 researches in magnetism. 



The memoir, published originally in the Transactions 

 of the Teyler Museum, commences by explaining thr 

 methods adopted in fusing, tempering, and magnetising 

 the bars of steel. A succeeding chapter describes the^ 



' "As woolly as that of any native of Guinea" (Cook); "black an 

 woolly " (R. N. Davies): " woolly hair " (Lieut. Breton); courts, lainea 

 et cr^pus " (M. F. P^ron). 



