174 



NATURE 



{Dec, 28, 1876 



bones in triumph from Scyros to Athens, point to its 

 having belonged to much the same period. The spear of 

 Achilles in the temple of Minerva at Phaselis, and the 

 sword of Memnon in the temple of ^sculapius at Mio- 

 media, were also of bronze, of which metal, as Pausanias 

 observes, all the weapons of the heroic age were made. 

 Had Augustus but known of the buried treasures of My- 

 cenae when he was collecting'the Arena Heronm for his 

 museum at Caprea, the researches of Dr. Schliemann 

 might have been in vain. 



As it is, he is to be congratulated not only on the ex- 

 tent and importance of his discoveries, but also on his 

 investigation having brought to light those horned Juno 

 idols which he anticipated finding. His theory of some 

 of the owl-like figures from Hissarlik bearing reference 

 to the name of ykavKUiTn^ ^KQrjvrj has met with more 

 ridicule than it deserved, and if the discovery of 

 these horned figures of ^oants Trorvia "Hprj should be 

 substantiated, Dr. Schliemann will be fairly entitled to 

 claim the victory over his adversaries. Under any cir- 

 cumstances both he and his no less enterprising help- 

 meet deserve the most cordial thanks of all scholars and 

 antiquaries. J. E. 



PESCHEUS ''RACES OF MAN" 



The Races of Man and their Geographical Distribution. 

 From the German of Oscar Peschel. (London : Henry 

 S. King and Co., 1876.) 



THIS book appears from the preface to be founded on 

 General A. von Roon's " Ethnology as an Introduc- 

 tion to Political Geography," though it is substantially a 

 new work intended to form a complete manual of ethno- 

 logy. The actual title is somewhat misleading, as no 

 special prominence is given to problems of geographical 

 distribution, while languages, myths, and mere tribal 

 distinctions, are treated with great and somewhat bewil- 

 dering detail. The perusal of a work like the present, 

 which, with great labour attempts to bring together in a 

 compact form, all the existing information as to the 

 physical and mental characteristics of the various races 

 of mankind, impresses one painfully with the still chaotic 

 state of the infant science of anthropology. With an 

 overwhelming mass of detail as to secondary and often 

 unimportant characters, we find a frequent want of exact 

 knowledge as to the chief physical and mental charac 

 teristics of the several races and sub-races. 



Language, myths, habits, clothing, ornaments, weapons, 

 are described in detail, while we are left without any 

 sufficient information as to the stature, bodily propor- 

 tions, features, and broad mental characteristics of many 

 important groups of men. The reason is obvious. The 

 former class of facts can be readily obtained by passing 

 travellers ; while the latter require the systematic obser- 

 vation of an intelligent resident and more or less skilled 

 anthropologist, and can only be arrived at by means of 

 careful measurements and long-continued observations. 

 It is not sufficiently considered that in almost every part 

 of the world there is more or less intermixture of races, 

 brought about by various causes— as slavery, war, trade, 

 and accidental migrations. Hence in many cases the 

 passing traveller is altogether deceived as to the cha- 

 racters of the race, and any observations he may make 



are of little value. It is only by a long residence among 

 a people, by travelling through the whole district they 

 inhabit, and by a more or less accurate knowledge of the 

 surrounding tribes with whom they may be intermixed, 

 that the observer is enabled to disentangle the complexi- 

 nes they present, and determine with some approach to 

 accuracy the limits of variation of the pure or typical 

 race. Unfortunately this has yet been done in compara- 

 tively few cases ; but anthropologists are now becoming 

 impressed with its importance, and we may soon hope to 

 obtain a body of trustworthy materials, which may enable 

 us to determine, with more confidence than is yet possible, 

 the characters and the affinities of many of the best 

 marked races of mankind. 



We will now give a sketch of the mode in which the 

 subject is dealt with in the present work, and point out 

 some of the more striking merits and defects it possesses. 

 The first and larger portion of the book treats of the 

 various physical and mental characteristics of mankind, 

 the latter portion being devoted to a systematic review of 

 the races and tribal divisions. The introductory chapter 

 treats of man's place in nature, origin, and antiquity ; 

 and while adopting the developmental theory as regards 

 animals, argues with more or less force, against the Dar- 

 winian theory of the animal origin of man and especially 

 against the influence of sexual selection. The hypothetical 

 continent — Lemuria — is suggested as the most probable 

 birthplace of the human race, and it is explained that this 

 locality is " far more orthodox than it might at the first 

 glance appear, for we here find ourselves in the neighbour- 

 hood of the four enigmatic rivers of the scriptural Eden — 

 the Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Indus." The 

 unity of mankind as constituting a single species, is 

 strongly urged, while the evidences of his antiquity are 

 briefly but forcibly set forth. We are glad ^to see due 

 weight given to Horner's borings in the Nile valley, which 

 we have always thought have been unduly depreciated. It 

 is well remarked that the suggestion of the piece of pot- 

 tery found at a depth of 39 feet having fallen into an 

 ancient well or tank, is altogether groundless, because 

 this is only one out of a large number of fragments of 

 bricks and pottery found at various depths over an exten- 

 sive area, and there is certainly no reason why the one 

 found at the greatest depth should have fallen into a well 

 rather than any or all of the others. It seems not to have 

 been considered, by those who have advanced this view, 

 that a well at Memphis, close to the Nile, could not have 

 been very deep, and that if it had been it would probably 

 have been in use for many centuries, and would have 

 become the receptacle, not of a solitary fragment of pot- 

 tery, but of a whole collection of utensils, ornaments, and 

 domestic implements, such as invariably fall into wells ini 

 the course of time. Moreover, a well 40 feet deep in thej 

 soft alluvium of the Nile must certainly have been lined j 

 with stone or brickwork, and have been protected at thej 

 top by some inclosure solid enough to have resisted the! 

 muddy inundation water, and it would almost certainly j 

 have been covered over to keep out sand and dust in the 

 dry season. It would [therefore be almost impossible to • 

 bore on the site of an ancient well without knowing it ; 

 so that no more hasty and unsound suggestion to avoid 

 a supposed difficulty was ever made than this "wellj 

 theory," and yet, strange to say, it has been almost uni- \ 



