176 



NATURE 



[Dec. 28, 1876 



mass of information is given as to the tribal divisions, 

 habits, languages, and migrations of the several groups ; 

 but these details often obscure those broader features of 

 physical and mental peculiarity which are of most im- 

 portance in arriving at correct conclusions as to the 

 primary divisions of mankind and the true affinities of 

 the various races. 



It is impossible here to notice the many interesting 

 questions which arise as we peruse the mass of facts and 

 opinions set forth in such a work as this. Although un- 

 equal in treatment, and in many respects imperfect, it ex- 

 hibits much labour and research, and treats in more or 

 less detail every branch of the great and rapidly-developing 

 science of anthropology ; and it forms on the whole as 

 good a manual of the subject as we are at present likely 

 to obtain from a single author. It is to be hoped that 

 when another English edition is required some well- 

 instructed anthropologist may revise and edit the work, 

 so as to modify (by means of footnotes or otherwise) the 

 unusual treatment of many questions of which our author 

 gives a more or less one-sided exposition.^ 



Alfred R. Wallace 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Ostriches and Ostrich Farming. By Messrs. De Mosen- 

 thal and Harting. 8vo. pp. i.-xxii,, 1-246. (London : 

 Triibner and Co., 1876.) 



If ornithologists have regretted the appatent retirement 

 of Mr. Harting for the last few years from the field of 

 scientific research, they will find on consulting the pre- 

 sent volume that his devotion during that time to popular 

 science has not impaired his powers, but has perhaps 

 tended to increase the gift which he always possessed in 

 a high degree, of being able to present to his readers the 

 details of science in interesting and attractive language. 

 We have been induced to make the above remarks, inas- 

 much as no one would suspect that under the above title 

 is comprised a very complete monograph of the Stric- 

 thionidce from the pen of Mr. Harting, but such is really 

 the case, for, out of a volume of some 250 pages, three- 

 fourths are occupied with the history of the ostrich and 

 its kindred. This portion of the work is entirely written 

 by Mr. Harting, and, like everything he undertakes, is 

 executed with thorough conscientiousness. The true 

 Ostriches {Siruthio), the Rheas {Rhea), the Emu [Dro- 

 inceus), the Cassowaries {Casiiarius), and the Apteryges 

 are all passed in review, and a complete monographic 

 account given of each ; the history of the ostrich and its 

 distribution in times past and present being very ex- 

 haustively compiled. We can heartily commend the 



I The translation is from the second edition, yet there are a considerable 

 number of errors and oversights, some of which it may be useful to point 

 out. First we must notice that the copious table of contents is rendered 

 quite useless by the absence of a single reference to the pages at which the 

 several chapters and sections begin or end. Among errors of fact we notice 

 (at p. 2) that the Hylobates is said to "stand far nearer to man than the 

 other three highest apes ; " at p. 20, that the Dutch are not acclimatised in 

 the East ; at p. 117, that the Malays always use the word stone in counting 

 as " three stones chickens," the fact being that stone or seed is used for 

 inanimate objects only, tailioT living things, as "three /«//.f chickens," &c. ; 

 at p. 204 " the Sunda, Banda, and Molucca Islands," are said to have for- 

 merly bound together Asia and Australia, but by subsidence have become 

 " groups of islands in a shallow sea;" and again, at p. 205, the Gulf of 

 Mexico and Caribbean Seas are both said to be shallow, and to show a 

 former connection with the continent ; p. 343, Papuans are said to smelt 

 iron ore ; this I thmk is quite erroneous, though on the coast they work iron 

 brought them by the Malays and traders ; at p. 344 the Papuans are said to 

 cultivate trees, and to possess " only seedless varieties of the bread fruit," 

 the exact contrary bemg the fact ; at p. 413 guinea-fowls are put as natives 

 of the New World, and " prairie dogs " as domestic animals ; at p. 414 the 

 "ounce" is put for the "jaguar;" at p. 423 " {Crax) guincvfowls," are 

 said to be bred for food. Of oversights or mistranslations we notice at 

 P- ^5, lines lo-ii, figutes which are quite unintelligible ; p. 366, line 1, 

 "allows too long" is a bad translation; p. 368, line 2, "outbreak of the 

 pestilence " refers to the nutmeg disease.— A. R. W. 



illustrations in this volume, very good full-page drawings 

 of the principal Struthious forms, having been designed 

 by Mr. T. W. Wood, while the Zoological Society has 

 allowed the woodcuts which have illustrated Dr. Sclater's 

 various memoirs on the Struthionidce to be utilised, so 

 that a very complete monograph of these birds is the 

 result. 



Mr. De Mosenthal's portion of the work is confined to 

 the practical " Ostrich Farming," and seems to be ex- 

 tremely well worked out, giving a history of the develop- 

 ment of the pursuit from its first commencement. The 

 author's personal experience has been confined to South 

 Africa, where ostrich-farming has acquired its chief im- 

 portance, but the statistics of the exportation of feathers 

 from the other parts of Africa show that at present the 

 greatest trade is done through Egypt, the annual value of 

 the exports from this country being 250,000/. The Cape 

 comes next with exports to the value of 20,000/. less, 

 while from Barbary the value is 100,000/. annually, from 

 Mogador 20,000/., and Senegal 3,000/. The whole of the 

 process of the artificial incubation of the eggs is described 

 with minuteness, and altogether tlie contribution is most 

 entertaining and instructive. The volume concludes with 

 an appendix giving consular and other reports, all of 

 which supply important statistics and interesting histori- 

 cal matter bearing on the subject. 



Die DarwitCsche Theorien nttd ihre Stelluns; ziir Philo- 

 sophie, Relioion tmd Moral. Von Rudolf Schmid, 

 Stadtpfarrer in Friedrichshafen. (Stuttgart, 1876.) 



A GLANCE through this book will not satisfy the reader 

 that the great problems of modern thought are to be 

 settled even by the well-meant essays of a well-read 

 pastor. It is one of the " reconcihations " of science and 

 religion, so common in England, but less so in Germany, 

 where people are in general unwilling to check views on 

 scientific questions by their relation to theology. The 

 author impresses on his readers that the theory of uni- 

 versal law is compatible with the Christian doctrine 

 of miracle?, and that the Darwinian hypothesis of deve- 

 lopment may really receive strong support from the 

 doctrine of human development in a future state. But 

 his arguments prove little or nothing one way or the 

 other. Next, turning to the Creation, we find him placidly 

 remarking that the order of its stages is given differently 

 in Genesis and again in Job, his inference being that 

 neither order is " binding on us." The six days, in his 

 opinion, are not natural days, nor are they geological 

 periods, for neither would this fit with the geological 

 evidence ; he therefore concludes that they are " divine 

 days," whatever that may mean. Such reading ought to 

 suggest to religious minds the serious question whether 

 disbelief can do so much harm as the habit of perverting 

 and mystifying belief. We may hope that when theo- 

 logians have become more familiar with the theory of 

 evolution as manifested in the development of religious 

 ideas themselves, their reconciliation of man's religious 

 tendencies with his scientific knowledge may be placed on 

 a higher basis than in such attempts as this, of which the 

 weakness is only made more conspicuous by its good 

 intention. E. B. T. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expresi 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to retut 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscri^ 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications^ 



Sea Fisheries 



As an enthusiastic amateur sea-fisher some twenty years agi 

 on the Canadian coast of what trie Americans call the " herring- 

 pond," perhaps you will allow me to make a remark or two on 

 Mr. Holdsworth's letter in Nature, vol. xv., p. 135. Long 

 absence from that happy hunting-ground has not beclouded my 



