464 



NATURE 



[April II, 1878 



the olive been tried ? We have nowhere seen any account 

 of such an attempt. One would suppose that it would 

 grow well, and in that case could not fail to be very re- 

 munerative. The people are well-to-do, and the rate of 

 wages is good. When one, however, compares what is 

 done here and in the United States in the way of irriga- 

 tion works, in the scientific investigation of the country 

 with reference to mining and agricultural pursuits, and 

 in the collection and examination of the objects of scien- 

 tific interest, one cannot but feel that there is a sad lack 

 of enterprise and energy in the colony. The Cape Town 

 Museum seems to be in a semi-starved condition. 



The white population of Natal is almost entirely 

 English, the Dutch having withdrawn for the most part 

 as soon as the English Government decided on interfering. 

 Sugar seems likely to form the staple of the colony. It is 

 cultivated with the aid of coolie labour, although the 

 Zulus are to the white population as sixteen to one. 



In the Transvaal and the Orange Free State the Dutch 

 form the agricultural, the English the town and trading 

 population. Mr. Trollope seems to possess that genial 

 disposition which draws out the bright side of the people 

 with whom he is brought in contact. Although, therefore, 

 he finds the Boer wanting in cleanliness, education, 

 sociability, and enterprise, he finds in him many good 

 points, and is far from thinking him so bad or so hopeless 

 as the author of " The Great Thirst Land." The Boer 

 has improved of late years, and in some cases consider- 

 able pains are taken with the education of the children. 

 As Mr. Trollope says, "The Dutch Boer is what he is, 

 not because he is Dutch or because he is a Boer, but 

 because circumstances have isolated him." 



Three chapters are devoted to the diamond diggings, 

 and a very interesting plan of the great Colesberg Kopje 

 is given. The author has very little sympathy with 

 diamond-digging, and the only satisfaction he finds there 

 is the civilising influence which the emj)loyment of so 

 many natives cannot fail in time to exert. Mr. Trollope 

 has devoted considerable thought and attention to the 

 native question. His opinion is one well worthy of atten- 

 tion, though it is not likely, he thinks, to be regarded 

 with favour either by Exeter Hall or the Colonists whose 

 lands lie uncultivated for want of labour. He visited 

 severa;l of the Missionary Institutions, all of which, with 

 the exception of M, Esselin's self-supporting one at 

 Worcester, seem to have been more or less failures. He 

 thinks that work, steady and regular but voluntary, will 

 be found to be the best and most effective civiUsing 

 agents. Unfortunately the natives' wants are so few and 

 so easily satisfied, that there is at present no spur to 

 regular work. 



The account of Bloemfontein as a sanatorium for con- 

 sumptive people is that of a man of "heroic mould" 

 equal to the feat of dining twice daily, such as Mr. 

 Trollope must be, seeing that at his age he makes light 

 of, and seems to have enjoyed, the rough travelling by 

 mail-carts, cape-carts, and otherwise, of considerably 

 over two thousand miles. One regrets that he has not 

 mentioned whether there is here the same change between 

 morning, midday, and evening climate as he observed at 

 Pretoria ; also whether he came across any consumptive 

 people, and how they fared. He also forgets that deal 

 benches and chairs constructed with an equal regard to 



human anatomy, judging from the fact that easy chairs 

 cost 13/. los. each, are not the seats most likely to conduce 

 to the comfort of an invalid. 



An excellent map accompanies the book. The type, 

 paper, and " get-up " are all that can be desired, and the 

 number of misprints is small. W. J. L. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



The Science of Language. By Abel Hovelacque. Tran- 

 slated by A. H. Keane. (Chapman and Hall, 1877.) 



We have already had occasion to review at length the 

 original French text of this work, which is now presented 

 in an English dress. M. Hovelacque is one of the most 

 distinguished representatives of the school of comparative 

 philologists who would include their study among the 

 physical sciences, and his book illustrates both the faults 

 and the excellences of the view he upholds. In spite of 

 the limitations thus introduced into the science of 

 language, in spite, too, of the many inaccuracies which 

 occur in his descriptions of the various groups of language 

 at present existing in the world, the clearness and vigour 

 of his style make his book one well worth translating, 

 and it is satisfactory to see that it has been put into 

 competent hands. Mr. Keane has added to the value of 

 the work by a philological map, and a tabulated list of 

 the languages described by M. Hovelacque, together with 

 their characteristics and geographical position. From 

 time to time, too, he has introduced foot-notes and even 

 insertions in the text ; many of these give fresh informa- 

 tion or correct the statements of the author ; others of 

 them, however, had better been left unwritten. Thus his 

 reference to Raabe's attempt to connect Aryan and 

 Semitic grammar is not very happy, and he is unfair 

 towards his author when he accuses him of inconsistency 

 in being at once a Darwinian and a polygenist. No 

 doubt " the impossibility of reducing man now to, say a 

 mollusc, is no argument against the original identity of 

 man with a mollusc " (or rather of his descent from the 

 same form of life as a mollusc) ; but that is because there 

 are intermediate links and stages of development between 

 the mollusc and man, and M. Hovelacque believes— and 

 with good reason — that such intermediate links do not 

 exist between the manifold families of speech that are 

 scattered over the world. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he tcndertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of rejected jnanuscripts. 

 A'b notice is taken of anonyjnous communications. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters a r 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com' 

 munications containing interesting and novel facts.'\ 



Age of the Sun in Relation to Evolution 



It has been urged by Mr. Plummer (jDp. 303 and 360) as a 

 fundamental objection to the theory that siui-stars are formed 

 from the collision of stellar masses, that if the theory be true 

 there ought to be many of the stars moving with great velocities, 

 which he affirms is not the case. But I am unable to understand 

 upon what grounds he bases his assertion. I freely admit that 

 if it could be proved that none of the stars has, as he seems to 

 suppose, a proper motion of more than thirty or foi'ty miles per 

 second, it would at least be a formidable difficulty in the -svay of 

 accepting the theory. For it would indeed be strange, as Mr. 

 Plummer remarks, '* that amid all the diversity of dimensions of 

 the heavenly bodies, it should invariably haj^pen that the resultant 

 movement of the combined masses should be reduced to such 

 insignificant figures as the above," But how does Mr. Plummer 

 arrive at the conclusion that something like this must invariably 



