SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



853 



had acquired the erect posture, but while in other physical and in mental 

 respects he still did not greatly differ from his nearest of kin. As to the 

 age when this development was taking place, agreement is expressed with 

 Major Powell's remark that the natural history of early man becomes 

 more and more a geological and not merely an anthropological problem. 

 The human varieties are shown to be, like other species, the outcome of 

 their environments, and all sudden changes of those environments are 

 disastrous. In both hemispheres the isocultural bands follow the isother- 

 mal lines in all their deflections temperate regions being favorable, and 

 tropical and severe ones unfavorable, to development. Of the metal ages, 

 the existence of a true copper age has been placed beyond reasonable doubt. 

 The passage from one metal to another was slow and progressive. In 

 art the earliest drawings were natural and vital. The apparent inferi- 

 ority of the drawings of the metal period to those of the cave dwellers and 

 of the present Bushmen is due to the later art having been reduced to 

 conventions. The development of alphabetical writing from pictographs 

 is briefly sketched. Thus light is sought from all quarters in dealing with 

 the questions of the book, and due weight is given to all available data 

 physical and mental characters, usages, religion, speech, cultural features, 

 history, and geographical range. The general discussion of these leading 

 principles is brief but clear and comprehensive. The bulk of the volume, 

 following them, is occupied with the detailed and minute studies of the 

 four main groups of mankind the Negro, Mongol, American Indian, and 

 Caucasic and their subgroups, the discussion of each being preceded 

 by a conspectus showing its Primeval Home, Present Range, Physical 

 Characters, Mental Characters (Temperament, Speech, Religion, and Cul- 

 ture), and Main Divisions. The text is full, clear, good reading, instruc- 

 tive and suggestive, and in it the author has sought to make the volume 

 a trustworthy book of reference on the multifarious subjects dealt with. 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



THE fact that Mr. Charles A. Dana 

 stood in close personal relations with 

 Secretary Stanton and was officially as- 

 sociated with him during a considerable 

 period of the war for the Union, and was 

 also incidentally brought near Mr. Lin- 

 coln, gives whatever he may relate con- 

 cerning the events of that period some- 

 what the air of a revelation from the in- 

 side. Accordingly, we naturally expect 

 to find things narrated in his Recollec- 

 tions of the Civil War * that could not 

 be told as well by any one else. The ac- 

 count given in the book relates to events 

 in which the author w T as personally con- 

 cerned. Mr. Dana had been associated 

 with Horace Greeley in the editorial 

 management of the New York Tribune 

 for fifteen years, when, in April, 1862, 



* Recollections of the Civil War. With the 

 Leaders at Washington and in the Field in the 

 Sixties. By Charles A. Dana. New York: D. Ap. 

 pleton and Company. Pp. 896. Price, $2. 



Mr. Greeley invited him to resign. No 

 reason was given or asked for the sepa- 

 ration, and no explicit statement of a 

 reason was needed. Mr. Greeley, having 

 expressed in the beginning his willingness 

 to let the secessionist " wayward-sister " 

 States go in peace, was in favor of peace ; 

 Mr. Dana was for vigorous war. A corre- 

 spondence was opened between him and 

 Mr. Stanton in reference to public mat- 

 ters shortly after Mr. Stanton went into 

 the War Department. Then Mr. Dana 

 was intrusted with special commissions 

 that carried him to the front and 

 brought him in contact with the leaders 

 of the army; and finally, in 1863, was 

 appointed Assistant Secretary of War, 

 an office he filled till the end of the con- 

 test. His narrative deals as the story 

 of one having knowledge with questions 

 of policy,- with the critical phases of the 

 hard conflict, with the perplexities and 

 anxieties of the men charged with re- 



