186 



♦ KNO^ATLEDGE 



[April 1, 1886. 



Professor Rh}'s, and others, there are still left enough 

 eccentric people to support the " Anglo-Israel " craze, with 

 its organs in advocacy of tlie descent of the British from 

 the Lost Ten Tribes, and of the national lion as the equiva- 

 lent of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Like the Ephraim 

 with whom they claim kinship, such folk are "joined to 

 their idols ; let them alone." 



The judgment of sound ethnologists that there are no 

 pure unmixed races in Europe applies to these islands in 

 mai'ked degree, the history of theii- peoples being one of 

 continuous intermingling, possiljly, as Dr. Beddoe hints, 

 from late palseolithic times, and certainly from earliest neo- 

 lithic times, to this day. The Celts of Cresar, the "ancient 

 Britons " of our obsolete school-books, were not aboriginal ; 

 and perhaps the earliest liistorical reference to races pre- 

 ceding them as immigrants is in that of Herodotus to the 

 Kynesii (which word, probably meaning " dog-men," may 

 be the Greek equivalent for a totemic tribal name), as 

 " dwelling the furthest away towards the west of the 

 inhabitants of Europe," races leaving their mark in relics 

 both material and intangible — in tomb and tumulus and 

 superstitions miscalled " Di'uid," really the Shamanism of 

 the west — and whose blood yet runs in the veins of swarthy 

 men and women scattered over these islands, especially along 

 their western shores. 



Dr. Beddoe, dissatisfied with conflicting accounts of racial 

 characteristics due to casual observation, and with the doubtful 

 nature of evidence as to race-connexion based on the shape 

 of skulls, has devoted the available leisure of over thirty 

 rears to measuring the heads, noting the colour of eyes and 

 hair, and the stature and bulk (the details of these last- 

 named not being included in the volume under review) of 

 hundreds of thousands of people of both sexes, and of all 

 ages and conditions of life, from Jolm o' Groat's to Land's 

 End, and has then compared his records with results 

 obtained on the continent, especially among races having 

 mo.st in common with our own. The coui-se of true inquiry 

 does not always run smoothly, and even the promise of 

 monev sometimes failed to overcome the scruples of the 

 owner of the head to subnut to the measuring test. The 

 natives of Keiry seem to have been especially obstinate, 

 perhaps through superstitious dread akin to that which 

 makes savages afraid of having their likenesses taken, and 

 Dr. Beddoe tells by what ru.se he and his comrades suc- 

 ceeded ; — , 



Whenever a likely little squad was encountered, the two archso- 

 logists got up a dispute about the relative size and shape of their 

 own heads, which I was called in to settle with the callipers. The 

 unsuspecting Irishmen usually entered keenly into the debate, and 

 before the little drama had been finished were eagerly betting on the 

 sizes of their own heads, and begging to have their wagers deter- 

 mined in the same manner. 



Dr. Beddoe divides his work into sections coiresponding 

 to race movements in these islands, using with becoming 

 caution the evidence which language and jilace names supply 

 concerning tlie area and range of immigrations, all this 

 being pi'efatory matter to the elaborate tables and maps on 

 which his conclusions as to the several proportions of blonde 

 and dark peoples are based. His scientific temper is shown 

 in the " iuconclusions " added to the final chapter. 



Certainly the main interest of the book gathers I'ound the 

 question, hinted at above, of the persistent admixture of a 

 Mongoloid element in Britain, an element of which the 

 most notable indications are the oblique or Chinese eye with 

 its almond-shaped opening, and thickness of the upper eye- 

 lid. Its presence is fatal to the easy-going theories of his- 

 torians who have cleared the ground by assuming the 

 extermination of conquered races, and a purely Teutonic 

 element in English and Lowland Scots. It throws faint, 



yet welcome, light on the very obscure movements of pre- 

 historic races across the Eurasian continent, whose semi- 

 civilisation is the substratum, now and again obtruding or 

 overlapping, of both Aryan and Semitic culture. Dr. Beddoe's 

 work is therefore to be commended both to the ethnologist 

 and the historian. The one will find its data indispensable 

 in considering the influence of interminglings and conse- 

 quent subtle variations before he determines his racial 

 types ; the other cannot ignore those data if he would satis- 

 factorily explain the great race-movements which have 

 afiected the destinies of empires. 



MARS AND JUPITER. 



By Kich.^ed a. Proctor. 



E present this month four views of each of 

 the planets which are now shining so con- 

 spicuously in our skies, besides a map of 

 Mars and a separate view of Jupiter, 

 showing the giant planet as he appeared 

 before the recent remarkable phenomena in 

 liis southern hemisphere had shown them- 

 selves (or had returned ?). 



The two upper views of Mars show the planet as drawn 

 by Mr. Trouvelot, at Harvard, in 1877 ; the two lowei' ones 

 show Mars in nearly the same aspects, as diuwn at the 

 .same opposition, by Mr. Nath. Green, at Madeira. It is 

 hardly necessary to tell the leader that the present aspect of 

 the planet is very diflferent from that which Mars presented 

 in 1877. The student will have no diflSculty in applying 

 the construction I gave in Knowledge for February 1, 

 1884, to obtain suitable projections of the meridians and 

 parallels of Mars as now posed with respect to the earth ; 

 and, by filling in details from the accompanying map, he 

 can obtain any number of projections of the planet it.self. 

 For the present I have not thought it necessary to alter the 

 map to correspond with the improved nomenclature sug- 

 gested by Mr. Green. As the names I gave the continents 

 and seas were merely intended for reference in books of my 

 own, not at all lor general employment, and as they still 

 serve their original purpose, 1 let them remain for awhile. 

 But a certain silly idea started among the weaker-minded 

 that these Martian names were things to be craved 1 

 Wherefore I incline to think that the sooner- indifferent 

 names are substituted the better. Schiaparelli, of Milan, 

 has gone in for something of the sort ; but, as none but 

 scientific pi'igs could rrse his classically sesquipedal names, 

 the thing will have to be done ovei- again. For mere refer- 

 ence any Martian names will serve very well — the more 

 indiflerent the better ; only we must be careful to jirevent 

 any Martian combination akin to the But-Webb-Neison 

 ring {vide future .section of " Americanisms ") in the 

 moon.* 



The four views of .Jupiter illustrate the varying aspect of 

 the great spot since 1870. When the latest were obtained 

 it was supposed that the spot was about shortly to disivppear ; 

 but it has latterly resumed something of its former con- 

 spicuous appearance. 



* I do not at the moment know whether that unknown family- 

 party, introduced by Mr, Birt into the lunar maps, which aroused 

 the wrath of Prof. Simon Newcomb, has yet been eliminated, but 

 hope it has. Some astronomers have odd weaknesses this way. 

 An American astronomer used to give to asteroids which he dis- 

 covered names in honour of the ladies to whom he successively lost 

 his heart. Fortunately — since liis heart was rather readily lost — he 

 discovered nearly enough asteroids to go round (the only asteroidal 

 rotation yet recognised). 



