April 2, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



87 



appreciated by those who know how difficult it is to obtain « 

 good series of representative types, lu the introduction the author 

 treats of the difficulty felt by all anthropoloiiists in dealing; willi 

 man from a systetuatic point of view ; " species " and " races " 

 being in his ease scarcely comparable with the sense in which 

 those terms are used in ordinary zoology. He next proceeds to 

 show in what resi>ect ni;ui differs from or resembles apes and 

 monkeys: from which lie is naturally led on to the considera 

 tion of the distinctive characters of the various races of mankind. 

 Physiological characteristics, inclusive of cross breeding and the 

 cosmopolitanism of man, next claim attention ; after which \\c 

 find four chapters devoted to language and sociology. In this 

 latter section of the subject is embraced all connected with man's 

 individual and social life ; and we learn how dress has been 

 gradually evolved from ornament, the maimer in which social or 

 ganization has developed, the evolution of the complicated com 

 mercial svstem of the present day from the oiiginal barter, and. 

 in fact, all that has to do with the formation of society, so far as 

 is possible in the space at the author's disposal. In" the eighth 

 chapter. Dr. Demker conies to the classification of the various 

 races of mankind ; while the remaining five chapters treat in 

 detail of the races and peoples of the various ccmtinenls and 

 archipelagoes of the world. In his classification of mankind the 

 author lays great stress upon the character of the hair as a feature 

 of prime importance, giving a table explanatory of the manner 

 in which he proposes to arrange the different races according to this 

 standard, ^^■hile the system thus formulated presents a veiy con 

 siderable agreement with the one so largely adopted by English 

 anthropologists of the present day, it lacks the brigading of (lie 

 races into three or four primarj' stock-groups, and is therefore. 

 in our opinion, likely to confuse the general reader, who will find 

 it somewhat difficult to grasp the author's conception of the 

 mutual relationships of the various races. We are, however, 

 pleased to find that the view recently expressed in Knowledoe as 

 to the wide gulf between the aboriginal tribes of Australia and 

 Negroes, and the affinity existing between the foi-nier and the 

 inferior races of India and Ceylon, also commends itself to the 

 author of the volume before us. As a matter of fact, all the 

 races classified by Dr. Deniker as " woolly-haired " correspond to 

 the Negroid stock (minus the Australians! of the late Sir William 

 Flower's classification ; his curly and wavy haired races to the 

 Cauca.sian, and the straight-haired races, wliicli include the 

 Mongols and American Indians, to the Mongoloid stuck. The 

 separation in the table of the South American from the North 

 American races is, however, to be regretted ; as is likewise the 

 author's disinclination to recognise the Malays as a distinct race. 

 It may also be mentioned that his usage of the term " Indonesians " 

 seems scarcely justifiable, since it was framed to include all the 

 inhabitants of the Malayan Islands and Oceania, coming under the 

 designation neither of Melanesians nor Malays, and yet we find 

 Dr. Deniker retaining the designation of Polynesians for 

 the Samoans and their kindred. To follow the author into 

 the detailed description of the races and tribes of the 

 various continental and insular areas of the globe, would 

 be impossible within the space at our command. But it 

 may be mentioned that he is very sceptical not only as to whether 

 there were ever an " Aryan " people, but even as to the existence 

 of a corresponding language. It is likewise noteworthy that he 

 employs the term " Ethiopians " for the Hamitic races of North- 

 east Africa, and if, as is very probably the case, this usage is 

 correct, it may be a matter for consideration whether we are 

 justified in continuing to employ the designation " Ethiopian 

 region " for Africa, south of the Sahara, as is so generally the 

 practice in zoogeography. In the ease of a foreigner the error of 

 "Black Continent" instead of "Dark Continent" (p. 427) is 

 perhaps excusable ; but the perpetuation of such an obsolete title 

 as Cervus tarandus (p. 305) for the reindeer is not so easily 

 pardoned. While fully appreciating its many excellent features, 

 we would recommend anthropological students not to confine their 

 attention to this volume, but also to read works like those of 

 Professor A. H. Keane, in which somewhat different views are 

 expressed. They will thus be in a position to take the via iiedia 

 ;n cases of doubt and difficulty. 



"The North American SlLme-Moulds." By Thomas II. Mac- 

 bride, A.M.. PH.D. (New York: The Macmillan Company.) 10s. 

 net. The Myxomycetes, or Slime-moulds as Prof. Macbride prefers 

 to call them, have recently been introduced to readers of 

 Knowledge through the interesting papers by Sir Edward and 

 Miss Agnes Fry which appeared during 1899. These authors have 

 Br.ade the organi.sms familiar to us under the much prettier name 

 of " myxies." The myxies are at the two important stages of 

 their life-history totally different in character. During the groM- 

 ing, or vegetative, phase they are merely undifferentiated masse-! 

 of protoplasm hardly distinguishable from an ordinaiy amtt'ba. 

 Indeed, in some systems of classification they have, at this stage 

 of their growth, been placed in the animal kingdom. It is thus 

 perceived that Prof. Macbride's voltmie is concerned with the in- 



teresting borderland which by some authorities is claimed for the 

 kingdom of zoology and by others for the realm of botany. But 

 whether after a short uv lunger pcricul of time the fruit, or re 

 productive phase, in the life of the niyxomycetes at last arrives, 

 and is accompanied by a total change of characters. The or- 

 ganism seeks the light, and the object now to be attained is not 

 only the formation of spores, but the rapid drying up of the parent 

 and the effective distribution of the fruil. The .aullKir describes 

 how this desiccation sumelimes occurs suddenly " as if by magic 

 charm into one widespread, dusty field of flying si>nies." Witl. 

 reference to the perennially interesting (|uestion as to whether the 

 slime moulds arc plants or animals, I'rof. Mac briile says, " Wli/ 

 call them either plants or animals'; Was Nature then so poor that 

 forsooth only two lines of differentiation were at the beginning ope.i 

 for her effort '? May we not rather believe that Life's tree may 

 have risen at first in hundreds of tentative trunks, of which two 

 have become in the progress of the ages so far dominant as to 

 entirely obscure less progressive typesT' Dealing with the s;niie 

 problem in Knowli'.dge of January, 1899, Sir Edward l<'iy ic 

 marked of the myxies, "their locomotion iind rapacious yciuth seem 

 til shut them out from the plants; their stationary condition and 

 their production of sporangia from the animal world." 15ut these 

 fascinating subjects form only the introductory part of the book 

 before us, the function of which is to provide a list of all species 

 of the niyxomycetes hitherto described from North and t'en- 

 M'ai America. The volume is essentially one for the serious student, 

 ^vllu will find in it an authoritative account of the present state of 

 knowledge in this department of biological science. 



The Lettei-3 of Faraday and Schiinhein (ISIifJ to 1862). With 

 Notes, Comments, and References to Contomjiorary Letters.'' 10<lited 

 by Oeorg W. A. Kahlbaum and Francis V. Darbishire. (Williams 

 and Norgate. ) 138. net. It is a little dillicult for the m-dinary 

 student of chemistry who is in the habit of finding, by iiiorely refer- 

 ring to some text-book or dictionary of bis subject, the answer t,o each 

 ditliculty which presents itself in the course of his work, to change 

 places in imaginatiim with jiioneers like Faraday and Schciubciii, 

 who, though studying subjects familiar to many schoolljoys to-day, 

 »ere able to discover no r.-"ady-made answers, but were entirely 

 dependent upon what they could find out by their own experinu'nts. 

 Nevertheless, the excitement of discciveriiig things for themselves 

 they certainly had, and there is evidence in abundanc-e, in their 

 letters, that they thoroughly enjoyed it. The reader catches some of 

 their enthusiasm in following the ratlicr frequent letters which [lassed 

 between the philusuplier at the Royal Institiiticm and his Swabian 

 contemporary at Bale. As the separate stejjs in Schoubein's researches 

 on passive iron and ozone — to take only two of" many examples — are 

 duly explained in letters to Faraday, the reader, in spite of himself, 

 begins to wonder what direction the researches will take in the next 

 Communication. Faraday was already lecturing at the Koyal Institu- 

 tion when Schonbein was a young student, and though the latter was 

 cuiee, when visiting England, actually present at a Friday evening 

 lecture, he was too shy to speak to Farailay after the lecture. It was 

 not until some years later, when Schonbein was actually cngageil at 

 Bale on bis investigations respecting the action of nitric acid ou iron, 

 that he wrote to inform Faratlay of some of the phenomena he had 

 observe(.l. Later they became [lersonally acipiainUHl. These letters 

 arc not only valuable, however, as a history of certain piivta of 

 nineteenth century chemistry, they will, it is to bo hoped, be reail 

 also for the delightful picture they reveal of the almost brotherly 

 fondness for one another which can exist between two actively 

 engaged men of science. The intimate aci|iiaintance one seems to 

 acquire with Faraday's personality by reading these letters will well 

 repay the student who takes up the volume. It is a sad story which 

 Faraday has to unfold about himself in many of his letters. l''reqnent 

 ill-health and constant loss of memory had to be reckoned with, and 

 when we remendjer the amount of work Faraday accomplished, we 

 can furm a rough estimate of his steadfastness of pin'))oso and 

 devotion to science. The editors have done their work well— their 

 notes supply just those links which are necessary to enable the reader 

 to properly appreciate the letters, 



" The Mind of the Nation : a study of jiolitical thought in the 

 Nineteenth Century. By Marcus R. P. Dormau. (Kegau 

 Paul & Co., Limited.) 12s. This is a substantial essay of some 500 

 pages on the constitution and government of the lluited Kingdom, 

 written from the standpoint of the superior jierson who knows all 

 about it. It follows as a nratti r of cimrse that the writer's opinion 

 of his fellow countrjnnen, whose political genius has always ex :ited 

 the iidmiraticm of the world, is of tlie poorest. "No one could 

 maintain," he says, " that more than five per cent, of the voters 

 have any real knowledge of politics at the present time." We are 

 not, of course, concerned to canvass this proposition, but if it is 

 true we fear that the proportion is not likely to be increased by a 

 study of Mr. Dorman's book, whic-h is marred bot-h by loose state- 

 ment and obvious bias. What are we to make, for instance, of 



