408 
perhaps in a few places, are regarded as presenting 
no special urgency. The same applies on the 
whole to Malaysia, where very little intensive work 
has been done as yet. Parts of New Guinea and 
the larger islands of Melanesia can well be left for 
the present, others require immediate investiga- 
tion, as do all the smaller islands. ‘There is prob- 
ably no part of the world where a larger amount 
of valuable material can be saved during the next 
few years than in Melanesia, and yet at the present 
moment little or nothing is being done.” Much 
work and this of great urgency remains to be 
accomplished in Australia. “A thorough survey 
of Polynesia will yet provide material of the utmost 
value to the ethnologist.” “In Micronesia the 
conditions are more satisfactory . .. but there 
still remain . . . islands, such as the Gilbert and 
Ellice Groups, about which our existing knowledge 
is trivial.” He concludes by saying: 
“Two regions, southern Africa and Oceania, 
combine an extreme degree of the urgency of their 
needs with very inadequate attempts to meet those 
needs. Of these regions it is suggested that 
Oceania should have the preference. It includes 
places where interesting and important examples 
of human culture are on the verge of extinction 
and other places which are in a condition especially 
suited for intensive work, so that a large mass of 
valuable material can be obtained with relative 
ease. Through its insular character Oceania pre- 
sents conditions of especial importance in the study 
of certain theoretical problems, and it has a special 
interest in that its culture stands in close relation 
to that of the American continents. It is sug- 
gested that the study of a region allied in culture 
to that of America may react on the study of 
American ethnology, and may prove the best 
means of reaching positive conclusions concerning 
the exact nature of the indigenous culture of 
America.” 
Prof. Jenks gives a brief account of the subject- 
matter and present status of anthropology. In 
a section entitled “Research problems and oppor- 
tunities in Anthropology,” he deals solely with 
the Indo-Pacific and American areas. For the 
former he takes as his main theme the problem 
of the origin and spread of the Pacific islanders 
and their culture, and remarks that ‘‘ Churchill re- 
cently has largely solved the Polynesia migration 
problem in the Pacific Ocean.” He suggests that 
in Polynesia “a true knowledge of the genesis of 
the speech of man” possibly may be discovered, 
and quotes from Churchill that the Polynesian 
languages are of “the most elemental character,” 
and the “parts of speech have but just begun to 
make their appearance.” Churchill even says 
positively that ‘we find ourselves engaged with a 
language family in which we can discover the be- 
ginnings of human speech.” These statements 
are very remarkable if it be true, as other linguists 
assert, that the Melanesian variants of the 
Austronesian languages exhibit more primitive 
features than the Polynesian (Codrington definitely 
states that the Polynesian group of languages is 
“late, simplified, and decayed” as compared with 
NO, 2229, VOU. 92] 
NATURE 
[JUNE 18, 1914 
the Melanesian), and if we are to look for. the 
“primeval home” of the Polynesians in the. 
Ganges Valley. One would like to have the 
evidence for Churchill’s statement that “the 
Tongafiti migration has left absolutely no trace of 
its passage in Melanesia.” Prof. Jenks refers to 
certain problems, such as the decay and loss of 
culture forms, and to prehistoric stone remains, 
and he recommends further excavations at Trinil 
for Pithecanthropus erectus, and a study of the 
individual and communal life of the orang-utan. 
The antiquity and origin of man in America, 
and the origin and spread of aboriginal American 
culture are put forward as special questions re- 
quiring to be decided. The solution of the problem 
of the ‘“‘extra-American origin of culture... 
would contribute not only to the present subject, 
but to the anthropological world-problem of cul- 
ture similarities—whether similar cultural expres- 
sions in isolated areas had a common origin, or 
independent origins, or are due to transmission.”’ 
Three of the most important modern anthropo- 
logical problems of the Western hemisphere and 
the Pacific islands, of which Prof. Jenks advo- 
cates the study, are ethnic heredity, influence of 
environment on mankind, and human amalgama- 
tion, and he proposes that a permanent laboratory 
should be established eventually in connection with 
these studies. 
Mr. Sylvanus G. Morley makes a strong appeal 
in his beautifully illustrated essay for a prolonged 
and thorough investigation of the great group of 
ruins at Chichen Itza in northern Yucatan. It is 
his belief ‘that no other archzological field in the 
New World offers such rich promise as the region 
occupied by the ancient Maya, and, at the same 
time, no equally important field has been so in- 
adequately studied.” 
The facts and arguments adduced by Dr. Rivers 
and Prof. Jenks point clearly to Oceania as being 
probably that part of the world which most 
urgently needs ethnographical investigation, and 
if the Carnegie Institution could see its way to 
organise a commission for the intensive study of 
as many portions of that area as possible, com- 
bined with an investigation of the more general 
problems of racial and cultural movements, it 
would confer an incalculable boon on all present 
and future students of the history of human cul- 
ture. If this be not attempted very soon the 
opportunity will pass away for ever. 
A. C. Happon. 
THe PRINCIPLE OR REI LIVit ye 
1a. 
T the root of what are generally thought of 
A as our intuitive notions of space and time 
lies the conception of simultaneous instants at 
different points. The sensations by which we 
actually perceive bodies are, strictly speaking, not 
distributed through space; but the mental picture 
which we construct of the phenomena is. ordered 
| under the categories of time and space, and in 
1 Continued from p, 379- 
