434 
recent presidential address to Section F of the Austral- 
asian Association for the Advancement of Science, “On 
the Origin of the Aborigines of Tasmania and Australia,” 
Mr. A. W. Howitt believes that 
“the Tasmanians were the autochthonous inhabitants of 
Australia, and that their preservation in Tasmania was 
due to isolation by the formation of Bass Strait. The 
occupation of the continent by the Australians who, it 
may be reasonably held, were in a higher state of culture, 
must have resulted in the amalgamation of the two races, 
or by the extirpation of the former inhabitants, so far at 
least as regards the males.” 
He also suggests that a later wave of Papuan migration 
was virtually stopped by Torres Straits. He also puts 
forward 
‘“the following tentative hypothesis : An original Negrito 
population, as represented by the wild tribes of Malaysia ; 
a subsequent offshoot represented by the Andamanese 
and Tasmanians, and another offshoot in a higher state 
of culture originating the Melanesians.” 
Whatever Mr. Howitt writes is worthy of the careful 
-attention of anthropologists, and it would be well to 
direct future research with this hypothesis well in view. 
As Garson, Ling Roth and others have expressed the 
opinion that the Tasmanians were of Negrito origin 
(using that term in a general sense), it is rather a pity 
that Dr. Meyer has not discussed this point. 
Finally Meyer discusses the relationship of the Negritos 
to the natives of New Guinea ; he, with Micluko-Maclay, 
asserts the unity of origin of the Negritos and Papuans, 
and at the same time insists that the Papuans are 
diversified and show various types. 
“Does it point te a crossing of different elements, or 
does it simply reveal the variability of the race? I 
[Meyer] incline to the latter assumption as the simplest 
and as provisionally sufficient, particularly as in the still 
so limited state of our knowledge it will be labour lost to 
try to resolve a race like the Papuan into its various 
elements.” 
This is not the place to enter into a discussion on this 
difficult problem ; for the present I can only say that I 
am inclined to adopt the former view. I certainly have 
not seen or heard-of any trace of Negritos as such, the 
brachycephals I encountered in New Guinea were no 
shorter than the dolichocephals, nor had they more 
Negritic affinities than the latter. Meyer makes the 
following emphatic statement : 
“A Negritic race side by side with the Papuan race 
nobody has been able to discover, just because it does 
not exist, and it does not exist because the Papuan race, 
in spite of its variability, is on the one hand a uniform 
race, and on the other as good as identical with the 
Negritos.” 
A careful perusal of Dr. Meyer’s critical study leaves 
one fact strongly imprinted on the mind, and that is the 
urgent need for further evidence. There can be no doubt 
that observation in the field is by far the most important 
branch of anthropological work at the present time, and 
all our energies should be employed in this direction. 
The time is fast approaching when it will be too late. 
A. C, HADDON. 
NO. 1558, VOL. 60] 
WAT ORE 
[SEPTEMBER 7, 1899 
BACTERIA. 
Bacteria ; especially as they are related to the Economy of 
Nature, to Industrial Processes, and to the Public 
Flealth. By George Newman, M.D., F.R.S. (Edin.), 
D.P.H. (Camb.), &c. Pp. xvi + 351. (London: John 
Murray, 1899.) 
HE author in his preface says that the book is ‘‘an 
attempt, in response to the editor (F. E. Beddard, 
F.R.S.) of the series (the Progressive Science Series), to 
set forth a popular statement of our present knowledge 
of bacteria.” ‘ Popular science,” continues the author, 
“is a somewhat dangerous quantity with which to deal. 
On the one hand it may become too popular, on the 
other too technical. It is difficult to escape the Scylla 
and Charybdis in such a voyage.” 
It may be said at the outset that Dr. Newman has 
accomplished a very difficult task in a manner which 
does him credit. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that in 
future editions the writer will judiciously curtail certain 
sections and expand others, and will exercise more 
caution in laying down doctrines which, in some cases, 
might mislead the lay reader, and which occasionally 
even show a wrong conception of the present state of 
our bacteriological knowledge. That a further edition 
will be called for at no distant date need hardly be 
doubted, considering the general excellence of the work. 
The first thirty-eight pages deal with the biology of 
bacteria. This portion of the book might well be cur- 
tailed ; it contains little information that is new, and 
much that is old and contained in every text-book of 
bacteriology. 
The second chapter deals with the bacteria in water, 
and includes much valuable information. It contains a 
useful reference to B. enteritidis sporogenes (Klein), a 
virulent anzerobe apparently causally related to diarrhcea. 
The biological treatment of sewage might usefully have 
been discussed more fully and in a separate chapter. 
The statement, “The cultivation beds also have an 
inimical effect upon infective bacteria. Hence the final 
effluent is practically germ-free as regards pathogenic 
organisms,” must be accepted with caution. 
The chapter on bacteria in the air is well and con- 
cisely written, but the author quotes an experiment of 
his own which is a little difficult of comprehension. 
To quote his own words : 
“The writer recently obtained some virulent typhoid 
excrement, and placed it ina shallow glass vessel under 
a bell-jar, ‘with similar vessels of sterilised milk and of 
water, all at blood heat. So long as the excrement 
remained moist, even though it soon lost its more or 
less fluid consistence, the milk and water remained un- 
infected. But when the excrement was completely 
dried it required but a few hours to reveal typhoid 
bacilli in the more absorptive fluid, milk, and at a later 
stage the water also showed clear signs of pollution.” 
Shattock’s interesting experiments are quoted, showing 
that sewer air does not necessarily exalt the virulence of 
a strain of lowly virulent diphtheria bacilli. It is to be 
noted that this does not affect the question of the possi- 
bility of sewer air depressing the vitality of the individual, 
and so allowing lowly virulent bacilli, either already 
present in the throat or subsequently gaining entrance, to 
develop and display their full power of pathogenicity. 
The chapter on fermentation is a good one and is 
. i 
