226 



NATURE 



\yan. 21, 1375 



necessarily, so limited ; a type only of each genus being 

 represented, with some few structural details of others. 

 Figures, such as those here given, of all the species com- 

 prised in the work, would make it one of the most 

 valuable and important faunistic works on spiders tljat 

 have been published for many years, In spite, however, 

 of this, probably inevitable, drawbac)?, we hail this volume 

 with great satisfaction, not only for what it is in itself, but 

 as an earnest of what we hope is to follow before any 

 great lapse of time. A second volume, containing four 

 more families — Uroctcoida;, Agelenida", Thomisida;, and 

 Sparassida"— is announced for April next ; and it is con- 

 sidered that four or five volumes in the whole will com- 

 plete the work. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES AND QUERIES 



Notes and Queries on Anihropclo^y, for the Use of 

 Travellers and Residents in Uncivilised Lands. Pub- 

 lished by a Committee appointed by the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science. (London : 

 E. Stanford, iiS74.) 



WELL asked is half answered, and more problems 

 escape solution because no one happens to pro- 

 pose them, than because of their real difficulty. To 

 suggest suitable inquiries to the mind of a traveller or 

 colonist as to the wild races he comes in contact with, is 

 to start him on a course of ethnological investigation 

 which may lead to excellent results. The plan of drawing 

 up lists of such inquiries to be distributed among naval 

 officers, missionaries, and others, is not now. The Eth- 

 nological Society of London issued a set years ago, which 

 drew much information. An elaborate series of questions 

 as to the North American tribes, answers to which con- 

 stitute some of the best material in Schoolcraft's " Indian 

 Tribes of the United States," is reprinted at the end of 

 vol. i. of that work. The " Admiralty Manual of Scien- 

 tific Inquiry " contains an ethnological section, first drawn 

 up by Dr. Prichard, and since revised. The present publi- 

 cation issued by the British Association is far more com- 

 plete than any of these earlier guides. The committee by 

 whom it has been drawn up are Col. Lane Fox (secretary) 

 Dr. Beddoe, Mr. Franks, Mr. F. Gallon, Mr. E. W. Bra- 

 brook, Sir J. Lubbock, Sir Walter Elliot, Mr. Clements 

 R. Markhani, and Mr. E. B. T>lor. The first sections, 

 relating to the physical constitution of man, are drawn up 

 by Dr. Beddoe, who gives drawings and directions for 

 measurement of skull and limbs, &c. It adds much to 

 the value of the book that the eminent French anthropo- 

 logist. Dr. Broca, has allowed his set of colour-types to 

 be reproduced. By the aid of these tinted patches, the 

 colour of skin, hair, and eyes in individuals of any race 

 may be set down within a shade. Thus, instead of loosely 

 describing a Peruvian Indian's complexion as copper-brown, 

 it might be defined as between No. 42 and No. 43 of 

 Broca's table. The section on archaeology is by Col. 

 Lane Fox, and contains cuts of the principal types of 

 stone implements, contributed by Mr. John Evans, also 

 an ideal representation of a valley, to show the position of 

 the gravel beds above the present river-level, where travel- 

 lers may be likely to find drift-implements. The sections 

 on war, hunting, and ornamentation are also by Col. Fox ; 

 the latter article is especially interesting from the illustra- 



tions of the principal patterns used in barbaric oma? 

 mental carving, (S:c., such as the chevron, fret or key- 

 border, plait or guillpche. Mr. Franks deals with the 

 subjects of clothing, personal ornaments, pottery, iScc. ; 

 Mr. Evans with weaving, basket-work, Src. ; Mr. Gallon 

 with statistics ; Sir J. Lubbock with relationships ; Mr. 

 Tylor with religion, mythology, language, customs, &p. ; 

 Prof Busk with artificial deformations ; Prof. Carl Engel 

 (whom the printer has converted into Cave Engel) on 

 music ; Mr. Hyde Clarke on weights and measures, 

 money, &c. The articles often contain not only leading 

 questions, but introductions which slate in few words 

 what is known on their subjects. 



We strongly i'ecor)imend those who hai-e friends 

 within reach of uncivilised countries to send them out at 

 once copies of this little manual. Being not a regular 

 trade publication, but issued by a scientific body, it may 

 very likely fall out of print when tlie first stock is ex- 

 hausted. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Lessons in Elementary Botany. New Edition. Cy D. 



Oliver, F.L.S., F.R.S. (Macmillan and Co., 1874.) 

 The new edition of this admirable little text-book deserves 

 a word of notice. It is slightly enlarged, the additions 

 principally dealing wiih the most important points in 

 economic botany. The illustrations have been increased 

 in number, and the few small errors which had crept into 

 the first edition have been corrected. In the present state 

 of our classificatory knowledge of flowering plants, it 

 would be hardly possible to have a better guide than Prof 

 Oliver's " Lessons." Something, doubtless, will still have 

 to be supplied by the oral instruction of the teacher. No 

 series of natural objects ever was or ever will be quite 

 comfortable when packed into a classification. The expo- 

 sition of the term pei ii^vnnus, for instanc, requires that 

 the pupils should be not exacting, but reasonable ; there 

 have been found even grown-up and advanced botani.sts 

 who Iiave allowed themselves to be sceptical about the 

 applic_ation of the term to the corolla of the common 

 Holly. They have even ventured to go so far as to wonder 

 how the insertion of the corolla would dirfer in this case 

 if it were hyppgynons. 



The few pages at the end of the book devoted to Cryp- 

 togams have been slightly enlarged, but are still not per- 

 haps intended to more than indicate the existence of other 

 types of vegetable life besides Pnanerogams. If the criti- 

 cism may be allowed (and it really seems ungracious in a 

 case like the present), it would have been belter not to 

 apply the term Order to groups differing so widely in their 

 relative diversity as, say, Cyperacea: and Graininece on the 

 one hand, and Miisci and Fiiui^i on the other. Oji no 

 possible modern classificatory principles can such aggre- 

 gates of orL'anisms be regarded as equipollent or com- 

 p.ir4ble. Then Li':hcncs can hardly be said to hold up 

 its head as a distinct group with the same unimpeachable- 

 ness that was the case five years ago. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor docs not liold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. PiLither enn he undertal^e to reiurtit 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken op anonymcnis communications.^ 



On the Northern Range of the Fallow Deer in Europe 

 The essay, illustrated by woodculs, on the existence of the 

 Fallow Deer in Pleistocene limes m England, in Nature 

 (vol. xi. p. 210), leaves no room for doubting that the antlers 

 named in the books Ce>~'us bro'.vnii and Cervus somonensis, 



