NA TURE 



[yan. 7, 1886 



of a very large number of tables showing the distribution 

 of the colour of hair and eyes according to the " index of 

 nigrescence," and to a less extent to the head-forms, from 

 the author's personal observations ; and of second series 

 of colour of hair and eyes of military deserters illustrated 

 by maps constructed on the plan of the Anthropometric 

 Committee. There are also tables showing the relation 

 between complexion and disease collected at the Bristol 

 Infirmary ; a:id numerous illustrations are given showing 

 the physiognomy of males and females which the author 

 believes to be typical of the various racial elements at 

 present surviving among us. 



Of the conclusions which Dr. Beddoe draws from all 

 these observations it is impossible to give a summary here. 

 He examines the whole country, district by district and 

 county by county, from the Shetlands to Cornwall, and 

 the reader must consult the work itself to see how far 

 the author has succeeded in the task he has set himself, 

 and to what extent he has prepared a solid platform for 

 his successors in the same field of inciuiry. It is most 

 probable that Dr. Beddoe's conclusions, based as they 

 are on a minute acquaintance with the history of the 

 conquests and settlements of the country, and on a wide 

 personal survey of the population in most stationary 

 situations, will be accepted by anthropologists as the 

 best results and the nearest approach to the truth 

 which is attainable at the present day. On the other 

 hand it is doubtful whether Dr. Beddoe's confidence 

 in colour as a permanent racial character will bear 

 the test of future inquiry, and whether his method 

 will be accepted as sufficient when the questions of 

 prepotency of stock, relative viability of dark and blond 

 persons, and the influence of sexual selection have been 

 more completely investigated. The Jews of Europe 

 are isolated and preserved as a separate race by the 

 sterility or low fertility of their mixed marriages, and the 

 question of hybridism in the human race has received 

 little attention from anthropologists. The function of 

 reproduction is the most highly specialised and the most 

 easily disturbed, and it is probable that the dying out of 

 races is due more to this cause than to the " vices of 

 civilisation " to which they are commonly attributed. 

 American statistics show that the blond type is more 

 subject to all the diseases, except one (chronic rheu- 

 matism), which disqualify men for military service,and this 

 must obviously place blonds at a great disadvantage in the 

 battle of life, while the popular saying, " a pair of black 

 eyes is the delight of a pair of blue ones," shows that 

 sexual selection does not allow them to escape from it. 

 It is more than probable, therefore, from all these con- 

 siderations, that the darker portion of our population is 

 gaining on the blond, and this surmise is borne out by 

 Dr. Beddoe's remark that the proportion of English 

 and Scotch blood in Ireland is probably not less than a 

 third, and that the Gaelic and Iberian races of the west, 

 mostly dark-haired, are tending to swamp the blond 

 Teutonic of England by a reflex migration— a fact not 

 without significance to others than anthropologists at the 

 present time. 



The " Races of Britain " gives a very imperfect idea to 

 those who are unacquainted with such inquiries, of the 

 labour, time, and thought expended on its production, but 

 anthropologists who know how to estimate such work at 



its full value will welcome it with great satisfaction as the 

 most exhaustive account of the ethnology of our country 

 which has appearei in recent years. 



Charles Roberts 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Journal of t lie Royal Agriculttiral Society. Vol. 21, 

 Part II., Series II. (London : John Murray, 1885.) 



The second part of the current number of this yoiirnal 

 opens with the second instalment of Mr. Fream's report 

 upon Canadian agriculture. The climate, soil, and pro- 

 ducts of Eastern Canada, comprising the better-known 

 States of Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime provinces, 

 are chiefly dealt with, whereas, in the first report, prairie 

 farming, and the almost untrodden regions of the north-west 

 were particularly dealt with. The principal object of the 

 report is to show the capabilities and rapid progress of 

 Canada, and this is achieved by numerous statistics as to 

 production and exports. In these provinces the first 

 fertility of the soil has been in a great degree exhausted, 

 and as a consequence mixed farming with the mainten- 

 ance of live stock, and the use of improved processes, is 

 taking the place of consecutive corn-growing. The growth 

 of the dairy industry is a remarkable fact, and in the 

 management of their cows and the manipulation of the 

 products of the dairy, more attention is apparently paid 

 to the teachings of science than is usual in the mother 

 country. The exports of cheese have increased from 

 6,000,000 pounds per annum in 1 870, to 76,000,000 pounds 

 in 1884. The butter trade has long been stationary, 

 owing to the uncertain demand for Canadian butter. 

 The Canadian cattle trade has also increased by leaps 

 and bounds from a gross number of 6940 head in 1877, to 

 61,843 "'' 1884. The report is full of details of personal 

 experience gained from many settlers in all parts of Old 

 Canada. Names and addresses of the principal farmers, 

 dairymen, and stock-breeders, are given with great fre- 

 ciuency, and confer a special value on the report as a 

 guide to intending settlers. 



A large portion of the Journal is occupied with official 

 reports of the Preston meeting of tlie Society (1885), in- 

 cluding the report upon the prize farms in Lancashire. 

 These last reports are less interesting than usual to 

 practical men, as the Lancashire farmers are excep- 

 tionally placed, and conduct their business upon sub- 

 urban principles of management. The sale of farm pro- 

 duce directly to the town consumer and the carrying 

 back of town manure is the marked feature. Rents 

 appear to range particularly high for the present de- 

 pressed state of trade and agriculture, and are generally 

 from fifty to si.xty shillings per acre. 



The customary reports of the Steward upon live stock 

 and implements, and short memoirs of the late Sir 

 B. T. B. Gibbs and Sir Watkin W. Wynn, close this 

 section. A summary of the Commission's Report on 

 Technical Education, 18S4, and a reprint from the Report 

 of the Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, 1S83, 

 occupy some fifty pages, the latter reviving M. Gudnon's 

 curious theory with regard to indications of milking 

 properties in the peculiar distribution of hair on the 

 buttocks, known as the " escutcheon." 



Among original articles indicating research, those of 

 Miss E. Ormerod on the ox-warble and the warble 

 maggot, of Prof. Robertson upon rickets in sheep, and of 

 Mr. Clement Stephenson upon abortion in cows may be 

 mentioned. Lastly, the number contains a contribution 

 from Rothamsted upon the valuation of unexhausted 

 manures, in which the results of past experiments are 

 brought to bear upon the claims of outgoing tenants for 

 compensation under recent Acts of Parliament. 



