Nov. 18, 1869] 
or when enraged, which gives so marked a confirmation 
to the Egyptian story. We may conclude fairly enough, 
either that the Egyptian priests saw this red exudation, 
and imitated it with the practice of bleeding, or, as is 
infinitely more probable, that the Egyptian laity noticed 
the blood-coloured sweat of the great river-horse, and 
connected it with the practice of bleeding then in 
operation, by the interpolation of the sharp reed, and an 
inability to understand that their wise men could discover 
a remedy untaught. E. Ray LANKESTER 
PREHISTORIC ARCHAOLOGY 
Transactions of the International Congress of Prehistoric 
Archeology, 3rd Session, 1869. Royal 8vo, pp. 419, 
with 53 illustrations. (Longmans, 1869.) 
i these days of annual gatherings or Congresses in- 
tended for the promotion of Science, whether Natural, 
Social, or Ecclesiastical, we need not be surprised at the 
numerous observers now engaged in different countries 
in the various branches of Prehistoric Anthropology and 
Prehistoric Archeology founding an International Con- 
gress for the discussion of questions in which they are 
particularly interested. It was at a meeting of the Société 
Italienne des Sciences Naturelles, held at La Spezzia in 
1865, that this Congress originated, with the more com- 
prehensive than euphonious title of “ Palzeoethnological.” 
With a slight change in its designation it met at Neu- 
chatel in 1866, and at Paris in 1867 ; while the Congress, 
the transactions of which are recorded in the volume before 
us, assembled at Norwich last year under the presidency of 
Sir John Lubbock, and with Colonel A. Lane Fox as 
organising secretary, contemporaneously with the meeting 
of the British Association. During the present year it has 
found a congenial home in the midst of the richly-stored 
museums of Copenhagen, under the fitting presidency of 
Professor Worsaae ; has dug in the Kjékkenméddings, and 
been right royally entertained by the King of Denmark ; 
and next year the gathering is to be at Bologna, with 
Count Gozzadini as president. Such meetings, especially 
in the case of the followers of what must be regarded as 
a comparatively new science, serve at least a double pur- 
pose ; as social gatherings they promote that intercourse 
and kindly feeling between those engaged in the same 
pursuit, which helps the onward progress of knowledge, 
while the discussions at the meetings tend to elicit 
truth from what may apparently be conflicting facts and 
opinions, and when too unruly hobby-horses are intro- 
duced into the arena, serve to control their wilder cara- 
coles, if not effectually to break them in. 
The success that has attended the institution of this 
particular Congress, which, by the way, is not to be held 
during two consecutive years in one country, cannot be 
better evinced than by the Report of its seven meetings at 
Norwich, which has just made its appearance, and forms a 
volume of upwards of four hundred pages, illustrated by 
more than fifty plates, for the most part presented by the 
authors of the papers they illustrate. 
These Papers range over a wide area, both in space and 
time. The Pacific and South Sea Islands, the Cape of 
Good Hope and Southern and Western India, Japan and 
Algeria, as well as Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, 
and Ireland, all contribute their gwofa of facts; while 
various general questions relating to the condition, the 
NATURE 
he 
arts, the distribution, and other circumstances of early 
races of mankind are brought forward and discussed. On 
the whole we may congratulate the Congress on the object 
of its assembly having been so carefully kept in view by 
the authors of the papers read before it, since hardly any 
of them, though varying much in value, can be regarded 
as having been irrelevant to its general purposes. 
The time and space at our command being small in 
proportion to that ranged over by the Prehistoric Archz- 
ologists, we cannot give more than a brief notice of some 
few of what seem to us the more important papers ; but at 
the outset we must express our regret, which we are sure 
many others will share with us, that the excellent Opening 
Address of the President was not more fully reported. 
First of the Papers, and among the first in interest, is 
one by Mr. E. B, Tylor, on the “ Condition of Prehistoric 
Races as inferred from Observation of Modern Tribes,” 
in which some curious anomalies in the degree of know- 
ledge in different branches of art and constructive ap- 
pliances possessed by certain tribes are pointed out, and 
the inference drawn that it is unsafe to attempt to fix the 
stage of civilisation of any given people from the rudeness 
of one single class of implements in use among them. 
Professor Huxley’s Paper on the “ Distribution of the 
Races of Mankind, and its Bearing on the Antiquity of 
Man,” appears to have met with more favourable criticism 
from those present, including Professor Carl Vogt, than 
the author anticipated. And certainly the connection 
between some of the changes which in comparatively 
recent times have taken place in the physical geography 
of the earth, and the limitation of the areas occupied by 
different races, such as the Negroid and Australioid, seems, 
if not susceptible of proof, at least possible ; and, if so, 
Professor Huxley’s conclusion that the distribution of 
these two races of Man affords as strong evidence of his 
antiquity as the occurrence of his works in the gravel of 
Hoxne and Amiens is in a fair way of being adopted. 
Touching these early works of man, we commend at- 
tention to the excellent account given by Mr. R. Bruce 
Foote, of his discoveries of quartzite implements of Palze- 
olithic types in the Laterite formation of the east coast of 
Southern India. We know of nothing more striking than 
the wonderful similarity of these implements to those dis- 
covered associated with remains of extinct mammals in 
the old river gravels of Western Europe. But for the 
difference in the material there are numerous twin speci- 
mens so like each other that they might be thought to 
have been formed by the same hand, and yet they occur 
thousands of miles apart, and under what are apparently 
different geological conditions, though we think that much 
remains to be unravelled as to the origin and age of the 
Lateritic deposits of Madras. Still this parallelism of 
type seems to afford most remarkable proof that the same 
wants, with the same means at command for fulfilling 
them, result, so far as tools are concerned, in the produc- 
tion of similar forms, no matter where or when the men 
live who make them. 
This is further illustrated by the stone implements from 
Japan, described by Mr. Franks, nearly all of which may 
be matched in form by arrow-heads, lance-heads, and 
hatchets found in Western Europe ; and what is no less 
remarkable, the former are by the Japanese regarded as 
of heavenly origin, like the Elf-bolts of Scotland, and the 
