NATURE 



457 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1912. 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 Putnam Atjiiiversary Volume. Anthropological 

 Essajs Presented to Frederic Ward Putnam, in 

 Honour of his Seventieth Birthday, April 16, 

 1909. By his Friends and Associates. Pp. viii + 

 627. (New York: G. E. Stechert and Co., 

 1909.) 



THIS is a spacious, richly illustrated volume, 

 finely printed on Normandy vellum, con- 

 sisting of twenty-six valuable contributions to 

 anthropological knowledge, a noble tribute in 

 substance and form rendered by friends and asso- 

 ciates to a master. To the true master nothing 

 could be more delightful than an exhibition of 

 excellent work done by those who live in his light 

 and follow his leading. Few and brief are the 

 biographical and eulogistic remarks about the 

 recipient of this magnificent birthday present, but 

 one feels his presence throughout the book, and 

 no formal eulogy could have been more eloquent 

 than the last paper in the series, " Bibliography of 

 Frederic Ward Putnam," by Frances H. Mead. 

 In addition to very extensive "Editorial Labours," 

 a list is given of 404 items of publications. Si 

 luoiiuDicntuin requiris, circumspice. 



The papers are formal scientific reports, and a 

 bare list of titles and authors should serve a useful 

 purpose : — The archaeology of California, by A. L. 

 Kroeber; ancient Zuni pottery, by J. Walter 

 Fewkes ; pottery of the New England Indians, by- 

 Charles C. Willoughby ; the Seip mound, by 

 William C. Mills ; the fish in ancient Peruvian art, 

 by Charles W. Mead ; a study of primitive culture 

 in Ohio, by Warren K. Moorehead ; cruciform 

 structures of Mitia and vicinity, by Marshall H. 

 Saville ; conventionalism and realism in Maya art 

 at Copan, with special reference to the treatment 

 of the macaw, by George Byron Gordon ; the ex- 

 ploration of a burial room in Pueblo Bonito, New 

 Mexico, by George H. Pepper; tribal structure: 

 a study of the Omaha and cognate tribes, by 

 Alice C. Fletcher ; the dates and numbers of pages 

 24 and 46 to 50 of the Dresden codex, by 

 Charles D. Bowditch ; notes on religious cere- 

 monials of the Navaho, by Alfred Marston Tozzer ; 

 certain quests and doles, by Charles Peabody ; a 

 curious survival in Mexico of the use of the Pur- 

 pura shellfish for dyeing, by Zelia Nuttal ; Gotal, a 

 Mesalero Apache ceremony, by Pliny Earle God- 

 dard; the Cayapa numeral system, by S. A. 

 Barrett ; stature of Indians of the south-west and 

 of northern Mexico, by Ales Hrdlicka ; notes of the 

 NO. 2252, VOL. 90] 



Iroquois language, by Franz Boas; outlines of 

 Wintun grammar, by Roland B. Dixon; a new 

 Siouan dialect, by John R. Swanton ; primitive 

 industries as a normal college course, by Harlan I. 

 Smith ; a visit to the German Solomon Island, by 

 George A. Dorsey; the Pillars of Hercules and 

 Chaucer's " Trophee," by G. L. Kittredge; notes 

 on the Irish practice of fasting as a means 

 of distraint, by F. N. Robinson; Dusares, by 

 C. F. Toy; and the bibliography already men- 

 tioned. 



It is very curious that with one exception the 

 authors avoid the important matter of pre-Colum- 

 bian periods and dates. They give excellent 

 measures and oriented plans, with scarcely a word 

 to show why such measures should be carefully 

 made at all. The British archaeologist thinks first 

 and foremost of dates ; in America the whole sub- 

 ject seems to be left very much in abeyance. 

 ."Vbout the only reasoned estimate of pre-Columbian 

 times is given in the paper on primitive culture 

 in Ohio. There three distinct types of culture 

 have been made out, one of which is thought to 

 be "at least eight hundred years old" (p. 147). 

 The author remarks: "The natural history 

 method applied to a study of these sites will go 

 far towards establishing their age." This reveals 

 "the open mind." On the whole, the restraint 

 exercised by the writers in the matter of time- 

 measuring is a very hopeful sign, and when 

 Americanists will seriously consider the meaning 

 of the coincidences and harmonies which lie on the 

 very surface of most of the papers in this volume, 

 their treatment of the facts will be as unhampered 

 by badly informed traditions as that of the present 

 facts discussed certainly is. 



There are here and there some misprints, and 

 there is one very serious defect to.be mentioned. 

 Here lies buried in Normandy vellum an encyclo- 

 paedic mass of fresh facts of the utmost value, 

 with slight hope of a resurrection. .\ quarto 

 volume of more than 600 pages without an index ! 

 John Griffith. 



CERAMIC CHEMISTRY. 

 Ceramic Chemistry. By H. H. Stephenson. 

 Pp. vii-l-91. (London: Davis Bros., 1912.) 

 Price 65. 



EVERYONE interested in the science of pot- 

 tery manufacture will welcome the appear- 

 ance of this little handbook. Mr. Stephenson is 

 known to be a practical pottery chemist, and 

 should, therefore, be competent to remove the 

 reproach often made against the English that they 

 have contributed little or nothing in the way of 



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