March 31, 1881J 



NA TURE 



503 



the origin of instincts and the development of rational 

 thought — not to slur the two together as presenting but 

 little difference to be explained. Yet in two chapters 

 devoted to instincts we have in this treatise scarcely a 

 word to explain their probable mode of origin, and 

 nothing to show how they may be supposed to have deve- 

 loped into reason. This " inverted anthropomorphism" 

 constantly leads the author into statements which are 

 little less than absurd — as, for instance, when speaUing of 

 the wedding-flights of bees he observes that their leaving 

 the hive to copulate in the air "seems as though a feeling 

 of modesty prevented the queen fromjierforming this act 

 before the eyes of the crowd." 



Again, even in the few places where he does touch 

 upon the origin of instincts, his treatment of the subject 

 is most unsatisfactory. Taking, for e.xample, his remarks 

 on the difficulty presented by the case of neuter insects 

 being derived from parents which display totally different 

 instincts from their progeny, he adopts the view that 

 fertile females were originally workers, lost their working 

 instincts by degrees, but now leave them as perpetual 

 legacies to their barren offspring. Now, although this 

 view may be taken as a mitigation of the difficulty, it 

 certainly cannot be taken as a full "answer" to it. 

 Biichner very lightly passes round a mountain of trouble 

 where he says, " that this opinion, if correct, would also 

 apply to the other social insects, and especially to ants, 

 scarcely requires special argument." This is a most 

 astonishingly complacent way of eluding what Darwin 

 calls "the climax of difficulty" which is presented by 

 several castes of workers having instincts differing, not 

 only from their fertile parents, but from one another. 

 The truth is that the theory advanced by Biichner is 

 alone clearly inadequate to meet the facts ; and he does 

 not appear even to have read, or else to have entirely 

 forgotten, the gem of condensed and candid reasoning 

 upon this subject by which the beautiful theory concerning 

 it is rendered in the " Origin of Species." 



Lastly, even as to matters of fact there are some 

 criticisms to be made. A serious sin of omission is to be 

 complained of in the description of the habits of the leaf- 

 cutting ants, in that no allusion is made to the theory of 

 Bates — which having been since supported both by Belt 

 and M tiller, deserves to be regarded as highly probable, if 

 not virtually established — concerning the object with 

 which the leaves are cut and garnered, namely, to grow 

 fungi upon. Again, in dealing with the so-called agricul- 

 tural ant the author is, we think, somewhat too definite in 

 his statements as to these insects planting seed. So far 

 the remarkable story on this head rests on the unsupported 

 authority of Dr. Lincecum (not Linecum,as repeatedly mis- 

 printed), and although it may prove true, ought not, until 

 amply corroborated, to be thus unreservedly accepted. 



Other criticisms of the same kind might be passed, and 

 we cannot help feeling it would have been well to have 

 added a short chapter to the translation bringing the 

 literature of the subject up to date, and likewise an index; 

 but enough has been said to signify our general estimate 

 of the work. In all matters of fact it is, as a rule, most 

 accurate and comprehensive. In its philosophy it is not 

 strong. But as a whole it is a decidedly valuable addition 

 to the literature of Comparative Psychology. 



George J. Romanes 



AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 

 Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages. By J. 

 W. Powell. Second Edition. (Washington : Govern- 

 ment Printing Office, 1880.) 



THIS is one of the most useful of the many useful 

 works issued under Mr. Powell's able management 

 by the ethnological bureau of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 It was originally published in 1877, and it is satisfactory 

 to find that another edition has so soon been called for. 

 At the same time one cannot but regret that this oppor- 

 tunity was not taken to somewhat modify the title, which, 

 as it stands, is apt to deceive the unwary. The book is 

 in no sense an abstract treatise on the nature, structure, 

 or classification of the American languages, either regarded 

 independently or in relation to other forms of speech. It 

 has nothing to do with the philosophy, or even with the 

 grammar of these idioms taken collectively or individually. 

 Its object, if less ambitious, is perhaps far more useful in 

 the present state of these studies. American philologists 

 have confessedly shown a disposition to dogmatise on the 

 morphology of the native idioms, and have indulged in 

 some very wild speculation on utterly insufficient data 

 regarding their origin, development, and affinities The 

 old school of etymologists, who held that Eliot's Massa- 

 chusetts Biblfe was merely a thinly disguised form of 

 Welsh, that Delaware and Lapp were first cousins, and 

 that Basque sailors stranded on the Brazilian seaboard 

 could hold converse with the Tupinambas and other 

 Guarani peoples of that region, has had its day. But it 

 has been succeeded by another, which, if slightly more 

 cautious, is scarcely less extravagant, and which, not- 

 withstanding the warning voice of science, still flourishes 

 in both hemispheres. It will suffice here to refer to the 

 astonishing theories seriously advocated by the late Abb^ 

 Brasseur de Bourbourg on the relations of the Maya- 

 Quich^ and Aryan families, by the Abbd Petitot on the 

 Athabascan and Chinese, and quite recently by Mr. John 

 Campbell of Montreal on "The Hittites in America." 

 "The Aleutans and Barabra," writes the last-mentioned 

 authority, " agree in being worshippers of the sun like 

 other Hittites, in the manufacture of red waterproof 

 leather, and in their manner of adorning the head. . . . 

 Physical ethnology would never have dreamt of uniting 

 white Basques and Circassians, black Nubians, yellow 

 Japanese, and red American Indians ; but philology, 

 which knows no colour but that of words and construc- 

 tions, makes them one. It may be that in the Barabra 

 we shall yet find the purest surviving form of the ancient 

 Hittite language. Some of its numerals help to connect 

 those of the Peruvian dialects with other Hittite forms." 

 One thing more surprising perhaps than such insanities 

 is their appearance in the pages of a professedly scientific 

 journal (The Canadian Naturalist and. Quarterly Journal 

 of Science for August, 1880, p. 359). 



A wholesome check to writers inclined to indulge in 

 tendencies of this sort is afforded by the modest and 

 unpretending character of the work under consideration. 

 It is put forward simply as a guide and aid to students in 

 the collection of linguistic materials in a very wide field, 

 where the labourers are still too it^ for the urgent and 

 extensive character of the work to be performed. It 

 thus brings us back to the domain of hard facts, wisely 



