ApriL 18, 1912] 
hat which many inventors have followed when 
ealing with the work of rivals; in doing so, he 
added—if that be possible—to the high repu- 
ation which he had previously acquired as an 
ngineer. W. H. W. 
INFERIOR RACES. 
The Mind of Primitive Man. By Franz Boas. A 
Course of Lectures delivered before the Lowell 
Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National Uni- 
versity of Mexico, 1910-11. Pp. xi+294. 
(New York: The Macmillan Co. ; London : Mac- 
millan and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 6s. 6d. net. 
A FAMOUS psychological novelist has asserted 
that racial differences are irreducible, and 
hat even when love unites two members of dis- 
inct races their life, however harmonious, is lived 
ver a slumbering volcano of hate. There is a 
opular fallacy that racial antipathy is based on 
Shysiological foundations. But in so far as such 
ntipathy is real, there is nothing physiological in 
causation; and its emotional strength depends 
the law that the more automatic and uncon- 
scious a habit is, the greater is the displeasure 
elt and the disgust aroused by infractions of the 
nmabit. The most plausible form of this racial 
Qabit is one which even scientifically trained minds 
ind it difficult to transcend. This is the attitude 
9f superiority consciously or unconsciously 
idopted by civilised men towards the semi- 
ivilised, and among the civilised by the so-called 
Saucasian race. As Prof. Boas puts it, “ Proud of 
is wonderful achievements civilised man looks 
down upon the humbler members of mankind.” 
he European looks down on the civilised 
Driental. The point of interest, however, is that 
ne clams to be of a higher type, possibly physical, 
but certainly psychical, on the assumption that 
achievement depends solely upon aptitude for 
achievement. 
In these lectures, delivered before the Lowell 
nstitute and the National University of Mexico, 
“the main thread of Prof. Boas’s argument is that 
type are unproven. In support of his argument 
he employs data from the whole field both of phy- 
Sical and of social anthropology, and the resulting 
exposition of the salient features of difference be- 
een the civilised and the primitive types of man 
has the advantage of the author’s first-hand ex- 
“perience and personal investigation. 
He notes that the ancient civilisation of the 
Did World, not essentially superior to that of the 
New, reached its height 3000 years earlier for 
accidental reasons. He explains the European 
aptness for civilisation as not necessarily due to 
NO. 2216, VOL. 89] 
NATURE 
this assumption and this claim-of superiority of | 
161 
superior faculty. Due regard is had to heredity 
and environment, and several confusions ot 
thought on the subject are cleared up. In reference 
to environment, his own remarkable observations 
are introduced, namely, that the American-born 
children of European immigrants (European-born) 
respond at once ina curious way. The short, dark- 
haired, and longheaded Sicilian loses in stature; 
the head increases in width and loses in length, 
becoming brachycephalic. The medium-sized, 
short-headed native of Central Europe gains in 
stature and in narrowness of head. The tall, 
long-headed European of the north-west grows 
taller. 
The observation made by Fritsch on the Bush- 
man is applied generally to man. Europeans, 
for instance, are to savages as domesticated ani- 
mals are to wild. Their bones, that is, become, 
though heavier, less solid and less slender; their 
structure is more open. The mental change in 
domesticated animals is undoubted. Modifica- 
tions of type, physical and mental, he concludes, 
are largely due to the progressive domestication 
of man incidental to the advance of civilisation. 
The author’s discussion and explanation of the 
causes and results of variation within a race, brief 
though they are, supply the most convincing 
theory that has yet appeared. The whole question 
of permanence and variation of type, in fact, is 
treated in a masterly way. 
The ordinary view of the mental deficiencies of 
the “inferior races” is remorselessly criticised. 
The lowest savage does possess self-control. He 
is not improvident, but rather optimistic. He can 
concentrate his mind. He possesses originality. 
Savages who do not count beyond three or ten 
easily adapt their language and intellect to 
civilised methods of reckoning. The same is the 
case with abstract and general ideas, as Prof. 
Boas has himself proved by experiment. The 
point is that these civilised methods are not needed 
in the primitive state, where each man on a war- 
expedition is known by name, though the number 
of the troop may not be reckoned. 
Both in mind and in body there is little to 
choose between the ordinary barbarian and 
civilised man. The thesis is applied to a practical 
purpose in the last lecture, the question of the 
influence of the negro and of the European immi- 
grant upon the type of the American citizen. No 
one interested in this or in other racial questions 
can afford to pass over this most sane and scien- 
tific critique. The whole volume is conspicuous 
both for halanced reasoning and for brilliance, 
and as a practical application of anthropology is 
of the first importance. 
A. E. CRAWLEY. 
