Feb. 12, 1874J 



NA TURE 



279 



vessels must surely feel thankful for the hint. Great con- 

 fusion of ideas seems to prevail, however, on the subject 

 of platinum, for we are told on p. 31 that " platinum 

 combines easily with silica and carbon, so that the contact 

 of platinum crucibles with charcoal at a very high tempe- 

 rature must be avoided," together with several other 

 absurd precautions which we will not quote. On p. 33, 

 there figures an apparatus for rapid filtration in an atmo- 

 sphere of steam, which we have seen before in Normandy's 

 Introduction to his translation of Rose, and which wc 

 should have thought had been superseded long ago by 

 more perfect methods of filtration. 



As specimens of analytical knowledge (?) we quote 

 p. 57, " hydrochloric acid gives a precipitate on dilution 

 with water (distilled) if BaCL or SOoHOu be present;" 

 p. 38, " dilute sulphuric acid contains more lead, and lead 

 is scarcely soluble in concentrated acid ; " p. 42, " A 

 solution of baric chloride must be neutral to test-paper^ 

 after precipitation by sulphuric acid ; " p. 43, " sodic 

 carbonate must completely volatilise ; " p. 46, " hydro- 

 fluosilcic acid can be obtained from the chemists in india- 

 rubber bottles." 



The analytical tables on pp. 57 to 73 are equally deficient 

 and faulty. We are told to test for ammonia, after 

 having ignited on platinum foil ; " a watch-glass becomes 

 corroded on the addition of baric chloride to a neutral 

 solution of salts," " hydrobromic acid turns starch-paper 

 blue," "sodic hydrate," on p. 94, "precipitates light-coloured 

 ferric hydrate which turns dirty-green." Upon heating 

 chlorates, p. 115, "averyviolent deflagration ensues." The 

 authors appear never even to have prepared oxygen gas. 



The quantitative knowledge displayed by the authors 

 is quite on a par with the choice bits of qualitative 

 chemical information so liberally and innocently volun- 

 teered by them. We will not tire our readers, how- 

 ever, by any further quotations, but cannot refrain from 

 firing a parting shot or two by quoting from p. 120, where 

 wc are told that " Chlorine is prepared by the mixing of salt, 

 hydrochloric acid and manganic oxide ; this last, MnO^, 

 has no chemical reaction in the last equation ;" and from 

 p. 1 36, on which we are told that " inorder to keep the edges 

 of the balance free from rust, it is a very good practice to 

 place inside the case a beaker, half-filled with sulphuric 

 acid or baric chloride." Adialyser is described on p. 171 

 as " an apparatus having sides and top of gutta-percha, 

 and bottom of parchment, and is used for the separation 

 of urea and other crystallisable salts from urine." 



Need we do more than recommend the authors to act 

 upon their own advice (p. 2), and " to speedily endeavour 

 to obtain a complete knowledge of the composition of 

 bodies, and make themselves conversant with the formula; 

 &.C." of which they exhibit so deplorable an ignorance, 

 before they again venture upon enlightening the public 

 on the subject of chemistry. 



THE RACES OF MANKIND 

 The Races of Mankind : being a Popular Description of 

 tlic Characteristics, Manners, and Customs of the Prin- 

 cipal Varieties of the Human Family. By Robert 

 Brown, M.A., Ph.D., &c. (Casse)l, Petter, and Galpin). 

 '"T' H E rapid growth of interest in Anthropology is proved 

 -1- by 'the appearance, one after another, of popular 

 illustrated works : Mr. J. G. Wood's " Natural History of 



Man" in 1868-70, an English translation of M. Louis 

 Figuier's " Human Race" in 1872, and just now (though 

 without the date it ought to have on the title-page) this 

 first volume of a work on " The Races of Mankind." 

 Of these, the productive M. Figuier's book is too worth- 

 less to say much of, and the comparison lies between the 

 first and last. Both are valuable, and the ground they 

 cover is so far different, that they may be usefully placed 

 side by side in the ethnologist's library. It will be re- 

 membered that Mr. Wood's account of Africa occupied 

 the first of his two volumes, so that his account of the 

 races of Asia, America, Polynesia, &c., had to be dispro- 

 portionately condensed into the second. Dr. Brown, we 

 trust, will be able to keep his scale more uniform. His 

 first volume treats entirely of American races, and he 

 speaks with personal knowledge of the Esquimaux and 

 North-west tribes, compiling as to other tribes with dis- 

 cretion, and generally from not too hackneyed authorities. 

 Such of Dr. Brown's illustrations as are taken from pho- 

 tographs and real drawings are good, and preferable 

 to the too picturesque and imaginative cuts of Mr. 

 Wood's artists. But Dr. Brown inserts some drawings 

 which he had better for truth and good taste have left 

 out. Thus, the Indian scalping his victim at page 68, 

 though no doubt more like the reality than the engraving 

 in vol. ii. of " Schoolcraft," from which it is a kind ot 

 rationalised copy, is a piece of sensational make-up ; 

 while on the next page a scene of Indians torturing a cap- 

 tive by a slow fire on his stomach, is still more objection- 

 able. At page 284 is a representation of Conibos shoot- 

 ing turtle ; this is evidently a fancy picture, and arrows 

 shot at such an angle would glance off the animal's 

 carapace ; the arrows should have been shown of 

 heavier make, and so sent up as to fall almost perpen- 

 dicularly. 



As only the first part of Dr. Brown's work is )'et out, it 

 may perhaps be a service to make some suggestions. 

 Native words are sometimes wrongly printed, which gives 

 an air of carelessness to the descriptions they form part 

 of. Thus " inniut" instead of "innuit" (p. 5) ; " Manco 

 Capas " and " Manih Dello " (p. 1 19), which appear to be 

 intended for the usual forms, " Manco Capac " and 

 " Mama Oello " (Mr. C. R. Markham would say that 

 " Ccapac " and " Ocllo " are the really proper forms). At 

 page 274, the account of the " couvade," the custom of 

 the husband being put to bed or otherwise treated with 

 reference to his wife's bearing a child, is compiled very 

 inaccurately. Lastly, though references are generally 

 given where long abstracts have been made from books 

 of travel. Dr. Brown seems somewhat apt to make state- 

 ments and use arguments without due mention of the 

 sources w-hence he derived them. One consequence is, 

 that he makes himself personally responsible for any 

 blunder in the matter he thus appropriates. Thus, at 

 page 147 a passage is inserted of which the following is 

 part : — " In the Ladrone Islands, the Spaniards found the 

 natives unacquainted with fire ; .and when Magellan set 

 fire to the huts of the Marian islanders, they looked upon 

 the flame as a living creature which fed upon wood." 

 Unless my memory deceives me, this passage is copied 

 out of Biichner's " Man in the Past, Present, and Future," 

 and has been already commented on in Nature, not 

 only as embodying statements which have been disproved, 



