March 11, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



347 



1893, by the issuance on October 3d of cen- 

 turies I. and II. Of this distribution sixty 

 copies have been made of each century, and 

 the centuries have now reached XII. This 

 brings the total number of specimens 

 handled in the two series up to about two 

 hundred and seventy thousand. 



Charles E. Bessey. 

 The University of Nebraska. 



CUBBENT NOTES ON ANTHBOPOLOGY. 

 ALLEN GIT HAWAIIAN SKULLS. 



A cRANiOLOGicAL contribution of the first 

 order of merit has just appeared in the 

 Transactions of the Wagner Free Institute 

 of Philadelphia, January, 1898. It is en- 

 titled 'A Study of Hawaiian Skulls, by 

 Harrison Allen, M. D.' In this last labor 

 of his busy and useful life Dr. Allen pre- 

 sented a model of patience, accuracy and 

 clearness of statement which it would be 

 difficult to parallel elsewhere. The charac- 

 teristics of the skulls were exhibited com- 

 paratively, by a novel plan, that which he 

 called the ' terrace method,' and which 

 is a great improvement over the older 

 graphic representatians. 



With his customary, far-reaching insight 

 into the problems of racial anatomj^. Dr. 

 Allen took occasion, in the description of 

 these Polynesian specimens, selected from 

 ancient cemeteries, drawn, therefore, from 

 a single stock of undoubted purity, to point 

 out the changes brought about in skull form 

 by social contrasts, by mental superiority 

 and by differences of nutrition. Compar- 

 ing them with later crania from the stock, 

 he discovered the singular alterations pro- 

 duced in the skull by exanthematous dis- 

 eases ; and many suggestions stimulating 

 to future students are scattered through 

 his pages. 



PRIinTIVE COSMOGONIES. 



In the Corresjwnclenzhlatt of the German 

 Anthropological Society, December, 1897. 



is a careful study by the Baron von An- 

 drian on the cosmological and cosmo- 

 gonical notions of primitive peoples. A 

 wide collection of such myths and a critical 

 analysis of their contents show in far sepa- 

 rated centers many strange similarities. 

 These, he argues, must be considered ' au- 

 tochthonous,' i. e., of independent origin, 

 under the laws of thought and imagination. 

 Later in time, when tribes commingled and 

 the bards and priests sought to impart fixed 

 forms to myths, borrowing arose over areas 

 of varying size. It is the chief duty of the 

 student of to-day to separate the ' common, 

 psychological basic strata ' from those which 

 were added later by intercommunication. 

 Quite late elements of mythology, such as 

 the notion of the river Styx, or the tale of 

 Orpheus and Euridice in Greek lore, belong 

 to the primitive thought of the Hellenic 

 stock and were not of alien origin. The 

 article is replete with both erudition and 

 suggestiveness. 



D. G. Brinton. 

 University op Pennsylvania. 



N02ES ON INOBGANIC CEEMISTBY. 

 It has long been known that that the 

 composition of the ' green iodid ' of mercury 

 is far from constant, and is not that which 

 would be theoretically required for mer- 

 curous iodid, Hgl. Varet has considered 

 that the mercurous iodid exists in two 

 moditications, a green and a yellow, which 

 can be changed the one into the other. The 

 matter has been studied by Maurice Fran- 

 §ois, who gives his results in the Journ. 

 pharm. chim. The mercurous iodid is of a 

 pure yellow color, and is readily obtained 

 in this condition by the action of potassium 

 iodid upon an excess of mercurous nitrate 

 in the presence of dilute nitric acid. The 

 green color of the salt as usually obtained 

 is due to the presence of free mercury, 

 which may run up to a very large propor- 

 tion. It might not be without interest to 



