December 20, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



845 



distinguished iron master, John Fritz, the 

 builder and manager of the famous Bethle- 

 hem Iron Works. 



CUBBENT NOTES ON ANTEBOPOLOGY {XV.). 

 THE PITHECANTHEOPUS ERECTUS. 



In Science, January 11, 1895, I pub- 

 lished the first notice, in this countrj^, of Dr. 

 Dubois' remarkable find, in Java, of a crea- 

 ture intermediate between man and the 

 apes ; adding that his monograph could not 

 fail to excite wide attention. This was so 

 decidedly the case, so many articles ap- 

 peared for and against the accuracy of his 

 statements and conclusions, that the Dutch 

 government sent for him to come in person 

 and bring all his specimens to the Inter- 

 national Zoological Congress in Leyden, in 

 October last. He punctually appeared, 

 with a large number of mammalian bones 

 from the formation in which the Pithecan- 

 thropus was found, and an additional tooth 

 ■of the animal itself. 



The geological experts present decided 

 that the various bones indicated the oldest 

 pleistocene or else the youngest pliocene. 

 The anatomists expressed themselves about 

 the skull, teeth and femur of the alleged 

 ^missing link.' Professor Virchow, prob- 

 ably the most conservative, maintained that 

 the bones were of an ape ; but an ape ge- 

 nerically distinct from any known; and if the 

 skull and femur belonged to the same in- 

 dividual then it was an erect ape, walking- 

 like a man ; but he would not acknowledge 

 that it bridged the gap between the anthro- 

 pus and the anthropoid. 



Practically the same result was reached 

 by the eminent French anatomist. Dr. 

 Manouvrier. He studied the originals in 

 the possession of Dr. Dubois ; and he de- 

 clares there can be no doubt that in them we 

 see the remains of a creature intermediate 

 between man and the ape, walking erect, 

 with a cranium like that of the gibbons, 

 but much larger than any existing gibbon. 



The conclusion is indisputable that in 

 the Pithecanthropus we have an animal 

 higher than the highest ape and lower than 

 the lowest man. 



affinities of the chaco languages. 

 Dr. S. a. Lafone Quevedo, well known 

 for his studies of the native tongues of the 

 Argentine Republic, has lately published 

 some of his results in a paper entitled ' Las 

 Migraciones de los Indies en la America 

 Meridional.' The theory he advocates 

 briefly is that the Kecliua, the Aymara, the 

 Araucan, Cacan, Guaj^curu and Guarani 

 are fundamentally mucb less different than 

 has been suj^posed; that, allowing for pho- 

 netic changes, and adventitious and local 

 forms, they have so much underlying simil- 

 arity that we should regard them as develop- 

 ments from a common, ancient speech. 

 To support this opinion, he lays much stress 

 on the words for water, river, rain, etc., 

 and on the personal pronouns. 



Much more evidence will have to be pre- 

 sented before this opinion will be accepted. 

 It is in conflict with the views of nearly all 

 previous scholars. On the other hand, all 

 will welcome the special studies of the same 

 writer on the Chaco dialects. He has in 

 press an extended grammar of the Abipone, 

 and is engaged on another of the Mbaya 

 and a third of the Payagua. He has reached 

 the conviction that the Vilela and Lule are 

 the only two non-Guaycuru languages in 

 the Argentine Chaco. If this is so it simpli- 

 fies amazingly the extremely complicated 

 ethnography of that region. 



D. G. Brinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 astronomical. 

 Measurement of the photographic plates 

 taken for the purpose of making an accurate 

 catalogue of all the stars in the heavens has de- 

 cidedly gone beyond the preliminary stage. 



