Apeil 17, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



587 



joj'ecl by children are red and yellow, and 

 bright, glistening objects are equally at- 

 tractive to both. 



POINTS IN PEACTICAL ANATOMY. 



In the Bulletin of the Anthropological 

 Society of Paris, for December, 1895, Dr. 

 Chudzinski studies the radical diiferences 

 presented by the rectus abdominis muscle. 

 It is highest developed in the white race, 

 least -in the yellow race, while in the black 

 race it is intermediate. Its anomalies and 

 irregularities are more numerous in the 

 colored races, and its intersections are 

 higher in both these reaching their maxi- 

 mum in black women. 



In the same Bulletin Dr. Moutard-Martin 

 reports observations on congenital and 

 hereditary malformations of the fingers and 

 toes. He reaches the general conclusion 

 that these defox-mities are transmitted most 

 directly and persist longer in the descend- 

 ants of the same sex as the person trans- 

 mitting them ; i. e., if derived from a 

 ' maternal ancestor they will first disappear 

 in the male decendants and vice versa. 



THE ANCIENT ILLYRIANS. 



AccoEDiNG to Frederick Miiller, the Illyr- 

 ians were the first to separate from the 

 primitive Arj'an stock, and lefP their ISTorth- 

 ern home to settle in the Balkan peninsula 

 and on the coasts of the Adriatic Sea {Allge- 

 meine Etlmograplde, p. 70). 



They have, therefore, a peculiar interest 

 to students of Aryan ethnography, and the 

 recent researches into their ancient sites 

 and tombs merit attention. They are re- 

 ported upon by Hedinger in the March num- 

 ber of the Correspondenz-Blatt. One of the 

 largest cemeteries is Glasinac, 45 kilome- 

 ters southeast of Sarajevo. It contains 20,- 

 000 graves, chieflj^ dating from the bronze 

 and early iron period. Glass, enamel and 

 amber abound, but the pottery is compara- 

 tively rude, none of it being made with the 

 potter's wheel. The oldest graves take us 



back at least 1000 B. C, or about the time 

 of the Homeric wars. Even then the Illy- 

 rians were a sedentarj^, agricultural people, 

 acquainted with metals and fairly advanced 

 in the arts. They flourished without seri- 

 ous interruption until about 400 B. C, 

 when they were almost destroyed by the 

 Celts, who at that time overran southern 

 Europe. The modern Albanians, or Skip- 

 etars, are the descendants of those who es- 

 caped the disaster. 



THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF BURMA. 



The supposed discovery of relics of ter- 

 tiary man in Burma, by Dr. Nothing, gives 

 interest to the recent researches into the 

 ethnography of that land. 



The present population represents two 

 strata of immigration. Much the oldest is 

 that to which belong the Khmer, the Mon 

 and similar tribes. An investigation of 

 their dialects (principally by F. S. Forbes 

 and E. Kuhn) revealed the unexpected re- 

 sult that they are members of the Kohl 

 family of central and northern India, be- 

 longing therefore to the ' Dravidian ' group. 



The Burmese proper claim to be de- 

 scended from the Indian Kshatryas ; but 

 this is incorrect. They are remarkably 

 similar in physical type and temperament 

 to the Tibetans ; and in the Journal of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1896, Mr. B. 

 Houghton shows that their language is a 

 Tibetan dialect, and that they migrated from 

 the western end of the Tibetan plateau 

 many centuries B. C. Even then they 

 were agricultural, knew iron and other 

 metals, and had extended trade relations. 



The peculiar ancient stone implements 

 found in Burma, of the form known as 

 ' shouldered celts,' asj'mmetric antero-pos- 

 teriorily are shown by A. Griinwedel (in 

 ' Globus,' Bd. 68, No. 1.) to be of the same 

 size and shape as others from the Kokl 

 territory of India. 



D. G. Brinton. 



