May 29, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



811 



as a high or a low pressure area, such a place 

 as the North American polar region and a 

 Pacific Ocean. 



The reader will find sets of curves* showing 

 such coincidences as Prof. Bigelow thinlcs to 

 have discovered between certain periodic phe- 

 nomena of terrestrial magnetism and certain 

 periodic meteorological phenomena. The writer 

 is unable to give any definite help towards a 

 olear understanding of these curves, indeed, 

 ' ' A complete exposition of the data is impos- 

 sible in this connection, and therefore no values 

 are assigned to the ordinates of the several 

 curves."! 



In conclusion, let it be said that the writer 

 has had occasion to examine irrational writing 

 before, but he has never encountered such froth 

 till now. The more excusable nonsense, and 

 often the more evident, is that which is built, 

 it may be with care, upon false conceptions ; 

 but these papers of Prof. Bigelow' s are devoid 

 of all conceptions, and at best they are mere 

 pretension. 



The writer begs the reader's indulgence 

 in what may seem to be undue severity in 

 this, to the writer, questionable business ; 

 but having been vexed with it for more 

 than a year, between the difficulty of bring- 

 ing it to an end, on the one hand, and the 

 impossibility of putting it aside, on the other, 

 he is now chiefly anxious to be done with it, 

 and is inclined to give, with a minimum of 

 argument and example, the plainest and stern- 

 est statement of fact. 



W. S. Franklin. 



Iowa State College. 



DE. BRINTON ON KBANE'S 'ETHNOLOGY.' 



To THE Editor of Science: In Science, 

 March 20th, Dr. Brinton has a notice of my 

 -Ethnology, which is so manifestly unfair that I 

 will ask you to allow me a little space for a brief 

 reply. The 'title is an error,' because I talie 

 •ethnology to be ' nearly synonymous with an- 

 thropology as employed in modern science.' 

 On the contrary, I carefully distinguish between 



* Report for 1891-2, of the Chief of the Weather 

 Bureau, plate IV., Am. Jour. Sol., 3, 48, p. 448. 



t Report for 1891-92, o£ Chief of the Weather 

 Bureau, p. 525. 



general anthropology, which, of course, covers 

 ' all branches of knowledge whose subject is 

 man,' and special anthropology, to which ethnol- 

 ogy is ' complimentary ' (pp. 1-2). Dr. Brinton 

 does not call attention to these distinctions, thus 

 leaving himself convenient scope to quibble and 

 misrepresent. 



My theory of races ' is a modern recast of that 

 of Blumenbach.' Not so; on this point I reject 

 Blumenbach and state in the clearest language 

 that ' Linne's original fourfold division must be 

 upheld ' (p. 222). Bliunenbach's Malayan race 

 is ' explained away as partly Ethiopic, partly 

 Caucasic." Rejecting Blumenbach's five divi- 

 sions, I had no occasion to ' explain away ' his 

 ' Malayan i-ace. ' Nor do I represent this race 

 as ' partly Ethiopic, partly Caucasic, ' but ' dis- 

 tinctly Mongoloid, one might almost say Mon- 

 golic without reservation ' (330). 



I refer to opponents as ' eccentric or reckless 

 or extravagant.' These epithets are used spar- 

 ingly and never personally, but only in refer- 

 ence to strange or impossible theories, such as: 

 ' evolution with a jump ' (p. 235), and the like. 



I ' do not hesitate to strain a point to defend 

 his [my] opinion,' and Virchow on the Neander- 

 thal skull is given as a proof Here the point 

 is strained, not by me, but by Dr. Brinton, who 

 omits Virchow's last word on the subject, which ■ 

 is that he never maintained ' the absolutely 

 pathological character of the skull ' (p. 424). 

 This, no doubt, leaves Dr. Brinton im Stiche, but 

 that is no reason why he should bring false 

 charges against me. 



I claim ' as original ' to myself, amongst other 

 theories, ' the relationship of Basques and Ber- 

 bers.' No! what I claim as original is my ' gen- 

 eral treatment of - j^ ^ the Ibero-Berber ques- 

 tion ' (xv.), which Dr. Brinton knows is quite a 

 different thing. 



"The relationship of the members of the vari- 

 ous races is shown by ' family trees, ' an ancient 

 and misleading device." These trees are not 

 ' ancient; ' they are mine ; or will Dr. Brinton 

 tell us where else he has seen them ? But they 

 are ' necessarily misleading ; ' yes, if the ac- 

 companying text be overlooked, and the bran- 

 ches wilfully entangled, and then notes of excla- 

 mation added as thus: ' ' The Teutons and Slavs 

 are on a different branch! " The Teutons and 



