June 8, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



5.17 



nesians ; 4. Bushmen ; 5. Hottentots; 6. Ne- 

 gros of Soudan and Guinea; 7. Akkas ; 8. 

 Kafirs; 9. Nubas ; 10. Pouls (Foulas or Fel- 

 latas) ; 11. Negritos; 12. Veddahs ; 13. Dra- 

 vidians ; 14. Mundas (Kolils and Kolarians) ; 

 15. Indo-Chinese; 16. Siamese; 17. Birmese ; 

 18. Himala3'ans, incUiding Thibetans ; 19. An- 

 namites ; 20. Cambodgans ; 21. Chinese; 22. 

 Japanese; 23. Ainos ; 24. H_yperboreans ; 

 25. Mongols ; 26. Malays ; 27. Polynesians ; 

 28. Americans; 29. Caucasians, including Cir- 

 cassians, Georgians, etc.; 30. Berbers; 31. 

 Semites ; 32. Asiatic Aryans ; 33. Occiden- 

 tals or Indo-Europeans. 



The author expressly states that his inten- 

 tion has been to devote much more space to 

 the inferior than to the superior divisions of 

 men, and to treat with detail only of those 

 less known. As he allots only five pages out 

 of the one hundred and fifty-six of the volume 

 to the North-American Indians, he must con- 

 sider them to be 'superior,' and well under- 

 stood. But the}' are not apparentl}- thoroughlj' 

 understood by him. His enumeration, not 

 only of tribes, but of the most important lin- 

 guistic stocks, is imperfect and inaccurate. He 

 is wildly at fault in manj- of his generalizations, 

 some of which it seems proper to correct. 

 The Indian is said to dwell in miserable huts 

 made of poles united in a cone and covered 

 with skin. It is true that the conical form of 

 temporary lodges prevailed from obvious cir- 

 cumstances ; but the material for covering was 

 much more frequently of bark and mats than 

 of skins ; and the more permanent dwellings 

 were of various styles and materials, in which 

 neither poles nor skins appeared, and were 

 often comfortable. The statement is distinctly 

 made, that each family lived in its own particu- 

 lar hut or cabin. The rule is almost without 

 exception, that, apart from the temporarj' 

 lodges, all dwellings were adapted to the living- 

 together of several families: in other words, 

 they were communal. Furthermore, the error 

 is repeated, that the Indians subsisted almost 

 entirely on the products of the chase, supple- 

 mented only by such vegetables as were the 

 spontaneous productions of nature, all cultiva- 

 tion of the earth being despised. The fact is, 

 that ever}' tribe east of the Mississippi and 

 between the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of 

 Mexico cultivated the soil sufHciently to derive 

 an important part of its subsistence therefrom. 

 In general it may be remarked of the author's 

 statements regarding the North-American In- 

 dians, that, when true at all, they are true 

 onlj- of particular tribes, and are not of wide 

 application. In this he has merely travelled 



in the path of other European writers who 

 have regarded these people as of a single ho- 

 mogeneous race ; whereas b}' the criteria of 

 language, phj'sical characteristics, environ- 

 ment, etc., used for other parts of the world, 

 there would be as much proprietj- in his divid- 

 ing the North-American stocks as in several 

 of the other divisions above quoted. When, 

 moreover, he lumps the Indians of North and 

 South America together, he does little better 

 and is less candid than the old geographers, 

 who labelled a fancied line ' terra incognita. ' 



GAGE'S ELEMENTS OF PHYSICS. 



A text-book of the elements of physics, for higli schools 

 and academies. By Alfred P. Gage, A.M. 

 Boston, Ginn, Heath, Sf Co., 1883. 10 + 414 p. 

 12°. 



Because we find lightning explained as 

 the thunder-bolts of Jove, forged by Vulcan, 

 remembering that this was no poetical idea, 

 but the actual belief of a simple folk ; because 

 the Indians explain the setting of the sun by 

 saying that it has burrowed into the earth ; 

 because such gross explanations satisfy the 

 mind not yet developed, — should we in our 

 teaching, that our knowledge may appear the 

 more complete, make use of such false fan- 

 cies? 



Many teachers find it of supposed advantage 

 to make use of the atomic theory in explain- 

 ing solution, expansion, or the fact of smell. 

 This gives, it is true, a clear picture of a pos- 

 sible mechanism. But is there not a danger, 

 when the slender grounds there are for proof 

 of such suppositions are found out, that the 

 student maj' turn away, feeling that the whole 

 structure of physics is built upon such conceits ? 



There is the satisfaction of a clear picture, 

 which can be understood and compared with 

 more tangible phenomena. But is not this a 

 loss, when obtained at the expense of bringing 

 in a conception of matter for which there are 

 reasons, but reasons of a nature which can- 

 not be appreciated b}' the beginner? 



This prominence of atoms is an old bugbear 

 of elementar}' text-books. Yet our knowledge 

 in regard to them onl}' dates from ten or twen- 

 ty years ago, or, as Thomson would have it, 

 from the work of Caudey on the dispersion 

 of light. To be sure, the word ' atom ' ma}' be 

 found in many a metaphysical discussion ; but 

 how could such wranglers, switching at phan- 

 toms, be expected to hit so small a thing? 



It would seem safer to leave the causes of 

 the general properties of matter as entirely 

 unknown. When the child asks what becomes 



