568 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 380. 



of enlightenment has absorbed the flood of 

 mediaeval religious persecution, we have all 

 seen remnants, noisome pools of intoler- 

 ance, in localities where the cleansing rays 

 seldom and feebly penetrate. I know of 

 no instrument with a potency equal to that 

 of anthropology for their removal. 



The proverbial tendency in the college 

 student toward self-complacency is 

 checked and corrected by a knowledge of 

 the broad lines of cultural development, of 

 the primal principles of all human activi- 

 ties. Vanity cannot thrive in the contem- 

 plation of a plan that requires an eternity 

 for its fulfilment. ' Wisdom is before lum 

 that hath understanding.' 



The somatologist discovers in the human 

 body a record, kept by the vital principle 

 of heredity, of its upward struggle from 

 the simplest animal forms. This living his- 

 tory dates from a past beside which the 

 glacial epoch is but as yesterday, yet it is 

 not vague and indecipherable; it is boldly 

 written. Pages are inscribed in our mus- 

 cles; others in vein, artery and gland; in 

 the digestive system and the epithelial 

 tracts; and others in that most conserva- 

 tive of tissues — the nervous system. In 

 head, trunk and limbs these functionless 

 ' fossilized structures ' abound, not only 

 useless to us now, but positively dangerous, 

 as they frequently become the seat of dis- 

 ease. 



In like manner, the folk-lorist finds in 

 the body politic survivals of belief and 

 practice that antedate and supplement 

 written history. Backward they lead 

 through ever simpler social organizations 

 to the primitive period when men walked 

 in the fear of gods innumerable that influ- 

 enced every waking moment and filled with 

 dread their dreams. Yet farther, and the 

 investigations of the folk-lorist mingle with 

 those of the comparative psychologist along 

 the border line between brute and lowest 

 human. These survivals, also, are a men- 



ace to individual Avelfare, as I doubt not 

 that more than one person will be executed 

 for witchcraft within the boundaries of 

 these United States in this year of grace, 

 1902. It is not long since a Pima Indian 

 was killed by his fellow villagers in Ari- 

 zona because he knew how to use a car- 

 penter's spirit-level. With the magic stick 

 he had begun pushing at unheard-of speed 

 the preliminary survey for an irrigating 

 ditch. That night a jury of his peers tried, 

 convicted, and shot this Piman martyr to 

 progress. 



Not only the individual, but the tribe or 

 community also, may be injured by the con- 

 tinuance of traditions from a lower cultural 

 stage. ' The power of tradition ' is an ac- 

 cepted aphorism. An illustration of the 

 power and possibilities of evil in such a 

 survival is seen in the case of the city of 

 Mexico. Six centuries ago a migrating 

 band of aborigines was led by a myth to 

 select an islet in a stagnant lake as the site 

 of their pueblo, a choice that it is extremely 

 improbable they would otherwise have 

 made. But the eagle with the serpent in 

 his talons alighted on a cactus there, and 

 thus determined the location of Tenoch- 

 titlan. The village became a city and 

 throve in material prosperity, but it suf- 

 fered one serious disadvantage ; it was sub- 

 ject to submergence under the waters of 

 the lake, so that protection was sought in 

 a great causeway seven or eight miles in 

 length. Later a drainage canal was begun ; 

 as the centuries passed, millions on millions 

 were spent in the work, thousands and hun- 

 dreds of thousands of peons perished in 

 that ditch. In the mean time, the city of 

 Mexico suffered the odious distinction of 

 having the highest death rate of any capi- 

 tal in the world. 



Not alone in its origin, but also in its 

 doAvnfall as the seat of Aztec power, did 

 this city illustrate the effect upon the com- 

 munity of traditional belief. In the golden 



