398 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 561. 



g-Iven the dimensions of the standard rattler, 

 the standard charge and the percentage loss 

 of good approved brick, that the omission 

 seems strange. 



The second half of the book is devoted to 

 engineering construction proper, to founda- 

 tions, the discussion of which is particularly 

 good, to bridges (thirty-nine pages), to high- 

 ways, to water supply and sewerage. These 

 subjects are necessarily but briefly taken up 

 and probably no two educators, in carrying 

 out the difficult task of presenting only the 

 essentials, would agree on what should be ex- 

 cluded. It is, therefore^ futile to compare 

 these chapters with those of other authors or 

 to weigh the values of the separate paragraphs 

 of the present book. The lists of text-books 

 given at the end of each chapter serve to 

 refer the young officers, at need, to the proper 

 sources of information and are a most impor- 

 tant part of the book. H. N. Ogden. 



Cornell Univeesity. 



Morphology and Anthropology, a HandhooJc 

 for Students. By W. L. H. Duckworth, 

 M.A., University Lecturer on Physical 

 Anthropology, etc. Cambridge, at the Uni- 

 versity Press, 1904. The Macmillan Com- 

 pany. $4.50 net. 



This is a very good hand-book for the use 

 of students, containing a great deal in 

 moderate compass. It makes little pretense 

 to be anything more than a compilation, ex- 

 cept in so far as the author gives us the 

 benefit of his own judgment on disputed 

 points. To present a compilation so as to be 

 most available is a task of more than average 

 difficulty. We think the author has in this 

 been very successful. He first considers man's 

 position in the animal series in the light of 

 comparative anatomy; which implies a gen- 

 eral review of the anatomy of the primates. 

 Special attention is devoted to certain parts, 

 especially the skull and the teeth. The pre- 

 sentation of the various views concerning the 

 latter is particularly interesting. 



We quote the words with which the second 

 section of the book opens as the simplest way 

 of showing the author's plan: 



The foregoing chapters have as their aim the 

 demonstration of the fact that man is associated 

 in a natural zoological classification with certain 

 other mammals of the order Primates. It is now 

 suitable to take up the second subject proposed 

 for consideration in these notes, and to endeavor 

 to ascertain something of man's ancestral history, 

 that is, of the path of evolution traced by man. 

 The means available for carrying out this enquiry 

 are, in the present day, threefold : ( 1 ) Embryol- 

 ogy, (2) comparative morphology of the various 

 human races, and (3) paleontology. 



The book then continues on these lines. 

 The author introduces the embryological por- 

 tion with the remark that its importance de- 

 pends on the generalization that ontology re- 

 peats phylogeny. Since this book appeared 

 this generalization has received a severe blow 

 by Bardeen's researches on the development , of 

 the human spine, and, indeed, the author is 

 ready to point out facts which do not agree 

 with it. Long ago Marshall remarked that 

 the record was a very imperfect one. It may 

 now be questioned whether it will serve even 

 as a working hypothesis. Be this as it may, 

 Duckworth's observations strike us in the 

 main very favorably, as both candid and 

 judicious. It is not necessary to follow his 

 work in detail. 



We have purposely avoided the section on 

 variations, not because we do not like it, but 

 because the discussion would carry us too far. 

 We will say in passing that the author does 

 not seem to have freed himself from the wide- 

 spread error, fostered by writers of the class 

 of Wiedersheim and Testut, that resemblance 

 is evidence of relationship. This slipshod 

 method of thought has been so long condoned 

 by those who should have been outspoken that 

 it is doubly pleasant to read Osborn's ad- 

 dress on the ' Present Problems of Paleontol- 

 ogy.' Though our present author does not 

 seem, as we have said, to have freed himself 

 from this delusion, yet one suspects that he 

 does not feel quite comfortable in its meshes. 

 The reader will find in this part of the book a 

 very convenient account of many methods 

 used in practical anthropology. 



A considerable part of the division of 

 paleontology is given to the discussion of the 



