a ns 
February 23, 1894. 
and antiquated classification and terminology, for ignoring 
the fields of greatest interest which have been so wonder- 
fully developed during the present century, and for 
degrading true botany to the position of a mere language 
study. And I also impeach the men of our nation whose 
intelligence and special knowledge should make them fit 
judges in this matter for allowing such a state of affairs 
to exist without the most vigorous and continued protest, 
and for allowing a study of such practical value and one 
which might be made ‘‘ not inferior as a logical praxis to 
the study of elementary geometry’ to secure but a 
paltry ten weeks’ time for its study even in a large 
majority of the normal schools of this State. 
Let us hear from others on this subject. It is indeed 
time that the biologists of America awoke to the needs of 
the situation and did something for the pathognomonic 
condition of this long neglected patient. It is high time 
to take school botany out of the ruts of a dead past and 
place it where it may reflect the living science. 
CURRENT NOTES ONANTHROPOLOGY. NO. XL. 
+ (Laited by D. G. Brinton, M.D., LL. D., D. Sc.) 
NEW FACTS IN AFRICAN ETHNOGRAPHY. 
In 1891 Dybowski was sent by the French Government 
into the eastern part of French Congo to punish a tribe 
for the murder of the traveller Crampel. He ascended to 
the Oubanghi, crossed an elevated plateau, and reached the 
head waters of streams flowing into Lake Tschad.  Ap- 
proaching this plateau, at about 5° north latitude, he 
found the dividing limit between the Bantu peoples of the 
south, and the tribes of the Sudan. The last tribe of the 
Bantu were the Bondjo, the first of the Sudanese were the 
Bandziri, a branch of the Niam-niam. 
The contrast between these wasstrangely sharp. The 
Bondjo are extremely savage, slave dealers, and cannibals 
by taste, slaves being fattened for killing and their flesh 
sold in the open market. Nor is it dear, as one can buy 
aslave in good condition for the dining table for about 
three dollars. The Bondjo have a hideous appearance, 
Owing to their prognathism and their custom of extracting 
the front teeth. 
The Bandziri, on the other hand, are mild in manners, 
hospitable to travellers, their color a copper brown, large 
framed, with thin lips and good features. They are not 
cannibals, and live sedentary and agricultural lives. 
An epitome of the results of Dybowski’s journey ap- 
peared in a recent number of Ze Waturaliste, Paris, from 
which these facts are taken. 
THE FAR ASIATICS. 
‘THE recent work of Mr. Savage Landor on the Ainu of 
the northern Japanese Archipelago is exciting a certain 
amount of attention by the vividness of his descriptions 
and his ability as an artist. Itis doubtful, however, if the 
latter faculty does notat times carry him~ too far. An 
ethnologist repute, who has travelled among these 
people, ites “hat he never saw such hairy specimens as 
Tandor depicts; and certainly they are exaggerated types 
of what the best authorities have reported. 
Mr. Laudo: has a new theory of the aborigines of the 
islands in question. He believes that the Ainu, coming 
from the north, conquered and dispossesed an older race, 
the Koro-pok-kuru, who were akin to the Eskimos, and had 
come to Yezo from the Aleutian Islands. It is something 
in the way of this that the western islands of the Aleutian 
archipelago were uninhabited when discovered, and showed 
no trace of a previous population. 
In this general territory, Professor Schlegel, of Leyden, 
continues his labor of identifying the tribes mentioned in the 
#\* Science Teaching in the Schools,” by Wm. N. Rice, p. ro, (D. C. Heath & Co.) 
SCIENCE. 
‘view of the field to be covered, for using an unnatural 
t05 
Chinese annals. (See Sczence, Sept. 9, 1892, and Dec. 22, 
1893.) Hesuggests that ‘‘ the people with black teeth,” and 
those ‘‘with black legs” are the Tunguse of the lower Amoor 
River, who wear black seal skin boots reaching to the 
body. ‘The ‘* Land of Green Hills,” where the foxes have 
nine tails, he thinks is Corea. A black people, north of 
the Ainu, referred to as ‘‘the wide-awake people,” he 
considers to have beensome branch of the Tunguse, dark- 
ened by exposure and dirt. 
THE ZOREISCH INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. 
AN interesting article, likely to escape the notice of 
American ethnologists, has been recently published on the 
above tribe in the publication office of the Anthropological 
Society of Vienna. It includes the observations of Baron 
von Loeffelholtz made in 1857, with additions of a later 
date by his son. ‘Taken together, they present a vivid 
picture of the tribe, which at that date lived on Trinidad 
Bay, California, about 250 miles north of San Francisco, 
and was stillina highly primitive condition. For instance, 
not only were bows and arrows the usual weapons, but the 
arrow-heads were still manufactured of stone, the method 
of doing which is minutely described. The tribe was 
peaceable and honorable in its dealings. Much light is 
thrown upon its social customs. A short vocabulary is 
added, from which I see that it was a member of the Yu- 
rok linguistic stock. It has since been removed to a 
reservation and is extinct, or nearly so. 
QUESTIONS IN DEMOGRAPHY. 
Tue Eighth International Congress of Hygiene and 
Demography will be held at Budapest. from the first to 
the ninth of September next. ‘The demographic part will 
especially interest the anthropologist. The secretary 
general, Dr. C. Muller, Rochus. Hospital, Budapest, will 
send full particulars. 
The demographic wing includes historical demography, 
anthropometry, presided over by the well-known scientist, 
Dr. Aur. Torok, demography of the agricultural classes, 
of towns, etc., and the statistical study of bodily and 
mental defects. A number of definite questions are pre- 
sented for investigation and discussion under each of these 
headings. It is to be hoped that the United States will 
not be without competent representatives at this important 
meeting. 
THE NURAGHS OF SARDINIA. 
THE name wurhag is given in Sardinia to certain ancient 
stone structutes, which are very abundant in parts of the 
island. The walls are thick, the stones laid without 
mortar, well fitted together. The entrance is low and 
leads to interior chambers enclosed with ogival arches, 
giving the room the shape of half an egg-shell. 
The builders and the date of construction of these 
edifices have been a puzzle from the days of Diodorus 
Siculus, who mentions them then as very ancient. <A 
writer in Za Nature, for October, 1893, reviewing the 
recent evidence obtained by excavation, shows that they 
were built bya people acquaii.ted with bronze, copper, tin 
and lead; who wore metal helmets, and used metal 
swords; and hence lived in the bronze age. Basing his 
opinion on the character of these relics and supported by 
some very early classical traditions, he maintains that the 
builders were Libyans, who came from Africa, seized a 
portion of the island, populatedit, and constructed these 
solid forts as refuges and defensive works. 
Vo this it may be objected that similar buildings have 
not been discovered in north Africa; but it is also true 
that much of the territory there is unexplored; that the 
Roman occupation used the material of the old buildings 
for new ones; and that rumors have reached travellers of 
extensive and ancient stone ruins inthe remoter valleys of 
the Atlas. ‘The theory, therefore, is not without a 
probability in its favor. 
fair 
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