JULY 9, 1897.] 
and similarity to some others exhumed on 
other islands, suggests the probability that 
it comes from a prehistoric race, older than 
either of those mentioned, and perhaps not 
belonging among the Malayan stock. 
With regard to the Negritos, Professor 
Virchow expresses the opinion that they are 
a ‘primitive’ type; at the same time he 
throws out various speculations on the ra- 
pidity and uncertain limits of variation in 
man, how much it arises from environ- 
ment, etc, so that the reader almost ex- 
pects him to say that originally the two 
types of the Philippines might have been 
one. 
It should always be remembered that the 
so-called ‘Law of Variation’ in organic 
forms is a purely negative expression, form- 
ulating merely non-identity, and can have 
no other limits than those temporarily es- 
tablished by observation. 
WAMPUM AND STONE MASKS. 
Proressor E. T. Hamy, well known for his 
numerous American studies, and now Pres- 
ident of the Society of Americanists of 
Paris, has lately published two articles in 
the journal of the Society of considerable 
interest. 
One is a description of a wampum belt 
believed to be of Huron manufacture, trans- 
ferred, it issuggested, at the treaty made by 
Frontenac in 1673. A full examination of 
the beads and the method of boring would 
be desirable, in order to ascertain its an- 
tiquity. 
The second paper is on a stone mask 
brought by M. Pinart from the Northwest 
coast. Its traits are allied to those of the 
wooden mask, but as an example in stone 
from that locality it is believed to be 
unique. 
Another subject, to which Professor Hamy 
has devoted a short article in the Compte 
Rendu de VAcademie des Inscriptions, is a 
series of six ancient portraits of the Incas of 
SCIENCE. 
5d 
Peru, of unknown provenance, discovered 
in an old house at Rochefort. They are es- 
pecially interesting as showing the sumptu- 
ous official costume worn by the ancient 
monarchs of the Quichuas. 
NATIVE AMERICAN ART-MOTIVES. 
Dr. H. Srorpn, of the Stockholm mu- 
seum, Sweden, who probably stands at 
the head of European students of abo- 
riginal art, has lately published an elabo- 
rately illustrated folio entitled ‘Studies 
in American Ornamentation,’ of which 
there is an extended notice in Globus. 
He examines with patient care the art- 
motives of a number of tribes of North 
and South America. His investigations 
show that in nearly all examples the 
oldest decoration was anthropomorphic or 
zoomorphic. Emblems of the wind, the 
water, etc., also occur. A certain number 
are figured of which the interpretation is 
obscure. 
Dr. Stolpe is severe on Hamy, Schurz 
and other modern writers who, in the face 
of well-known principles of scientific in- 
vestigation, spend their time in seeking 
out analogies with the Old World in 
ancient American art. He has not found 
a trace of such cultural connection, and 
declares that wherever the material has 
been abundant all native American art- 
development can be proved to have been 
indigenous. 
It is to be hoped that this work, which 
is in Swedish, will soon be translated into 
English. 
D. G. BRInTon. 
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
As briefly noted in Scrence, fluorin has 
been at last liquefied. Professor Moissan, 
of Paris, brought all his apparatus for the 
production of fluorin to the Royal Institu- 
tion, where he could avail himself of the 
