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SCIENCK 



[Vol. XX. No. 495 



3. It would be worth while, perhaps, if a trial was made 

 to obtain negro labor for the rice plantations. The negro is 

 proof ag'ainst malarious influences in a considerable measiA.re. 

 Might not colored laborers be imported from Georgia and 

 the Oarolinas ? 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. — XI. 



[Edited by D. G. Brinton, M.D.. LL.D.] 

 Canadian Archaeology. 



Under the efficient superintendence of Mr. David Boyle, 

 curator, the archaeological collection of the Canadian Insti- 

 tute, Toronto, has grown to be the largest m existence, illus- 

 trating the prehistoric condition of man in the province of 

 Ontario. His excellent reports, which have appeared an- 

 nually since 1887, describe with great accuracy and sufficient 

 fullness the yearly accessions to the collection of antiquities. 



Objects which can properly be called palseolithic have not 

 yet been found in Canada. This is the opinion of Mr. 

 Boyle as expressed in his last report. Of course, forms 

 simulating those of the old stone age occur, but this is not 

 conclusive. Stone is the principal material, and in its shap- 

 ing and dressing the Canadian Indians were not behind their 

 neighbors to the south. The collection also contains many 

 specimens of their pottery. It is well burned, ornamented 

 with designs in scroll and line, and some of the vases are 

 "almost classic in outline." The pipes, both stone and 

 clay, are a prominent feature in the reports, and evidently 

 were the objects of solicitous workmanship. Copper speci- 

 mens are by no means unusual, some being knives, others 

 spear-heads, with planges and sockets, others ornaments, as 

 beads, bracelets, etc. Examples in bone, shell, and horn are 

 also figured. About a hundred of the crania unearthed have 

 been examined. They indicate a people with moderately 

 dolichocephalic skulls, averaging a cranial index of 74.5. 



It is to be hoped that the government of the Dominion 

 will continue to lend assistance to this creditable effort to 

 illustrate the archseology of Ontario. 



The Question of the Basques. 



As some readers of Science have manifested an interest in 

 the Basques, they will doubtless be pleased to learn that at 

 the next meeting of the French Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, to be held at Pau, from the 15th to the 22d 

 of September next, the Anthropological Section intends to 

 devote most of its energies to settling "La Question Basque." 

 According to an announcement of the President of the Sec- 

 tion, Dr. Magitot, the question is to be attacked on all four 

 sides: first, the history and origin of the Euskarian people; 

 next, their anthropological characters: third, their language; 

 and finally, their traditions and folk-lore. From such an 

 onset as this we may hope for some positive results. 



Not much can be expected from a study of the language. 

 There is probably no other living idiom which has had its 

 vocabulary so completely foreignized as the Basque. At 

 the Congres Scientiflque International des Catholiques last 

 year, the Comte de Charency, who is a good authority on 

 the tongue, stated that at least nine-tenths of its words were 

 borrowed from the Latin and Romance languages, and then 

 proceeded to point out that a considerable percentage of the 

 remainder were Celtic, Greek, or Germanic in origin. There 

 is almost nothing left of the original Euskarian but its 

 gframmar; and this, it may be added in passing, shows no 

 relationship to that of either Ural-Altaic or American 

 tongues, in spite of various statements to the contrary. 



On LeftHandedness. 



Why are most people right-handed ? Why are a few 

 left handed ? These are questions which have puzzled all 

 physiologists who have attempted their solution. The vari- 

 ous theories put forward are compactly presented by Sir 

 Daniel Wilson in his recent work, "The Right Hand: Left- 

 Handedness " (London, 1891). His flaal conclusion is that 

 left-handedness is due to "an exceptional development of 

 the right hemisphere of the brain." But it must be acknowl- 

 edged that his evidence, consisting of a single autopsy, is 

 far from sufficient. 



Sir Daniel calls attention to the fact that the forms of 

 some ancient stone implements prove that palaeolithic man 

 was sometimes left-handed, and distinctly was not ambidex- 

 trous, as some have maintained. He does not refer to De 

 Mortillet's tables in the Bull. Soc. D'Anthopologie, 1890, 

 which show that at that time in France the men averaged 

 more than twice as many left-handed individuals as at 

 present; and at certain localities, as at Chassey, on the upper 

 Rhone, the left handed were in the large majority. 



In Sir Daniel's generally very thorough volume there are 

 but few references to this phenomenon in the lower animals, 

 and no mention of its occurrence in snails. It may, indeed, 

 sound liije a "bull," to talk of animals as left-handed who 

 have no hands, but the physiological phenomenon is plainly 

 present. It is shown in the direction in which they con- 

 struct the spiral of their shell. With the ordinary vine 

 snail this is from left to right; but once in about 3,000 times 

 it is from right to left. They are then known as sinistrorsa. 

 In the genus Partula far more frequent examples occur, and 

 indeed species have been named from this peculiarity. What- 

 everits cause, inmolluskand in man thesame law is operative. 



The Mentone Cave-Burials. 



Near Mentone, but on the Italian side of the frontier, there 

 are several caves in the cretaceous sea-cliffs, whose contents 

 have long attracted the lively attention of archaeologists. 

 Unluckily, they have been worked over so much that the 

 original stratification is no longer apparent; but throughout 

 the mass, flint chips and rude bone implements have been 

 abundantly found, of such a character that they have been 

 unanimously referred to palseolithic man, to that period of 

 his existence in western Europe which De Mortillet has 

 called Solutreen. 



Thus far, all is harmony; but in this deposit, at various 

 depths, skeletons have been unearthed, and a lively discus- 

 sion ensued as to whether these should be considered also of 

 palaeolithic time, or of later date. This debate has been re- 

 newed by fresh discoveries of such remains in February last, 

 a good description of which, by Mr. A Vaughan Jennings, 

 appears in Natural Science for June. They are said to be 

 of unusual size, relics of men from six and a half to seven 

 feet tall; but it is well known how easily one is deceived in 

 measuring skeletons. With them were worked ornaments 

 of bone and shell, necklaces, and finely-chipped arrowheads. 

 These indications point conclusively to the fact of deliberate 

 interment at a period when mortuary ceremonies were definite 

 and solemn rites, and unquestionably, therefore, to neolithic 

 times. In spite of the depth at which they were found, per- 

 haps twenty-five feet below the modern level of the cave 

 floor, they must be accepted as endorsing De Mortillet's re- 

 jection of the human remains as palaeolithic. 



Ethnology as Philosophy. 

 Among the most thoughtful writers on the meaning and 

 mission of ethnology must be named Dr. A. H. Post of 



