JA.SIARY 11, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



47 



decided to meet next year, if possible, at tlie 



s;\me time and place as the Naturalists, 



and the Council was given power to decide 



the question of a closer affiliation. 



.J. McKekx Cattell, 



Secretary for ISO4. 

 CoLi-MHiA College. 



CCEliKXT XOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY, NEW 



SERIES— I. 



THE • MISSING LINK ' FOUND AT LAST. 



No publication of late date is likely to 

 excite more inteiH'st than a quarto of forty 

 jiages which has just Iteen issued from the 

 local press of Batavia, with tlie title, 'Pithe- 

 canthropus Erectu.t. Eine Alenschenanliehe 

 Uebertiintfj.ifonn aus Java. Von Eug. Dubois, 

 Militiu-arzt der Niederland. Armee.' 



This noteworthy essay contains the de- 

 tailed description of three fi-agments of three 

 skeletons which have been found in the 

 early i)leistocene strata of Java, and which 

 introduce to us a new species, which is also 

 a new genus and a new family, of the order 

 of primates, placed Ijctween the *SVHi(((/(pand 

 Homi)il(hr, — in other words, apparently sup- 

 plying the • missing link ' between man and 

 the higher apes wliich has so long and so 

 anxiously been awaited. 



The material is sufficient for a close oste- 

 ological comparison. The cubical capacity 

 of tlie skull is about two-thirds that of 

 the human average. It is distinctly doli- 

 chocepalic. al)out 70° — and its norma verti- 

 eaU-i astonishingly like that of the famous 

 Neanderthal skull. The dental apparatus is 

 still of the simian type, but less markedly 

 .so than in other apes. The femora are sin- 

 gularly human. They prove beyond doubt 

 that this creature walked constantly on two 

 legs, and when erect was quite equal in 

 height to the average human male. Of 

 the various ditlerences which separate it 

 from the highest apes and the lowest men, 

 it may be said that they bring it closer to 

 the latter than to the former. 



One of the ln'arings of this discovery is 

 upon the original birth-])Iace of the human 

 race. The author believes that the steps in 

 the immediate genealogy of our species were 

 these: l'rothiiloliiitf--< : Anthropopithecii.-i Siral- 

 eiisis: Pithecanthropu.i erectu«: and Homo sa- 

 piens. This series takes us to the Indian 

 faunal province and to the southern aspects 

 of the great Himalayan chain, as the region 

 somewhere in which our specific division 

 of the great organic chain fii-st came into 

 being. 



THE ANALOGIES OF RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM. 



A LEARNED Hungarian lady, Madame 

 Sofie von Torma, has lately published an 

 interesting little work, a prologue to a large 

 one, m which she points out a number of 

 close analogies or even identities between 

 the sjTubols and mythsof primitive peoples. 

 Its title ' Ethiinc/raphische Analorjiern ; eiii 

 Beitrug zur GestaltungB und Entwifhlungsge- 

 schichfe der Religionen' (Jena, l.SO-l). 



Beginning with the study of local arclue- 

 ology, she soon found that the analysis of 

 her home relics took her back to ancient 

 Arcadian and Egyptian i)rototypes. and the 

 question arose, In what way were they re- 

 lated? To this it is her intention to devote 

 an extended research; and in the volume be- 

 fore us, she states with force and brevity the 

 many remarkabk' similarities she has noted, 

 and presents the inquiries to which they 

 give rise. The text is accompanied with 

 127 illustrations. 



ETHNIC AFFILIATIONS OF THE JAPANESE. 



Aftek a great deal of rambling discussicm 

 as to the ethnic rclaticmship of tlie Japanese, 

 it is gratifying to find a writer who has 

 touched bottom at last, and brings a satis- 

 factory theory with plenty of good evidence 

 to support it. Tlie writer is Dr. Heinrich 

 Winkler, who, in his little pamj)hlet, Ja- 

 paner nnd Altaier (Berlin, 1804), offi-i-s a 

 solution of the ])roblem which is certainly 

 Iwund to stand. 



