256 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 10. 



tion of the subject for general reading, tliis 

 volume merits cordial commendation, and 

 shovild awaken a mder interest in the attrac- 

 tive topics which it discusses. 



THE OEOTCHI TARTARS. 



An entertaining description of this tribe 

 is given from Russian sources in the ' Jour- 

 nal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society,' Vol. XXVI. ( Shanghai, 1894). 

 It is a member of the Tungusic stock, and 

 is situate along the eastern coast of the con- 

 tinent, from 42° to 52° ; but the pure types 

 are found only toward the northern limit. 

 Thej' are small in stature, a man five feet 

 four inches in height being considered tall. 

 The women average six inches shorter than 

 the men. Their bodies are thick set and 

 muscular, and their power of endurance re- 

 markable. Like all the other pure blood 

 tribes in Eastern Sibera, they are steadily 

 diminishing, either through intermixture of 

 blood or through new diseases introduced by 

 foreigners. 



Their boats are rude, but they manage 

 them skillfully, which is the more neces- 

 sary, as none of them knows how to swim, 

 and when a craft capsizes its occupants in- 

 fallibly drown. This ignorance is owing to 

 two causes : the coldness of the water at 

 most seasons, and their invincible repug- 

 nance to cleanliness. They are adepts in 

 making garments of the bowels and skins of 

 fishes, from which they are sometimes called 

 ' the fish-skin Tartars.' They are also handy 

 with tools. 



Their religion is ostensibly that of the or- 

 thodox Greek Church ; but really their ances- 

 tral Shamanism is as strong as ever. The 

 residences of the Shamans are denoted by 

 sticks or poles planted in front of them, 

 carved to resemble animals, like the Totem 

 poles of the north-west coast. Their chief 

 divinities make a triad, being Boa Anduri, 

 'spirit of the sky;' Temu Anduri, 'spirit 

 of the sea,' and Kamtchanga Anduri, ' spirit 



of the mountains.' They indulge in violent 

 religious frenzies, in which thej^ speak in un- 

 known tongues. One woman was unable 

 to talk in her own for two months after such 

 a spell. 



THE FUTURE OF THE COLORED RACE IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



This momentous question has been made 

 the subject of careful investigation by a 

 physician of Savannah, Dr. Eugene R. Cor- 

 son. His essay is published in the ' Wilder 

 Quarter-Century Book,' a well deserved 

 memento issued by the pupils of Dr. Burt C. 

 Wilder, of Cornell University, at the expira- 

 tion of his first quarter century of teaching. 



Dr. Corson regards the I'elative mortality 

 of the two races, white and colored, in the 

 United States as 'the pith of the whole 

 matter ;' and, thei'efore, addi-esses his special 

 attention to this. From his own observa- 

 tions and the census statistics, he concludes 

 that the pure blacks have in our country a 

 decidedly higher mortalitjr than the whites ; 

 more die in childbirth, they are more suscep- 

 tible to disease, they succumb more quickly, 

 thejf are prone to bacillar diseases in a 

 higher degree, and their alleged exemption 

 from malaria is not generally true. The 

 hybrids between the two races he pronounces 

 less fertile and less viable than either. " Mis- 

 cegenation is a reducing agent, chemically 

 speaking." 



From these considerations, which he ad- 

 vances, backed by large testimonj', he 

 reaches the comforting conclusion that there 

 will be no ' war of races ' among us ; that 

 the blacks will gradually fade out or become 

 absorbed in the white population ; and this 

 in such a manner as not to deteriorate it. 



THE PRE-HISTORIC TRIBES OF THE EASTERN 

 UNITED STATES. 



In the Archill fiir Antliropolgle, for Novem- 

 ber, 1894, Dr. Emil Schmidt undertakes to 

 gather together the fragmentary facts which 



