68 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. V. No. 106. 



tion toward a little-considered factor in the negro 

 problem. The authorjustly points out that dur- 

 ingthedays of slavery the amalgamation between 

 the whites and blacks was illicit, and that the 

 mulattoes and other mixed bloods were almost 

 exclusively the progeny of white fathers and 

 black or mixed-blood mothers, and his discus- 

 sion of the vital and other characteristics of 

 the American negro is based on these conspicu- 

 ous facts ; and he justly observes that, with the 

 abolition of slavery, illicit amalgamation de 

 creased enormously, and, so far as fruitful 

 unions are concerned, has practically disap- 

 peared. He also gives slight recognition to the 

 fact that amalgamation is proceeding slowly 

 through intermarriage ; yet he does not notice 

 (although his statistics clearly indicate as much) 

 that by far the greater part of the legitimate 

 and productive unions are between black men 

 and white women, rather than between white 

 men and black women, as during slavery. Thus 

 in Michigan, during the 20 years 1874-1893, 111 

 out of the 14,151 marriages were interracial, 

 and of these 93 were between black or mulatto 

 males and white females, leaving only 18 unions 

 of the slavery type (page 198); and in Ehode 

 Island, during the 13 years 1881-1893, there 

 were 51 white females and only 7 white males 

 in the 58 interracial marriages (page 199). So 

 too, in the 23 cases of interracial marriage (ex- 

 cluding the sporadic unions) studied by the au- 

 thor, there were 19 white women to 4 white 

 men (page 204). These ratios are in accordance 

 with the casual observations of the reviewer, 

 who has noted in addition (again leaving out 

 of account sporadic and irregular unions) that 

 many of the blacks who marry white women 

 are among the leading representatives of their 

 race, one being the most illustrious in Ameri- 

 can history, while in some cases at least the 

 white wives are fairly representative of their 

 race and sex. Now a question at once arises 

 concerning the characteristics of the progeny of 

 such unions, who may not be numerous but who 

 represent a distinct class of our population ; a 

 question arises also as to whether these legiti- 

 mate interracial unions are increasing, as the 

 meager figures appear to indicate ; and there 

 are half a dozen collateral inquiries which will 

 occur to sociologists, and perhaps to those sta- 



ticians who, like the author of the memoir 

 under notice, are given to considering the 

 meanings expressed by figures as well as the 

 figures themselves. This criticism, it will be 

 observed, is of the constructive rather than the 

 destructive sort; it does not tend to invalidate 

 any of the results of Mr. Hoffman's excellent 

 work, but, if well founded, indicates a direction 

 in which the work might have been carried 

 further advantageously. 



W J McGee. 



Les Aryens au Nord et au Sud de V Hindou-Kouch. 



Par Charles de Ujfalvy. pp. 488. G. 



Masson, Paris. 1896. 



M. Ujfalvy is known as a diligent student of 

 anthropology and an earnest disciple of Broca. 

 He has the same implicit faith in the perman- 

 ence of the physical type and its superiority 

 over all other human traits for the purposes of 

 classification and tracing descent. The feature 

 beyond others, which he considers ranks in 

 significance, is the cranial index. A nation, 

 he observes, may lose its language, alter its 

 social condition and deeply modify its blood 

 by crossings ; but it will always preserve the 

 traces of its primitive physical type. Only 

 through a long process of transformation, by 

 which the encephalon is materially altered in 

 its lines of growth, and thus changes the shape 

 of its bony envelope, can a brachycephalic peo- 

 ple, for instance, become dolichocephalic. 



These are the leading principles of investiga- 

 tion which the author proceeds to apply to the 

 Aryan tribes of Central Asia. The main topic 

 is preceded by two introductions, the first geo- 

 graphic and historic, the second ' ethnologic, 

 ethnogenic and biologic' The former not only 

 describes the geographic features of the region 

 and its trade routes, but lays especial stress on 

 the great loess formations and their bearings on 

 human character and distribution. The primi- 

 tive Aryan Iranians, he argues, were immediate 

 neighbors to the ancestors of the Chinese. 



The second introduction is largely historical. 

 The author points out the wide variance in the 

 skull-types of the modern Asian Aryans and 

 seeks to explain it by various invasions and 

 interminglings in ancient times, and biologic 

 laws — ever faithful to his motto: "II existe 



