484 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 116. 



accumulating water. But it is difficult, not to 

 say impossible, to believe that these forces 

 would be adequate to the production of any 

 such results as he supposes. The total amount 

 of displacement which could result from them 

 could be only a few feet. 



Combined with the theory of moderate oscil- 

 lations in the earth's crust at the proper places, 

 Captain Taber's views are helpful in appreciar 

 ting the effect of the ocean currents in so dis- 

 tributing heat and moisture as to produce glacial 

 conditions both in the southern and northern 

 hemisphere. But, unless he admits these 

 changes of land level, we see little force in his 

 arguments, and consequently his prognostica- 

 tion of a coming ice age is without any scientific 

 basis. 



G. Feedbbick Wright. 



Researches upon the Antiquity of Man in the Dela- 

 ivare Valley and the Eastern United States. By 

 Henry C. Mbrcbe. Ginn & Co., Boston. 

 1897. 8vo. Illustrated. Pp. 178. 

 This volume is one of the series in ' phil- 

 ology, literature and archseology ' published by 

 the University of Pennsylvania. They are not 

 intended to be 'popular,' but to convey the 

 products of original research work. Such is 

 the character of the present number. It is a 

 plain and careful description of a series of 

 studies conducted in the last few years, with 

 the object of finding out whether there is suf- 

 ficient evidence in the locality selected to assert 

 that man lived there in the glacial or early 

 post-glacial period. 



Such assertions have been and are confidently 

 advanced by several prominent American arch- 

 aeologists, especially with reference to the ex- 

 humation of chipped stones from the glacial 

 gravels at and near Trenton, New Jersey. 



On this particular point Mr. Mercer's per- 

 sonal researches are negative. His repeated 

 examinations of the Trenton grounds ' failed 

 to reveal a specimen in place ' (p. 32) ; the 

 caves he examined along the Delaware river 

 contained nothing of man's handiwork which 

 pointed elsewhere than to the Indian as we 

 know him ; and the so-called ' turtle backs ' of 

 argillite, found in the Trenton gravels, were 

 probably ' intruded by modern Indians ' (p. 



60) ; and, finally nothing was found ' to corrob- 

 orate the alleged antiquity of the chipped 

 blades from Trenton,' and not a little to weaken 

 it (p. 85). 



These results, though in a measure negative, 

 leave the supporters of the ' glacial man ' 

 theory at Trenton, with a large fraction of 

 their argument exploded, since much has been 

 made of the ' argillite implements ' as proving 

 antiquity. Now we know that whole quarries 

 of argillite were worked by the modern Indian. 



Other essays in the volume describe the ex- 

 ploration of an Indian ossuary on the Chop tank 

 River, Maryland, with a description of the 

 physical characters of the bones by Professor 

 Cope, and a discussion of their diseased (prob- 

 ably syphilitic) conditions by Dr. R. H. Harte ; 

 investigations by Mr. Mercer in an aboriginal 

 shell heap on York River, Maine, in which 

 traces of cannibalism were discovered ; and 

 excavations at the ' Indian house ' and at Dur- 

 ham Cave, by the author. Among other inter- 

 esting facts which Mr. Mercer has been enabled 

 to substantiate by those studies is that in long 

 post-glacial times the peccary, the tapir, the 

 mastodon and the fossil sloth (Megalonyx) 

 roamed the forests of the eastern United States. 

 This, however, ' refers to an epoch in the past 

 removed by many milleniums from the discovery 

 of America' (p. 175), in the author's opinion. 



The earlier pages of the volume recite sev- 

 eral important investigations of the author in 

 the ' quaternary ' deposits of France and Spain. 

 These gave him an excellent standard of com- 

 parison in his American work and the thor- 

 oughly scientific manner in which he cari'ied 

 it out is visible on every page. 



There are a number of accurate and well- 

 taken illustrations of localities and specimens, 

 and the notes will aid the student in gaining 

 access, to the literature of the subject. It is to 

 be regretted that no index was prepared. 



D. G. Beinton. 



University op Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



PHYSICAL REVIEW, MARCH-APRIL. 



The Lead Cell: By B. E. Mooeb. The ex- 

 tension of the theory of free ions, solution ten- 



