Apeil 9, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



579 



viewed the advance of the science during 

 the past year. He pointed out the con- 

 stantly accumulating evidence to the con- 

 tinuity of human culture from the earliest 

 period, and the growing certainty that the 

 progress of the race has been constant. The 

 importance of establishing an ethnographic 

 bureau for the United Kingdom, analogous 

 to our Bureau of Ethnology, was strongly 

 emphasized, and the progress of the Eth- 

 nographic Survey was mentioned in compli- 

 mentary terms. His closing remarks on 

 ' The Problem of Transmission ' are as fol- 

 lows : 



" It has appeared to me that there is, in 

 the minds of anthropologists, a growing 

 tendency to discountenance inquiries into 

 transmission, and to consider phenomena 

 related to a particular stage of civilization 

 arrived at by the operation of general laws, 

 rather than as arising from communication 

 between the people." 



There is no doubt of this. 



THE LUMBAE CURVE. 



The study of the lumbar curve as a point 

 in comparative ethnic anatomy has received 

 some attention from somatologists, but the 

 first examination of it among the native 

 American tribes is that by Dr. George A. 

 Dorsey, in the Bulletin of the Essex Insti- 

 tute, Vol. XXVII. His specimens were 

 drawn from tribes of the northwest coast, 

 the Iroquois, the Ohio mounds and Peru. 

 His conclusions are that the index of the 

 curve is an important means of determining 

 sex and that " it bids fair to become one of 

 the most valuable ethnic tests known in 

 determining the physical superiority or in- 

 feriority of any tribe or race." 



Dr. Dorsey 's tables and measurements 

 are most carefully presented, and the 

 subject is set forth with great clearness. It 

 would appear, however, from the remarks 

 of Cunningham which he quotes (p. 59) 

 that these variations are due largely to 



habits of life, and if so this index could be 

 only a secondary ethnic test, as such habits 

 vary so widely in the same community. 



NATIVE AMERICAN MYSTICISM. 



A SYMPATHETIC but far from exhaustive 

 study of this subject has lately appeared 

 from the pen of Dr. L. Kuhlenbeck (Der 

 Occultismus der nord-amerikanischen In- 

 dianer,' pp. 60, Leipzig, W. Friedrich). 

 He points out, with entire correctness, that 

 not only the religious observances, but the 

 actions of the social and individual life 

 among the Indians are constantly guided by 

 spiritual agencies or occult forces. He 

 compares their mental position in this 

 respect with that of Goethe, who, in his 

 conversations with Eckermann, so often 

 referred to the ' demonic ' powers which 

 control events — surely an honorable com- 

 parison. 



The author analyzes the mental experi- 

 ences of the ' medicine men,' and quotes a 

 number of instances of their strange powers 

 and the processes by which these are ac- 

 quired. Though the essay is lacking in the 

 critical caution desirable in treating so 

 obscure a subject, it is suggestive and com- 

 posed in an appreciative spirit. 



D. G. Brinton. 



TJniveesity of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 Peopessoe J. WiLLAED GiBBS, professor of 

 mathematical physics at Yale University, has 

 been elected a foreign member of the Royal So- 

 ciety. 



M. BoNNiEE has been elected member of 

 the section of botany of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences in the room of the late M. Tr^cul, re- 

 ceiving 42 votes of the 57 cast. 



The portrait of Lord Lister, painted by Mr. 

 W. W. Ouless, was presented to the Eoyal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons on March 29th. 



It is proposed to celebrate the sixtieth anni- 

 versary of Sir George Stokes' connection with 

 the University of Cambridge by the presenta- 



