May 21, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



809 



older authorities, he continues to call ' Ham- 

 itic' To him this is more than a branch ; it is 

 a separate species of the genus Homo, to which, 

 adopting the adjective first proposed by the 

 writer of this notice, he assigns the term, 

 ' Eurafrican , ' indicating that its branches are 

 to be found in both Europe and Africa (though 

 he modifies the connotation of the term to suit 

 his peculiar views). 



Professor Sergi is best known from his phys- 

 ical studies of man, but in this volume he as- 

 signs linguistics a prominent place. In his pref- 

 ace, however, he is certainly unfair to his prede- 

 cessors in asserting that they have not fol- 

 lowed the zoological methods in anthropology. 

 The very plan he puts forward as new, and 

 his own, is perfectly familiar to readers of 

 Darwin and Haeckel, and it can scarcely be 

 ignorance of their anthropologic writings 

 which led him to insert such a statement. His 

 position as a polygenist is, moreover, surely 

 inconsistent with the zoological method, as there 

 is not a single zoologically specific difference to 

 be found between the races of men. There- 

 fore, what he calls in his preface ' the new and 

 unexpected fact ' of the specific independence 

 ■of the Hamitic stock (for such it only is — not 

 ■even with pure racial peculiarities) will be re- 

 garded as new, indeed, but far from true. 



Nor will his treatment of the purely physical 

 traits meet general acceptance. Skull forms 

 have become less and less criteria of racial 

 classification, and on these he bases most of his 

 distinctions. The interesting and ethnically 

 important question as to the origin of the blond 

 Libyans he treats in a most unsatisfactory man- 

 ner.^ Basing his opinion on a few local observa- 

 tions in Italy (themselves to be explained his- 

 torically), he makes the extraordinary assertion 

 that we may expect blonds above an altitude of 

 401 metres, and that the brown Lybians turned 

 blonds by residing above that height ! (p. 296.) 



While the work is marred by these and some 

 -other grave deficiencies, its general composition 

 is highly commendable. He divides the Ham- 

 itic stock, as others have done, into two 

 branches, an eastern and a northern (others 

 prefer western, which is more correct). The 

 former are the 'black Hamites,' as the Somali 

 .and the Galla. He includes in them the an- 



cient Egyptians, the Ethiopians and the Abys- 

 sinians, in which he will be followed but slowly, 

 though no doubt they all partook of Hamitic 

 blood at an early date. He also attaches to 

 this branch the warlike Massai and the Wa- 

 huma. His northern branch embraces the 

 Libyans and Berbers (who are, in fact, ethnic- 

 ally one), the tribes of the Sahara, the Tuaregs, 

 Tebu and Fulbi, and the extinct Guanches of 

 the Canary Islands. In these he does not go 

 beyond the schemes of earlier writers. 



In his concluding chapter he intimates the 

 extension of his 'Eurafrican species' into 

 Europe, concerning which he proposes to pub- 

 lish another volume. The ' species ' will in- 

 clude the ancient peoples of Spain, Italy and 

 Greece, Syria and central Europe, but will ex- 

 clude the Celts, Slaves, Lithuanians and some 

 Germanic peoples (p. 395). They belong to a 

 different species! Certainly this is a strange use 

 of a zoological term ! 



The work is well illustrated and contains a 

 sketch map of the geographic position of the 

 Hamites. There is also an excellent index. 



To those readers who are acquainted with 

 Professor Sergi' s essay on 'the Mediterranean 

 Stock ' most of the theories in the work before 

 us will be familiar. But the numerous facts 

 which he has collected bearing on the traits and 

 extension of the Hamitic stock will be grate- 

 fully received. 



D. G. Brinton. 



Ujstiveesity op Pennsylvania. 



Elementary Human Physiology. By J. G. M'- 

 Kendeick, M.D., F.R.S. W. and R. Cham- 

 bers, London and Edinburgh. 1896. Small 

 8vo. Pp. 240, with 164 woodcuts. 

 This book is based on a small manual on 

 Animal Physiology, written by the author 

 twenty years ago. The chapters are said to 

 have been almost wholly rewritten and ' rear- 

 ranged to suit the syllabus of the First or Ele- 

 mentary Stage, issued by the Department of 

 Science and Art.' Copies of the examination 

 papers of the Science department, South Ken- 

 sington, for 1890-95 are given in an appendix. 

 As to the book itself, it may be said that the 

 reviewer took it up with regret, recalling favor- 

 ably a larger work by Professor M'Kendrick, 



