June 18, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



961 



veyed his vast aggregation of facts in their 

 purely objective relations, we are sure he also 

 would have reached this conclusion. 



D. G. Brinton. 

 i' Origine de la Nation Frangaise. By Profes- 

 sor Gabriel de Mortillet. Paris, Felix 

 Alcan. 1vol. Pp. 336. With 18 maps and 

 158 illustrations. Price 6 francs. 

 In this work Professor Mortillet means to be- 

 gin at the beginning, so that he passes as merely 

 modern the classical writers and even the dis- 

 persion of the Aryans, commencing his history 

 of the French people about 230,000 years ago, 

 and not willingly admitting any fundamental 

 alteration since in the racial type. 



His volume is divided into several parts, the 

 first embracing a review of what the Greek 

 and Koman writers said about the area he is 

 discussing. He recognizes the Ligurians as a 

 distinct people, representing, probably, what 

 might be called the autochthonous type. On 

 the other hand, he believes that Gauls, Celts and 

 Germans were a single and exotic type, one 

 that at various remote as well as modern dates 

 invaded the soil of France and made much 

 noise in history, without profoundly affecting 

 the primitive inhabitants. 



His chapter on the languages is the least sat- 

 isfactory of the book. He does not present 

 accurately or even fairlj' the principles or the 

 results of the best school of linguistic ethnol- 

 ogy. His treatment of the Aryan question — 

 one all-important in the prehistory of Europe 

 — is quite inadequate, and is chiefly occupied 

 with the opinions of authors now antiquated 

 (Pictet, etc.). 



A chapter on the ancient forms of writing 

 and alphabets which have been discovered in 

 France is abundantly illustrated and full of in- 

 terest. His conclusion is that neither history, 

 language nor etymologj' can solve the problem 

 of the origin of the French peoples, so he turns 

 toward prehistoric discoveries. 



These occupy the latter half of his work. 

 Here the author is thoroughly at home with 

 his subject. He explains in clear and forcible 

 language the doctrine of the development and 

 transformation of organic forms up to the semi- 

 human Pitheeanthrojms, and finally, to man, in 

 in the early Quaternary. This remote ancestor 



is traced on the soil of France through his 

 oldest ' Neanderthaloid ' condition, when all his 

 tools were of rough stone and his skin still 

 hairy, down to a date when he was rudely 

 assaulted by some people of higher culture 

 arriving from the distant East, bringing with 

 them more murderous weapons of polished 

 stones and the far-killing bow and arrow. 

 These were Neolithic tribes, brachycephali, 

 from somewhere between Thibet and Asia 

 Minor. They were followed in later days by 

 another Asian invasion, from a remoter point 

 of the Orient, who introduced bronze and the 

 knowledge of tin. 



From the commingling of these various 

 streams on the soil of France, Professor de 

 Mortillet would derive the present French na- 

 tion, allowing, in addition, the known historic 

 alliances. His principal point is, that from re- 

 motest antiquity, unerased by boreal glaciers 

 or Roman swordsmen, by Semitic pirates or 

 Allemaniau war-lords, there has lived in the 

 fertile valleys and on the green mountain sides 

 of France the same ' patient, industrious 

 democracy,' which, by its tenacious energy 

 and unflagging labor has placed their nation 

 as the leader in the van of modern civilization. 



There is much in these theories of prehistoric 

 migration in conflict with prevailing opinion in 

 France itself — much that the author fails to 

 support by convincing arguments. But apart 

 from all questions of opinion, no reader can be 

 disappointed in the remarkable amount of ac- 

 curate information gathered in his pages and 

 presented in a bright, pleasing style, which will 

 render the volume attractive even to those who 

 are but incidentally interested in the problems 

 it undertakes to solve. 



D. G. Brinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, JUNE. 



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 Canadian Petroleum between 150° and 320° : By 

 C. F. Mabery. The author refers to the con- 

 flicting statements published with regard to the 

 composition of Pennsylvania petroleum based 

 partly on the results of investigations on the Rus- 



