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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 527 



interest, therefore, surrounds this remote period. History is 

 silent about it, and archseology alone can guide us. This won- 

 drous science reveals two diverse civilizations in that area during 

 the early iron age, separated probably rather by a few hundred 

 years of time than by a few hundred miles of space. 



The first is represented by the remarkable cemetery of Hall- 

 statt, near Salzburg. This locality discloses a people slsilled in 

 working bronze, gold, and iron, manufacturers of richly decorated 

 and gracefully formed pottery, lovers of ornaments of amber, 

 glass, and agate, and accustomed to cremate their dead. We may 

 place them 500-800 B.C. 



The late iron age is the La Tene period, one or two centuries 

 before the Christian era, deriving its name from a station in 

 western Switzerland. By that time the working of iron had 

 reached a singular perfection ; glass, gold, silver, and precious 

 stones were frequent ; the dead were buried in stone coffins, and a 

 local coinage was for the first time issued in metallic pieces, now 

 popularly known by the name "rainbow keys." 



Recent studies on this period are those of Dr. Jakob Heierli of 

 Zurich, in the December number of the Proceedings of the Vienna 

 Anthropological Society, who describes a La Tene station in 

 eastern Switzerland ; one by Dr. L. Niederle, in the Report of 

 the International Congress of Pre-History at Moscow, discussing 

 the age of iron in Bohemia ; and an address by Von Troltsch be- 

 fore the German Anthropological Society with reference to it in 

 southern Germany. 



Enigmatical Stone Implements. 



In Science, Jan. 6, Mr. Walter Hough describes a form of pol- 

 ished stone implement with grooved surfaces, and suggests that 

 these utensils were employed in beating out fibrous bark for 

 clothing, paper, etc. This suggestion is not improbable, and 

 has been accepted by some curators. In the Trocadero Museum, 

 Paris, these stones are labeled '-Armatures de maillet a battre 

 les fibres d'agave." In the University Museum, Philadelphia, one 

 bears the label, " Pounder said to have been used in pounding the 

 agave in making pulque." There is no doubt of the correctness 

 of this identification. The Mexicans called these implements 

 amatequini, paper beaters, from the verb amauitequi. Mr. Hough 

 is also right in surmising that the Mexican paper was not made 

 from the agave alone. Other materials were the bark of the 

 "Cardia," a tree of the family Boraginaceas, and palm leaves, 

 hojas de palnia, which Boturitii says made the finest of all. An 

 article on the amatequini may be found in La Nature, Dec. 15, 

 1888. 



Another strange implement or ornament is the stone yokes or 

 collars which are found in eastern Mexico. In the Internat. 

 Archiv fur Ethnographie, 1892, Dr. Ernst of Caracas has an in- 

 teresting article on these. He believes them to be memorial 

 tokens of great individual achievements and worn as signs of 

 power and dignity, on certain ceremonial occasions. Mr. Strebel, 

 who wrote an article some years ago on the same subject, enter- 

 tained a similar opinion. As they are quite heavy, often weigh- 

 ing about sixty pounds, some have supposed they were intended 

 to fasten the victim to the sacrificial stone, the techcatl. They 

 are evidently not adapted for this, however. I would suggest 

 that they were the stones used in the game of ball, tlachtli, de- 

 scribed by the early writers, enclosing the aperture through which 

 the ball was to be driven. Some are closed with an armature, 

 one of which is figured by Dr. Ernst. They are to be distinguished 

 from the stone yokes from Porto Rico. 



Recent Researches in South American Ethnology. 



South America offers as large an unexplored region as Africa, 

 and one with as promising possibilities. Strange that it has not 

 attracted more attention from adventurous travellers ! One of 

 these, M. Henri Coudreau, has accomplished three expeditions, 

 at the instance of the French government, into the far interior of 

 Guiana. His general results have appeared in various works, as 

 "La France Equinoxiale," " Chez Nos Indiens," etc. Lately, his 

 linguistic collections have been edited by the competent hand of 

 M. Lucien Adam, in a volume forming Tome XV. of the Biblio- 

 theque Linguistique Americaine, published by Maisonneuve, Paris. 



It contains ample and carefully prepared vocabularies of the 

 Ouayana, Aparai, Oyampi, and Emerillon dialects The first two 

 are shown on abundant evidence to be members of the Carib 

 stock, while the two latter are Tupi dialects. 



Ernesto Restrepo Tirado is a young and active archteologist of 

 the Republic of Colombia, equally enthusiastic in field work and 

 in historical studies; as is well shown in his "Estudios sobre los 

 Aborigenes de Colombia," the first part of which, a volume of 180 

 pages with a good map, was published in Bogota last year. It 

 begins with an extraordinary list of the tribes who occupied the 

 territory at the time of the conquest, largely drawn from the epic 

 of Juan de Castellanos. That Mr. Restrepo had the courage to 

 read the 110,000 verses which compose this epic is reason enough 

 to entitle him to our profound respect. Of course, a great part 

 of his study refers to the Chibchas, who had the highest culture 

 of any Colombian tribes. They were, however, not the most 

 skilful workers in gold. This honor belonged to the Quimbayas, 

 upon whom he has written along essay, separately published. As 

 their wealth led to their early and complete destruction by the 

 Spaniards, their ethnic affinity has not yet been determined. 



The University of Zurich possesses the rare treasure of five 

 skeletons of members of the Alakuluf tribe of Tierra del Fuego. 

 It seems these wretched islanders were taken to Europe to show 

 in museums, and by some strange fatality all died at Zurich of 

 pneumonia. Dr. Rudolph Martin has worked up their osteology 

 and published his results in the Vierteljahrsschrift der Natiir. 

 Oescll. in Zurich. He finds the skulls well shaped, mesocephalic, 

 with relatively large cubical capacity, 1590 cubic centimetres, 

 and the horizontal cirrumference greater than that of the modern 

 Parisians, as reported by Broca. The torsion of the humerus was 

 less than in Europeans, and two of the humeri showed perforation 

 of the fossa of the olecranon. The study is an exact and an in- 

 teresting one. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



♦ ** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



On request in advance, one hundred copies of the number containing his 

 communication loill be furnished free to any correspondent. 



The editor willbe glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



A Reply to Professor Hathaway. 

 I HAVE just read the note of "praise and criticism" on my 

 books by Professor Hathaway in Science of Feb. 17. Kindly allow 

 me a few words in the way of reply. Passing over the first part 

 of his note, and thanking him for any praise of my books which 

 he has given them, I come to what he calls his " illustration of 

 my treatment and use of the method of infinitesimals." He 

 says: " Thus, by trigonometry, 



iin (x + dx) + cos (x + dx) = sin x t^ 2 cos ( -|- -j. dx 1 



+ cos X cos dx-\- cos X dn dx 



= sin X -\- cos X -{- cos X dx, 



since t/ 2 cos ( — -f- <Z;s ) = 1, cos dx = 1, sin dx = dx, 



Hence d (sin x+ cosx)= cos x d.n, a false result." 

 Of course, it is a "false result"; who would expect anything 

 else when the work in it is false? But this is Professor Hatha- 

 way's work; not mine. His statement, made above, that 



'■ / 'i cos { — + dx\ ^ 1," is nx)t true. For, 



\/ % cos (^+ dx\ = 1 - dx, as any mathematician can see. 



Therefore, d (sm x -t- cos x) = cos x dx — sin x dx, a true result. 



Professor Hathaway has given the above illustration, as hesays, 

 to show how I "establish the diflCerentials of the trigonometric 

 functions"; though I should have never known it if he hadn't told 

 me; and I deny that I should ever have taken this roundabout 

 way. I hope that Professor Hathaway will not give the credit 

 of his "false result" to the infinitesimal method, which he says 

 " is at best a dangerous one, even in the hands of the masters, 

 let alone the average student." I think, on the contrary, that 

 the method is a safe one, when well understood. "In the hands 



