April 14. 1893. J 



SCIENCE. 



201 



comprehended. This is nowhere better illustrated than in the 

 religions of the two great branches of the White Race, the 

 Semites and Aryans. As Dr. Heinrich Scburtz points out in his 

 "Katechismus der Volkerkunde,'' Christianity, which is ethno- 

 logically a polytheism, has bf en and remains as distasteful to the 

 Seqaite, as are his localized monotheisms to the Aryan. "The 

 greatest triumph," remarks Mr. G. L. Gomme, in his excellent 

 little book, " E'hnology inFolk-loie," " of the Aryan race was its 

 emancipation from ihe principle of local worship." It is tied 

 neither to Mecca nor Jerusalem. 



These characteristics of religions which obtain historic perman- 

 ence, find their roots in marked ethnic features, as the tendency 

 to abstraction among the eastern Arjans; and the sphere of their 

 influence is limited by these. Proselytes of another race do not 

 accept the religion as it is taught them, because they cannot. 

 They are proselytes in name only. As Karl von den Steinen re- 

 marks of the Christianized natives of Biazil, ' They understand 

 its real doctrines about as much as they do the theory of 

 spectral analysis." Only when the historical and comparative 

 study of religions is prosecuted definitely as a bi'anch of 

 ethnology can it attain the best lesulls. 



The Stature of the Most Ancient Races. 



Has the species of man increased or diminished in stature 

 since it first appearf d on this planet? Have his bones increased 

 or diminished in solidity and weight? Have the relations in 

 these respects between the two sexes always been as they are 

 now ? 



These are some of the very intei'esting questions approached 

 by Di-. J. Rahon in a recent paper in the Memoirs of the Anthro- 

 pological Society of Paris, entitled, " Recherches sur les Osse- 

 ments Humains Anciens et Prehistoriques." It occupies about 

 sixty pages, and is the fruit of most laborious and creditable in- 

 vestigation, both in the collection and digestion of facts. 



His conclusions may be briefly stated. Comparing the earliest 

 quaternary skeletons found in western Europe with those of the 

 present population, the former belonged to what we should call 

 medium-sized people, with an average stature, of the males, of 

 1.63 metres. The tribes of neolithic times varied scarcely at all 

 from this measurement; buttheproto-historic nations, the Gauls, 

 Franks, Burgundians, etc., ran the figures up to a mean of 1.66 

 for the males; since their tpoch it has been steadily, though slow- 

 ly, descending, at least in France, until the average of the Paris- 

 ian men of to-day is 1.63 metres. 



In all ages, the women have averaged about ten centime- 

 tres less in height than the men. The bones of both were rather 

 heavier and more powerful in ancient times. 



Incidentally, Dr. Rahon shows that the height of the men of 

 Cro Magnon has been over-estimated ; that of the man of Spy 

 under estimated ; that the Guanches of TeneriflFe averaged but 

 one centimetre above the French of to-day, and osteologically 

 were very similar to the Cro Magnon people; that from the most 

 remote time the human body has retained the same porportions; 

 and other suggestive inferences. 



The Character of the Glacial Epochs. 



The ' ' glacial period " has its greatest interest because it seems 

 to have occurred about the time that man first appeared on 

 earth. Two careful studies of it have recently appeared in Das 

 Globus, one by D'-. von Ihering, in an article on the " Palseo- 

 Oeography," of South America; the other by Dr. Nehring, in 

 reference to Europe. 



In spite of some recent claims to the contrary (see Science. 

 March 11, 1892, p. 146) Dr. von Ihering is positive that the 

 birthplace of the human race need not be looked for in South 

 America. Its chief land-mass was once connected with Austra- 

 lia and Africa ; but this connection was broken in middle tertiary 

 times. Sometime in the pliocene it first became connected by a 

 land-bridge over Florida and Cuba with North America, and an 

 extensive interchange of mammals took place. The Pampas are 

 pliocene, and show no signs of glacial action. This appears in 

 the pleistocene, and the great glaciers of South America were 

 contemporaneous with those of North America. 



Dr. Nehring has occupied himself with tracing the distribu- 

 tion of the steppe fauna into Centjal and Western Europe in 

 quaternary times. His conclusion is that it extended widely in 

 this direction at a certain period, which he believes marks an in- 

 terglacial epoch, covering thousands of years, and characterized 

 by a comparatively dry and mild climate, and a notable diminu- 

 tion in glacial activity. The displacement of the steppe fauna, 

 which then flourished in Germany and France, by an Arctic 

 fauna, points to the re-establish nient of glacial conditions. 



Geologists as well as naturalists are fully alive to the multi- 

 ple bearings of glacial events on diverse branches of science. 

 The new Journal of Geology, started this year by the University 

 of Chicago, has its initial number principally made up of contri- 

 butions on glacialism. One of them, by Mr. W. H. Holmes, on 

 "Glacial Man in the Trenton Gravels," is distinctly archaeologi- 

 cal. He sets forth the difficulties in the way of accepting the 

 evidence advanced, and, while rejecting it as inadequate, does so 

 in a fair and unprejudiced tone. 



Ethnography of Central America. 



Among those whose published studies have considerably aided in 

 the advancement of knowledge concerning the geography, 

 archaeology and ethnography of Central America, M. Desire 

 Pector, consul of Nicaragua at Paris, deserves an honorable posi- 

 tion. He has been for years an active officer in the Societe 

 Americaine de France, and in the Congres International des 

 Americanistes. Among the various articles which he has recent- 

 ly issued, one touches on the origin of the name America. This 

 has been derived by Marcou and others from the native word 

 " Amerrique," applied to a chain of mountains on the Atlantic 

 coast of Nicaragua. M. Pector, however, shows that the correct 

 form is " Amerrisque," and rejects the Marcou hypothesis. 



In a more extended study, M. Pector takes up a large 

 number of the native- geographical names of Central America, 

 and attempts to trace their etymology. It is in part an appendix 

 to an earlier essay on the localisation of the principal tribes of 

 that region at the time of the conquest. Unfortunately, many 

 of the Central American languages are so little known that their 

 methods of compounding words are obscure, and such studies 

 can at present be little more than gropings. 



The archfeology of Salvador affords him another theme, which 

 he treated in the Archiv. Internat. d'Ethnographie last year, 

 apropos of Montessus de Ballore's book on the subject. 



The field which M. Pector has chosen for his studies is one 

 rich in itself, and abounding in significance for the ancient eth- 

 nography of both American continents. In that narrow isthmus 

 were centred and compressed the migratory streams from the 

 north and south; and the problems of those migrations must 

 look there for their solutions. 



The Republic of Costa Rica lies at its southern extremity; and, 

 concerning its ethnography, two recent works deserve promi- 

 nent mention. The one of these is by Senor Manuel M. de Per- 

 alta, a pamphlet bearing the title, " Apuntes para un Libro 

 sobre los Aborigenes de Costa Rica," Madrid, 1893. With a 

 great deal of care and a singularly thorough knowledge of 

 sources, the author has collected a surprising amount of material 

 regarding the names, localities and affinities of the tribes who 

 inhabited the region at the time it first became known to Euro- 

 pean observers. 



Complementary to this, giving, on the other hand, the condi- 

 tion of the native tribes as they are today, is the Viaje de Ex- 

 ploracion al Valle del Rio Grande de Terraba, of Mr. H. Pittier, 

 Director of the Pbysico-Geographical Institute of Costa Rica, 

 (printed at San Jose de Costa Rica). The author is primarily a 

 botanist and geologist, but his observations on the Terrabas, 

 Bruncas and allied tribes are fresh, and full of information. 



A MEETING of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass., in memory 

 of its late president, Henry Wheatland, will be held at Academy 

 Hall, Salem, Monday, April 17, 1893, at eight o'clock p.m. Vice- 

 President Goodell will preside, and addresses are expected from 

 Honorable R. S. Rantoul, Professor E. S. Morse, Rev. E. C. 

 Belles, D.D., and others. 



