NOVEMBKE 6, 1896,] 



SCIENCE. 



685 



zens, why draw the line at the color red ? 

 Secular education, and not mere Sunday- 

 schooling, will teach them to use this in- 

 dependence aright. 



ANTHROPOLOGY OF FRENCH POLYNESIA. 



"We scarcely ever hear about the French 

 possessions in Polynesia. The tri-color in 

 fact floats over a number of coral islets and 

 pocket archipelagoes in the benign climes 

 of the Pacific sea. The most important 

 spots are Tahiti and the Marquesas group. 

 The anthropology of these islands is dis- 

 cussed by Dr. Gros, of the French navy, in 

 the Bulletins of the Anthropological Society, 

 Paris, of this year. 



After giving a number of measurements 

 he discusses several questions of general in- 

 terest. Is the native population decreasing, 

 and why ? It is decreasing, not very 

 rapidly, and owing mainly to mortality 

 from epidemics, which this brown race has 

 little power to resist. They are, moreover, 

 great drunkards, and this predisposes them 

 to disease. 



Are they capable of culture development ? 

 Decidedly so, thinks Dr. Gros. Before the 

 arrival of the whites they had made steady 

 and considerable progress, and when given 

 an opportunity readily acquire and use 

 modern education. The teacher is the per- 

 son needed in Polynesia. Divorces are fre- 

 quent and social morality low. Much of 

 this is owing to the example and influence 

 of Europeans. The race is rapidly becom- 

 ing of mixed blood from crossing with for- 

 eigners of different nationalities who visit 

 the islands. 



the late dr. a. h. post. 

 It would be difi&cult to name any writer 

 in this generation whose conception of the 

 science of Ethnology was so profound and 

 noble as that of the late Dr. A. H. Post, of 

 Bremen. He understood that science in its 

 broadest connotation, and clearly recog- 

 nized in it that branch of learning which in 



the not distant future will modify all 

 others, changing their direction and alter- 

 ing their contents. He saw that ethnol- 

 ogy is bound completely to subvert the 

 present popular Weltanschauung^ and substi- 

 tute for it another with scarcely any points 

 of contact. 



Post's especial field was that branch of 

 Ethnology which deals with the ideas of 

 rights and equities, the treaties and duties 

 of man to man, in other words, jurispru- 

 dence in its largest meaning. On this he 

 wrote a number of articles and treatises, the 

 most important being his ' Grundriss der 

 ethnologischen Jurisprudenz,' published 

 but a few months before his death. This 

 is a work which combines extraordinary 

 minuteness of detail with equally extraor- 

 dinary grasp of principles, and sets forth 

 the elements of Ethnology as a (one might 

 almost say, the) universal science through 

 one of its branches. 



Dr. Post's friend and admirer, Dr. Th. 

 Achelis, has just published an appreciative 

 tribute to the departed thinker. It sets 

 forth briefly the aim and spirit of his work 

 and should be taken to heart by all who 

 have learned to know this great, new growth 

 of man's intelligence (A. H. Post und die 

 vergleichende Eechtswissenschaft. Ham- 

 burg, 1896) . D. G. Brinton. 



Univeesity op Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

 A PAPER was recently read before the 

 Poyal Society of ISTew South Wales by Prof. 

 Liversidge, of the University of Sydney, on 

 the amount of gold and silver in sea water. 

 Heretofore it has been considered that the 

 amount of gold present is about four grains 

 per ton. The experiments of Prof. Liver- 

 sidge show that for Australian waters this 

 figure is too large, the amount being from 

 one-half to one grain of gold per ton of sea 

 water. Even this would be in round num- 

 bers about 200 tons of gold per cubic mile, 



