NOVEMBEE 6, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



695 



among the Zulus suflfered from them for a few 

 years after conversion. They are identical 

 with the ' ecstasy ' and prophetic ' manteia ' 

 {i. e., mania) which played such a large part in 

 the orgiastic rites of Greece and, indeed, of the 

 whole ancient world. The human soul was 

 everywhere regarded as a gift of, or akin to, 

 the Divine, and in its nature, prophetic ; so 

 that when, in these moments of strange emotion, 

 it spake with tongues and entered into rapt 

 communion with the Spirit, it simply expressed 

 its true nature and noble origin. 



Christianity, which taught that * the gods of 

 the heathen are devils,' changed the meaning 

 of daimon from a beneficent guardian to a dia- 

 bolic imp,- and called the inspiration of the 

 Pythoness a 'possession by the devil.' 



Psychology, unable to recognize the god as 

 the devil in these attacks, sees in them the 

 emotional outbreaks of the sub-liminal con- 

 sciousness, examples of pathological psychic 

 automatism, occurring always in weak or weak- 

 ened minds, excited by auto- or collective sug- 

 gestion, limited always by the boundaries of 

 the individual mind itself, never in any proved 

 instance exceeding its powers, though some- 

 times seeming so to do, owing to deficient ob- 

 servation on the part of the observer. The 

 proof of the correctness of this position is that 

 experienced alienists never see a case of de- 

 monic possession. Their arrival is as certain to 

 dispel it as is, according to Dr. Nevius and 

 many other good men, the ' sacred name ' itself. 

 What the alienist sees is hysteric or epileptoid 

 convulsions, or emotional contagious mania, 

 and the like ; and this is all that any one will 

 see who carefully studies such conditions. 



D. Gr. Bkinton. 



Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



Naual Oder die Die JEohe Wissenschaft der Archi- 

 tectonischen und Kilnstlerischen Composition 

 hei den Maya- Volkern deren Descendenten und 

 Schiilern. By A. Eichhoen. Berlin. 1896. 

 Pp. 1-126. 



It seems the time has not yet come when it 

 will be understood that the treatment of an- 

 thropological problems requires as much train- 

 ing and knowledge as work in other branches 

 of science ; else a book like the present would 



not have been published with any serious pre- 

 tensions. The scientific method of the author 

 is suflBLcieutly characterized by the naive ety- 

 mology of meander from the Maya word mai, 

 hand, and andros, genitive of av^p, i. e., a man's 

 hand. His other etymologies are of the same 

 value. The author treats words in the most 

 arbitrary manner, changing the order of sounds 

 and syllables, and fits this material to fanciful 

 theories on a heoric language of the Mexicans, 

 and to no less fanciful interpretations of sculp- 

 tures. As a scientific contribution the work is 

 of no value. F. BoAS. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



NEW YOEK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SECTION OP 

 GEOLOGY AND MINEEALOGY, OCTOBEE 19. 



The first paper of the evening was by Ar- 

 thur Hollick, entitled ' Geological Notes ; Long 

 Island and Block Island.' Previous investiga- 

 tions on Staten Island, Long Island, Martha's 

 Vineyard and Nantucket have proved a unity 

 of geologic conditions throughout, and it was 

 confidently expected that a careful examination 

 of Block Island would show this also to be part 

 of the same general series. During the past 

 summer the island was visited and proofs were 

 obtained of drift phenomena, identical with 

 those of the other localities. A collection of 

 fossils was made which demonstrated the 

 former existence of cretaceous strata on the 

 island. The material collected consisted of 

 plant remains, imperfectly preserved and of 

 mollusks in a good state of preservation. These 

 latter were identified by Prof. E. P. Whitfield 

 and the list numbers ten species, in addition t9 

 fragmentary remains of perhaps half a dozen 

 more. They are typical of the lower green- 

 sand marl and were found as drift material in 

 the moraine, under the same conditions in 

 which similar fossils have been found in the 

 other localities mentioned. It was also thought 

 advisable to visit again the eastern end of Long 

 Island in order to ascertain whether more defi- 

 nite fossil remains could be found on Montauk 

 Point, where imperfectly preserved fossils had 

 been discovered on a previous occasion. Here 

 also well preserved mollusks were found, like- 

 wise identified by Prof. Whitfield, who has 



