256 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 483 



continued unchanged. It is of course nothing new to Egyp- 

 tologists ; but to the ethnographer and the historian of the 

 arts it is a noteworthy instance of retrogression in one of 

 the most useful and highly prized inventions ever made by 

 man, and that in a country of continuous and unbroken 

 culture. 



The Native Written Language of Easter Island. 



In the last published report of the United States National 

 Museum, Washington, is a very interesting description of a 

 visit to Easter Island in 1886 by Paymaster W. J. Thomson 

 of the ship Mohican, U.S.N. He describes the platforms, 

 stone images, arts, and language of the natives, aiding the 

 reader by numerous photogravures. In these points his re- 

 port is full, but not especially new. Where he does go ahead 

 of all previous voyagers is in his information about the re- 

 markable written language which it has long been known 

 the natives of this island had invented, and in which they 

 were accustomed to record their legends. The inscriptions 

 were usually upon slabs or paddles of toromiro wood, a tree 

 indigenous to the island. The iigures are of equal height 

 and extend in regular lines along the sides and edges of the 

 piece of wood. 



With great difficulty, and finally only by recalling the 

 ancient adage, in vino Veritas, did Mr. Thomson succeed in 

 persuading an old islander to read some of the inscriptions. 

 He is able, therefore, to show us five of them, the originals 

 in photogravure, with translations into the native tongue of 

 the islanders, and this text rendered into English. It is a 

 most praiseworthy piece of ethnographic study, and should 

 put an end to the nonsense which has long periodically ap- 

 peared about this island and its inhabitants. 



TiiC figures are shown to be "pictorial symbols, carrying 

 their signification in the image they represent." Many ob- 

 jects are treated conventiooally, and all are depicted about 

 the same size, thus imparting the aspect of linear uniformity. 

 The subjects treated are family histories, traditions, and lists 

 of the gods, the figures merely serving as pictorial reminders 

 of the names and facts. 



In all these respects the inscriptions are in no wise differ- 

 ent and not a whit superior to those found on the " meday 

 sticks" of the Algonquin Indians. Neither indicates a high 

 degree of culture, and the line of their evolution is clear 

 enough. As we might expect, the full vocabulary printed 

 by Mr. Thomson shows the natives of the island to speak a 

 well-marked Polynesian dialect, and they seem to have 

 differed from the other Pelynesiaus in nothing but a some- 

 what higher developed taste for graphic and glyptic design. 



The Thegiha and Klamath Languages. 



Two publications have recently been issued by the Bureau 

 of Ethnology, Washington, which should attract the atten- 

 tion of students of the American aborigines. Both are in 

 the series called " Contributions to North American Ethnol- 

 ogy." 



One is entitled " The Thegiha Language," by James Owen 

 Dorsey. The Thegiha is a member of the Siouan or Dakota 

 stock, and is spoken by the Ponkas and Omahas. The portly 

 volume of 794 quarto pages is filled with a large number of 

 myths, stories, and letters in the language, accompanied by 

 interlinear and free translations, grammatic notes and ex- 

 planations. A second volume is promised containing a de- 

 tailed grammar and dictionary. 



The work on the Klamath language, which is nearly the 

 same as the Modoc, is by A. S. Gatschet. It is in two quarto 

 volumes of 711 pages each. The first contains an ethno- 



graphic sketch of the tribe especially interesting for its my- 

 thology, 200 pages of test and 500 pages of grammar; the 

 second volume is the dictionary. The Klamath is described 

 as a synthetic language, inclining to polysyntheticism in 

 the inflection of nouns and the derivation of verbs. Its ten- 

 dency to incorporation is well marked. 



Both these laborious works are exceedingly well done, and 

 reflect great credit on their authors. One must regret, how- 

 ever, that difl^erent phonetic alphabets have been adopted. 

 Dorsey employs that of the Bureau of Ethnology, Gatschet 

 that which he calls " my scientiflc alphabet, based on the 

 original pronunciation of the letters;" not always very sci- 

 entific, as may be judged from the fact that be gives as iden- 

 tical the u sound in English nude, German uhr, French 

 cour. Mr. Gatschet must have learned his English where 

 they call dukes " dooks." 



THE GROWTH OF CHILDREN. 



In his recent paper on the growth of children in the Twenty- 

 Second Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachu- 

 setts, page 479 ff. Dr. H. P. Bowditch has called attention to the 

 fact that the curves representing the distribution of cases in those 

 years during which growth continues is asymmetrical, so that the 

 average and median values, (the one corresponding to the point 

 above and below which one-half the total number of cases are 

 found) do not coincide. An examination of the original tables on 

 which this statement is based (The Growth of Children, Eighth An- 

 nual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, 1877, 

 Table 4 ff.), brings out the asymmetry of the curres represented 

 by these figures very clearly, and proves that the difference be- 

 tween the average and median values is not accidental. Dr. Bow- 

 ditch calls also attention to the fact that the variability of the series 

 first increases and later on decreases. 



The causes of these phenomena will be considered in the follow- 

 ing lines. When considering statures and weights of adults of a 

 certain region, we find them generally arranged symmetrically 

 around the average which has the maximum frequency. The 

 tables showing the values of these measurements from year to 

 year prove that growth is irregular, being more rapid in the be- 

 ginning and becoming slower as the adult stage is nearly reached. 

 When we consider children of a certain age, we may say that they 

 will not all be in the same state of development. Some will have 

 reached a point just corresponding to then- age, while others will 

 be a little backward, and others still a little in advance of their 

 age. Consequently the values of their measurements will not 

 exactly correspond to those of their age. We may assume that 

 the difference between their stage of development and that belong- 

 ing to their exact age is due to accidental causes, so that just as 

 many will be less developed as farther developed than the average 

 child of a particular age. Or : there will be as many children on a 

 stage of development corresponding to that of their age plus a cer- 

 tain length of time as corresponding to that of their age minus a 

 certain length of time. 



The number of children who have a certain amount of deviation 

 may be assumed to be arranged in a probabih'ty curve, so that the 

 average of all the children will be exactly on the stage of develop- 

 ment belonging to their age. 



At a period when the rate of growth is decreasing rapidly, 

 those children whose growth is retarded will be farther remote 

 from the value belonging to their age than those whose growth is 

 accelerated. As the numbers above and below the average are 

 equal, those with retarded growth will have a greater influence 

 upon the average than those whose growth is accelerated, there- 

 fore the average value of the measurement of all the children of 

 a certain age will be too low when the rate of growth is decreas- 

 ing, and too high when it is increasing. 



These considerations may be expressed in mathematical form 

 as follows: — 



In the adult, the relative frequency of the deviation x from the 



