3i6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 487 



and renown of the ''Friends who had gone before." For 

 such memorial biographies the world owes him additional 

 gratitude ; for the lives of Liebig, WOhler, Dumas, and 

 Oraham, as described by him, will surely arouse the latent 

 enthusiasm in many a youthful mind, and thus serve to 

 pass on the torch of learning to new bearers. 



His personal magnetism had much to do with the unpre- 

 cedented success of the German Chemical Society, which 

 was founded by him in 1868, and which is now in point of 

 membership and influence the most important scientific body 

 of the world. A society embracing men of every nation 

 could only have been founded by a man who bad no petty 

 narrowness himself, who could imijartially recognize and 

 assimilate what was good wherever he found it. As a cos- 

 mopolitan, Hofmann could bring to London the thoroughness 

 of the German schools of learning and imbue his surroundings 

 with it, bringing back in return to Berlin the breadth of po- 

 litical views, the openness of social intercourse, the tolerance 

 for opposing views, which existed in the English capital. 

 "While Hofmann shunned every form of altercation and was 

 rarely drawn into political or social discussions, it was well 

 known that his views were always democratic and for tolera- 

 tion of every sort. The only time he ever incurred the 

 enmity of a class was during his rectorate at the Berlin 

 University, when he took stern measures to prevent the 

 introduction of political and religious intolerance in the 

 student circles. I do not doubt that he was a patriotic 

 German in every respect, but no other German has ever 

 written words so appreciative of the French character, as it 

 showed itself during the terrible siege of Paris, so hearty in 

 deprecation of the fact that political jealousies have strained 

 scientific relations — as are to be found in Hofmann's eu- 

 logies on Dumas and Wurtz. 



In Hofmann the world has lost the model of a scientific 

 man : a lover of science, both for its own beauties and for 

 the benefits it confers upon mankind, a devoted teacher, a 

 shining example of the rewards to be obtained by industry, 

 integrity, and singleness of purpose. Those who have en- 

 joyed the privilege of his personal contact will always be 

 grateful for the view he opened to them of the beautiful and 

 the true. Morris Lokb. 



University of the City of New York. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. —VII. 



[Edited by D. G. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.} 

 LaviTS of Variation and Fixity in Species. 



It is well observed by Dr. C. Dareste, in a recent lecture, 

 that the fundamental question in anthropology is the origin 

 of the difl'erences in the human species. These difi^erences 

 begin with those visible in every individual, and extend up to 

 those broad and permanent traits which distinguish tlie sub- 

 species of man from each other. Beyond this they nowhere 

 KO; that is to say, no " missing link " exists which con- 

 nects in an uninterrupted chain the human with any other 

 vertebrate. 



In explanation of this phenomenon of indefinite variation 

 within fixed limits, M. Ch. du Pasquier has published an 

 ingenious theory in iheBulletin de la Societe cT Anthropolo- 

 gie de Paris (1891). He suggests that the fixity of the 

 species, instead of being an argument against the theory of 

 evolution, is the natural corollary of its two great factors, 

 1. The law of constant variation, and 3. The law of fixed 



heredity. These act with like mechanical inflexibility as the 

 motions of a pendulum, always moving but unfailingly self- 

 limiting, and thus determining the invariability of the specific 

 type, while leaving a wide range for racial and individual 

 variability. His argument is lengthy and ingenious, and 

 well worth close reading. 



In such a study, where especially the characteristics of 

 races are the chief topics of investigation, the anthropologist 

 will act wisely if he follows closely the track of the general 

 zoologist. With a few easily explained exceptions, the areas 

 of characterization of the species man are identical with those 

 of the higher living vertebrates; and it is very significant 

 that zoologists acknowledge that no two of these regions are 

 of equal rank in their capacity for the development of 

 organic forms. This has direct bearing on the deep-seated 

 differences between races, and explains how they can be 

 radically diverse and yet members of the same species. 



The Criminal Anthropology of Woman. 



It is a fact that in all countries there are fewer convictions 

 for crimes of women than of men. European statistics vary 

 from the highest, 37 per cent, in Scotland, to the lowest, 

 rather less than 6 per cent, in Italy. It is also noted that 

 there is a very wide difference between city and country. 

 The proportion of female criminals is always higher in 

 rural districts, sometimes reaching nearly to that of the 

 males. 



Various explanations of these facts have been suggested. 

 Some are complimentary to the sex, as that women are not 

 given to intoxicants, nor to gambling, nor to roving; they 

 are more timid, more religious, more tender-hearted, and 

 their sexuality is more passive. There is something in all 

 these reasons, but they do not satisfy Dr. G. Ferrero, who 

 discusses the subject in the Revue Scientiftque, March 26. 

 He points out that the females of the ants, bees, and spiders 

 are particularly cruel because they are particularly intelli- 

 gent, and he reaches the ungallant conclusion that the 

 woman of to-day is less criminal because less intelligent than 

 the man. This difference is less in country districts than in 

 cities ; and, moreover, in cities a woman can obtain a living 

 at less risk than by criminal acts, par complaisance vers 

 Thomme. Her struggle for life is less desperate; she is less 

 an egotist because she is protected more than men ; she is 

 less disturbed by new ideas because she is slow to perceive 

 them. When she is bad, however, she is " very, very bad," 

 surpassing men in callous cruelty and absence of pity or re- 

 morse. In support of these assertions he cites instances both 

 from history and the courts of criminal procedure. 



Buddhism in the Occident. 



The position of the anthropologist in the study of religions 

 should be altogether a judicial one, and not that of a disci- 

 ple. One cannot regard it other than a mistake, therefore, 

 that in Paris there has grown out of the scientific study of 

 Buddhism a school of "Eclectic Buddhism," whose disciples 

 are pledged to obey the principles of the school, to carry out 

 the'moral obligations it imposes, and are liable to expulsion 

 if they transgress the " rule of conduct." 



The "Master" is apparently Professor Leon de Rosny, 

 whose lectures on Buddhism at the Sorbonne have excited 

 much attention, and who is widely and favorably known in 

 American as well as general ethnology. Last year he issued, 

 a brochure entitled " La Morale du Bouddhisme," which is 

 probably the text-book of the school. 



No one will doubt the solid ethical ground-work which 



