June 3, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



317 



underlies all the "world-religions," Buddhism, Islam, and 

 Christianity. It is in their religious philosophy that their 

 sharp contrast is seen ; and nothing- could he more remote 

 from the highest thought of modern Europe than the phi- 

 losophy of Buddhism. This is well shown by what Bar- 

 thelemy Saint Hilaire says of it in his '"Life of Eugene 

 Burnouf," published last year (p. 43), "At bottom, Buddhism 

 is nothing more than the fanaticism of nothingness. It is 

 the destruction of the individual carried remorselessly out to 

 his last legitimate hopes." 



The science of religion is as yet altogether too novel a 

 branch of study to become creative or directive. It has be- 

 fore it a long period of analysis before it should presume to 

 be synthetic. So this Parisian effort must be considered 

 premature 



Physical and Mental Correlation. 



That veteran anthropologist. Professor Sohaaffbausen of 

 Bonn, observes in his " Anthropologische Studien" (p. 646), 

 "One of the weightiest doctrines of anthropology is that of 

 the constant correspondence between the development of the 

 physical organization and the intellectual capacity." 



So far as the relation between brain-structure and mental 

 ability is concerned, probably no one who has himself studied 

 the facts will deny this. But, in another direction, scientists 

 are less in unison, and that is, where the question of per- 

 sonal beauty is concerned. Even so competent a physical 

 anthropologist as Topinard repeats in his last work the asser- 

 tion that there is no fixed canon or norm of human beauty; 

 that it is merely a local and factitious notion, and is devoid 

 of weight as a general factor of evolution. 



This narrow opinion has, it is true, the sanction of Darwin, 

 Humboldt, and the whole school of association philosophers; 

 but how erroneous it is will readily be seen by reflecting on 

 the application of the law of correspondence above quoted. 

 Leaving aside obviously aberrant and morbid forms, such as 

 mutilations and artificial deformities, it will be found that 

 the underlying motive of the beautiful is that of highest 

 function, — which is inseparable from highest capacity. The 

 conditions required for such result are health, physical de- 

 velopment, corporeal symmetry, and the culture of that 

 which is peculiarly human as distinguished from what is 

 merely animal. 



When nations have ideals of beauty contrary to these 

 principles, it is an indication of low culture and capacity. 

 As they advance in these their ideals steadily near a definite 

 and the same conception of the perfect human form: though 

 it is not to be expected that the species will ever unite on 

 any one fixed canon, because it is in the very nature and 

 essence of the ideal that it can never become cabined, cribbed, 

 confined within the material fetters of the real. One of the 

 few anthropologists who have recognized and pointed out 

 this gradual evolution of the ideal of beauty in the history 

 of the species is Professor Gerland of Strasburg, in his trea- 

 tise on general ethnography. 



Relics of Glacial Man. 



It has been shown by Chamberlain and Salisbury (Ameri- 

 can Journal of Science, May, 1891) that the Loess of the 

 Mississippi valley basin overlies the glacial drift and so-called 

 Orange Sand south of the limit of glaciation, and where it 

 occurs north of this limit its relations are to the first glacial 

 deposits. This identification lends especial importance to 

 the finding of flint chips and arrow-heads iu the Loess at 

 Muscatine. Iowa, as related by F. M. Witter in the Ameri- 



can Geologist, April, 1892. The evidence is not so direct or 

 clear as one would like, but it should be enough to stimulate 

 a thorough search in the locality. 



A find of equal interest is reported from France. M. S. 

 Meunier relates in Le Naturaliste, March 15, that near Mon- 

 tereau, in the Department of Seine et Marne, below five 

 meters of quaternary gravels, a workman exhumed a piece 

 of sawed horn of the extinct Megaceros hibernicus, and im- 

 mediately adjacent to it a vase of very rude pottery, about 

 three inches in diameter. The Megaceros belonged to the 

 period of glacial cold, called by De Mortillet the Mousterien, 

 and the association of pottery with the art of man in that 

 early time is novel, but not at all incredible. 



ASTEONOMECAL NOTES. 



[Edited bu George A. Hill.] 

 Winnecke's Comet. 



Winnecke's periodic comet is now an easy object in a 

 three-inch telescope, and, as it is very favorably placed for 

 observations, it is hoped that those who have the instru- 

 mental equipment will include this object in their work. 

 We continue the ephemeris of the comet by Dr. Haerdtl: — 



E.A 



Dec. 



o ' 



+ 43 25 



43 19 



48 12 



43 5 



42 57 



42 49 



42 41 



42 33 



42 24 



42 14 



42 5 



41 54 



41 43 



41 32 



+ 41 19 



Swift's Comet 



The following is an ephemeris of Swift's comet. It is based 

 upon a parabolic orbit computed by Dr. Berberich of Berlin. 

 The epoch is for Berlin midnight: — 



E.A. Dec. 



