June 24, 1892,] 



SCIENCE. 



361 



d'Halloy, beginning with this sentence : " Dans une serie de 

 notes que j'ai presentees a I'AcadiJmie de 1839 3, 1844, j'ai cherche 

 a faiie voir, entre autres considerations ethnographiques, que la 

 race blanche, restreinte dans ce que je considere ses veritables 

 limites, presente trois modifications principales, et qiCil n'est 

 nuUement demontre qiie les ancHres des Europeens actuels soient 

 venus d'Asie. ' ' (Italics mine.) 



The author then proceeds to discuss the evidence, physiological, 

 historical and linguistic, which had been thought to show that 

 the Indo-European peoples originated in Asia; and combats it at 

 every point, marshalling his arguments to prove that the true 

 white type is distinctly European; and that the ancient Sanscrit 

 and Zend are in no wise maternal languages of the Indo-European 

 stock, but merely sisters of the Greek, Latin, and ancient Ger- 

 man. 



The earliest expression of this view by Dr. Latham, so far as I 

 know, is that referred to by Professor Haynes, in tliis journal, 

 Aprils, which was published in 1851, — years, therefore, after 

 Omalius had urged the same theory in a number of papers. It is 

 strange, indeed, and regrettable, that an endless chain of writers 

 have given credit where it did not belong for this bold and cer- 

 tainly in great measure correct theory. D. G. Brinton. 



Media, Pa., June 20. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



Professor Huxley is collecting his papers on the " Gadarene 

 Swine'' and other controversial topics, which lie contributed re- 

 cently to the Nineteenth Century, and will issue thetn with a new 

 preface. 



— Fleming H. Revell Company has just ready "Peeps into 

 China." by the Rev. Gilbert Reid, M. A., of the American Presby- 

 terian Board, a series of observations on the manners and customs 

 of the Chinese. 



— G. P. Putnam's Sons have ready " Materialism and Modern 

 Physiology of the Nervous System," by Dr. William H. Thomson, 

 Professor of Materia Medica in the University of New York; and 

 " Wlio Pays Your Taxes? " a compilation by Bolton Hall of the 

 opinions on taxation of David A. Wells, George H. Andrews, 

 Thomas G. Shearman, Julien T. Davies. Joseph Uana Miller, the 

 compiler and others, which is one of the " Questions of the Day 

 Series." 



— Ginn & Co. have in preparation " A Students' Edition of the 

 Age of Fable," on the basis of Bulfinch's " Age of Fable " (1855), 

 adapted to school use and to the needs of beginners in English 

 literature and in the classics, in part rewritten, accompanied by 

 interpretative and illustrative notes, by Charles Mills Gayley, Pro- 

 fessor of the English Language and Literature in the University 

 of California, and formerly Assistant Professor of Latin in the 

 University of Michigan. 



— Longmans, Green & Co. will publish imuiediately a new 

 edition of Professor Max Miiller's lectures on "India: What can 

 it Teach Us ? " which were delivered at Cambridge to the candi- 

 dates for the Indian Civil Service. They will bring out at the 

 same time a new edition of the first volume of Professor Max 

 Miiller's " Gifford Lectures," on " Natural Religion," delivered at 

 Glasgow in 1889. Professor Max Miiller is preparing for the 

 press the fourth volume of his "Gifford Lectures," on "Psycho- 

 logical Religion," but it is not likely to appear before the end of 

 the year. 



— Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. announce for early publication 

 'Controverted Questions," a new book by Professor Huxley; 

 " The Principles of Ethics," Vol. I., by Herbert Spencer; "The 

 Canadian Guide-Book, Part II., Western Canada," a handsomely 

 illustrated volume by Ernest Ingersoll, describing Western Canada 

 from Ottawa to Vancouver, and uniform with " The Canadian 

 Guide-Book, Part I., Eastern Canada,'' by Professor C. G. D. 

 Roberts, of which a new and revised edition is now ready; " The 

 Naturalist in La Plata," illustrated by W. H. Hudson, joint author 

 of "Argentine Ornithology." New editions, fully revised, of Ap- 

 pletons' well-known "General Guide to the United States and 



Canada," and " Appletons' Summer Resorts," are to be published 

 immediately. 



— Mr. C. Michie Smith has edited a work embodying "Results 

 of the Meteorological Observations made at tlie Government Ob- 

 servatory, Madras, during the years 1861-90, under the direction 

 of the late Mr. Norman Robert Pogson.'' The volume, according 

 to Nature, is published by order of the Government of Madras. 

 It was Mr. Pogson's intention to issue the work as soon as he 

 could after tiie completion of thirty years of observation, and at 

 the time of his death a considerable i^art of the manuscript was 

 nearly ready for press. In editing the work, Mr. Smith, so far as 

 possible, has retained the original plan. He expresses much ad- 

 miration for the skill and thoroughness with which the observa- 

 tions were organized and carried out. 



— lu the Political Science Quarterly for June Professor John 

 Bassett Moore continues his study of " Asylum in Consulates and 

 in Vessels,"' bringing it down to the late affair in Chili; John 

 Hawks Noble presents a concise summary of " The Immigr-ation 

 Question " as it stands at present; Robt. Brown, Jr., gives the 

 salient points in the history of "Tithes in England and Wales; " 

 Professor Ugo Rabbeno, of Bologna, Italy, expounds and criti- 

 cises "The Landed System of Social Economy," as contained in 

 the works of his fellow-countryman, Achille Loria; Ernest W. 

 Clement discusses "Local Self-Government in Japan;" and Pro- 

 fessor A. B. Hart, of Harvard, writing on " The Exercise of the 

 SufiErage,'' argues against the project of compulsory voting and 

 gives statistical tables bearing on the subject. The book reviews 

 include over twenty publications, and Professor Dunning brings 

 his Record of Political Events down to May 1. 



— C W. Bardeen of Syracuse, N. Y., has published a little 

 pamphlet by Professor N. M. Butler on "The Place of Comenius 

 in the History of Education." It does not sketch the incidents of 

 Comenius's life, and gives only a partial account of his educational 

 theories, the defective parts of his work being for the most part 

 kept out of sight. Comenius held certain iiotions about the mat- 

 ter and manner of teaching of which Professor Butler himself is 

 a strong partisan, and he is glorified in this pamphlet accordingly. 

 Indeed, our author would have us believe that nearly all those 

 views and practices that go by the indefinite name of " the new 

 education" were anticipated by the Moravian educator wlio was 

 born tliree centuries ago. Yet when we come down to facts, we 

 find that his anticipations were often very vague, while many of 

 the ideas he held, and on which Mr. Butler lays much stress, are 

 at the present day little better than fads. The point most in- 

 sisted upon by Mr. Butler is that Comenius was the first to main- 

 tain that education is, or should be, a drawing out and develop- 

 ing of the faculties. But surely that idea is expressed in the 

 etymology of the word education, a fact which proves that the 

 idea is very old. Comenius holds an honorable place in educa- 

 tional history, but he was no such paragon as Mr. Butler would 

 have us believe. 



— The Clarendon Press, says Nature, will publish immediately 

 a second volume of Professor Weismann's work on "Heredity 

 and Kindred Biological Problems." It contains four essays, of 

 which only the shortest has previously appeared in an English 

 form (in the columns of Nature). The first essay deals with de- 

 generation, and clearly shows by abundant illustrations that it 

 has resulted irom panmixia, or the cessation of natural selection. 

 The second is an attempt to explain the development of the art of 

 music, and to show that the hereditary transmission of the results 

 of practice is quite unnecessary in order to account for its rise. 

 Tlie thii-d contains a reply to certain objections urged by Professor 

 Vines. It will be useful in giving clearer expression to the ideas 

 on the death of multicellular beings and the immortality of 

 the unicellular. The fourth and last essay is by far the longest 

 and most important. It deals with the essential significance of 

 sexual reproduction and conjugation, etc., as inferred from the 

 results of the most recent researches. Professor Weismann's 

 older views on these subjects, especially concerning the polar 

 bodies, have been modified and in part abandoned. The immor- 

 tality of unicellular beings and the question of the transmission of 



