November i6, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



239 



Hanging of the Crane,' and ' Morituri Salutamus.' Portions of the 

 ' Building of the Ship ' have Ijeen quite extensively used in schools, 

 liut the whole poem has never appeared before in so cheap a form. 

 To those who have read (and who have not?) the ' Paradise for 

 Children ' in Hawthorne's ' Wonder Book ' (see number 17 of the 

 same series), which tells the story of Pandora's Box, the ' Masque 

 of Pandora ' will be especially interesting. The ' Morituri Saluta- 

 mus ' was written for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of 

 Longfellow's graduation from Bowdoin College, and is considered 

 one of his best poems. ' The Hanging of the Crane ' is too well 

 known to need more than a passing mention. These poems, while 

 simple enough for children of the Fourth Reader grade, will be en- 

 joyed by all lovers of Longfellow, and by all admirers of good 

 poetry. These poems are accompanied by very carefully prepared 

 notes, which, without being voluminous, will be found helpful at 

 just the places where help is needed. 



— In Science, No. 299, page 198, first column, 14th line from the 

 top of the page, for ' house-leek,' read ' hawk-weed.' 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 On Alleged Mongoloid Traits in the American Race : In Re- 

 ply to Dr. Ten Kate. 



In the last number of Science, Dr. Ten Kate makes a series of 

 strictures on the paper I read before the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, entitled ' On the Alleged Mongoloid 

 Affinities of the American Race.' These strictures close with some 

 sentences which I should think a scientific mind would hesitate to 

 write, as certainly a scientific mind will refuse to accept, — sen- 

 tences to the effect that any one who differs from the opinions ex- 

 pressed by the writer of those strictures cannot believe in either 

 anthropology or natural history. In spite of ibis cgomet dixi, I 

 venture to retain my opinion, and even to defend it. 



But first let me state clearly what were the aim and limit of my 

 paper. 



These were simply that in our present state of knowledge there 

 is no sufficient ground, either in language, in culture, or in ethnic 

 anatomy, for the oft-repeated assertion that the American Indians 

 belong to the Mongolian sub-species of the species Homo. What 

 future researches may prove, such as those of Dr. Ten Kate, I do 

 not pretend to say ; and I distinctly avoided his example of basing 

 present theories on imagined prospective discoveries (see his re- 

 marks in his footnote). 



Some of his arguments are so extraordinary that they merit 

 special attention. Notably so is that with reference to language. 

 He makes the astounding assertion that we should group together 

 languages because the nations speaking them present similar phys- 

 ical characteristics ! I need but ask if there ever hved a scientific 

 linguist to whom this novel system occurred. Dr. Ten Kate ac- 

 knowledges, that, as yet, no linguistic connection has been shown 

 between American languages and those of the Asiatic Mongols. 

 This is all I asserted. 



Nor c^oes my critic attempt to show a single element of Mongo- 

 lian culture in America. I maintain that this culture is autoch- 

 thonous ; it can all be accounted for by the sociologic history of the 

 nations possessing it ; and when such is the case, it is totally un- 

 scientific to go elsewhere to seek its origin. 



Dr. Ten Kate is most diffuse on somatologic points ; and on 

 these he is singularly inconsistent. He argues that the color and 

 character of hair and skin are of little or no importance as race 

 distinction, adducing the Teutons and Italians as examples. I dif- 

 fer with him here, and I deny the correctness of his observations 

 about the color of the American Indians ; but grant his position, 

 and does it not also prove the futility of those arguments based 

 upon the alleged identities in these respects of Americans and 

 Mongolians .' In either case my thesis would stand intact. 



With regard to the relative prevalence of the ossa Inccc, I must 

 retain my opinion until Dr. Ten Kate is more explicit in his figures, 

 and the same with reference to the glabella. I am prepared to 

 furnish statistics when called upon. 



In his paragraph about brachycephaly the critic contradicts not 

 one of my statements, although he asserts that he does. If I have 

 anywhere said that there are no brachycephalic tribes in America, 



I should like the passage pointed out. His references to half a 

 dozen authors in this connection are meaningless. Why he finds 

 himself under the necessity of pointing out the distinction between 

 the nasal index as determined on the bony skull and the living face, 

 I know not. American anthropologists do not require instruction 

 in this elementary fact. If he had been familiar with Topinard's 

 ' Elements d'Anthropologie,' to which he refers, and which I 

 quoted in that connection, he would have known that any intima- 

 tion that I had neglected that distinction was groundless. 



I shall not pursue this reply further. The reader may decide 

 whether Dr. Ten Kate has shown a single well-established affinity 

 between the Americans and the Asiatic Mongols. I assert he has 

 not ; and I add that such affinities are not more numerous than be- 

 tween the Americans and, say, the Berber tribes of North Africa. 



D. G. Brinton, M.D. 



Media, Penn., Nov. 



The Theory of the Origin of Species by Natural Selection. 



A REMARK.A.BLY clear conception of the elements of the theory 

 for which Charles Darwin has become famous was published al- 

 most thirty years prior to the appearance of ' The Origin of 

 Species.' 



I have just brought home with me from London a number of 

 geological works published in the early part of this century, among 

 them a copy of Robert Bakewell's ' Introduction to Geology.' The 

 passage I am about to quote from it appeared first in the fourth 

 edition, which was published in 1833; and it is repeated in the 

 fifth edition, published in 1838, with an interesting footnote (see 

 pp. 403, 404). 



The author is discussing Deshayes's classification of the various 

 tertiary formations by means of comparison of the faunas with the 

 living species. In the course of the discussion, he refers to the ex- 

 periments of Robert Bakewell of Dishley, in Leicestershire, in pro- 

 ducing choice breeds of sheep by artificial selection. He describes 

 Mr. Bakewell's method as follows : — 



" He first travelled over England, and part of the continent, to 

 discover and select animals of the same species, possessing certain 

 peculiarities of form, and other qualities which he was desirous to 

 render permanent. By selecting two animals to breed from, which 

 possessed the desired qualities in an eminent degree, and after- 

 wards selecting from their offspring those in which these qualities 

 ■were most conspicuous and breeding again from them, the peculiar- 

 ities were further increased. By continuing the same selection 

 through four or five generations, he obtained races that would 

 transmit the same qualities permanently to succeeding generations." 



Then the author applies this principle to explain the appearance 

 of new forms of Mollusca in the tertiary beds, as follows : — 



" Let us, however, imagine, what is very possible, that a number 

 of individuals of one species of bivalve or univalve shell were driven, 

 during a violent storm, into a distant part of the ocean, where the 

 animals could no longer obtain their accustomed food, but were 

 still able to support life by aliment of a somewhat different kind. 

 Let us suppose that the annoyances to which they had before been 

 subject, from natural enemies or other causes, were changed for 

 annoyances of another kind. Under these different circumstances, 

 is it not probable that the animals themselves would undergo some 

 change, and modify the construction of their shells in some degree, 

 to render them better suited to the new conditions in which they 

 were placed .' Thus, in the course of a few generations, we 

 should have a race which conchologists would call a distinct 

 species." 



To this the author adds this footnote in the fifth edition (1S38) : 

 " What was above stated hypothetically in the fourth edition of 

 this work may now be asserted as ascertained facts. Dr. Harlan, 

 a distinguished American naturalist, informed the author that 

 testaceous Mollusca removed from one river to another in Amer- 

 ica were observed in time to change the form of their shells. Mr. 

 Gray, in the Philadelphia Transactions, 1S33, states that great 

 varieties of form are produced in shells of the same species, by a 

 removal from calm to agitated water." 



Here the chief points of Darwin's theory of the origin of species 

 are expressed. They are founded, also, upon obsen'ed facts. The 



