29^ 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol XV. No. 379 



Teturn home, and the preparations for Stanley's expedition, as well 

 as his reasons for selecting the Kongo route. 



As the events treated here comprise a long space of time, and 

 have been the subject of much lively discussion, the concise re- 

 view given by Wauters will lielp to gain a clear understanding of 

 the perilous position of the few Europeans who were still in the 

 Equatorial Province, and the greatness of Stanley's undertaking 

 to relieve Emin Pacha, who at that time was completely cut off 

 from civilization, and was badly in need of provisions, clothes, 

 and ammunition. 



We follow the journey of (he expedition up the Kongo, and the 

 ■difficult march up the Aruvirai. The mutiny which broke out 

 after Stanley's first anival in the Equatorial Province is described 

 in letters of Mr. Jephson to Stanley. It is needless to repeat here 

 the difficulties Stanley had to contend with on his march back to 

 Yambuga, — the death of Major Barttelot, Stanley's return to the 

 Albert N; anza. and his almost forcible rescue of Emin, who, it 

 seems, together with Casati. hoped to be able to continue work in 

 the Soudan. The reports of the retreat of the caravan along the 

 south shore of the Victoria Nyaoza to Zanzibar are still too fresh 

 in all minds to need to be repeated here. The book is illustrated 

 with numerous cuts, and accompanied by a good map of the 

 regi ^n traversed, in which all the recent discoveries of Sianley, as 

 well as of other travellers, have been made use of. 



J!:ssays of an Americanist. By Dr. D. G. Beikton. Philadel- 

 phia, Porter & Coates. 8°. 

 The contents of the present book may best be characterized by 

 the author's own words in his preface to the volume: '-The arli- 

 ■cles which make up the volume have been collected from many 

 scattered sources, to which I have from time to time contributed 

 them, for the definite purpose of endeavoring to vindicate certain 

 opinions about debated subjects concerning the ancient population 

 •of the American continent. In a number of points, as, for exam- 

 ple, io the antiquity of man upon this continent, in the specific 

 distinction of an American race, in the generic similarities of its 



languages, in recognizing its mythology as often abstract and 

 symbolic, in the phonetic character of some of its graphic meth- 

 ods, in believing that its tribes possessed considerable poetic feel- 

 ing, in maintaining the absolute autochtliony of their culture — in 

 these and in many other points referred to in the following pages 

 I am at variance with most mjdern anthropologists; and these 

 essa> 8 are to show more fully and connectedly than could their 

 separate publication what are my grounds for such opinions." 



The collection of essays is divided into four groups: ethnologic 

 and archaeologic; mythology and folk-lore; graphic systems and 

 literature; and linguistic. The collection of so much valuable, 

 and, above all, suggestive material in one volume must be highly 

 welcomed, as many of the papers found in this volume were 

 heretofore difficult to obtain. The subjects thai are discussed by 

 the author are of so great a variety — and mostly on hotly debated 

 ground— that some of them have been and will be sharply dis- 

 cussed. The references to criticisms of these essays which Dr. 

 Brinton gives will increase the value of the collection to the stu- 

 dent. The essays constituting the first part of the book are se- 

 lected to sustain the theory of the development of the American 

 race on American soil, and of the independent origin of its cul- 

 ture. In the second part Dr. Brinton stoutly defends the possi- 

 bility of explaining mythologies by means of etymology, by in- 

 vestigating the origin of the name of mythical beings. The essays 

 abound in acute suggestions and theories, and will be found as 

 entertaining as instructive. 



Electrical Engineering for Electric Light Artisans and Students. 



By W. Slingo and A. Beooker. London and New York, 



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