776 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 359. 



is evident that the Miami, Licking and Ken- 

 tucky rivers were all very much larger streams 

 than Old Limestone, and if we should assume 

 that the section of the Ohio below Cincinnati 

 flowed, inpreglacial times, in its present direc- 

 tion, the symmetry which Professor Miller sees 

 in the present arrangement would appear most 

 asymmetric. 



I feel sure that a careful field study of the 

 topographic features within a radius of twenty 

 miles from the city of Cincinnati will convince 

 any one of the truthfulness of Mr. Fowke's de- 

 ductions. W. G. Tight. 



University of New Mexico. 



permanent skin decoration. 



The July-December, 1900, issue of the Jour- 

 nal of the Anthropological Institute publishes 

 an abstract (No. 117) of Mr. H. Ling Roth's 

 article ' On Permanent Artificial Skin Marks, a 

 Definition of Terms.' The author distinguishes 

 four varieties, all collectively and rather loosely 

 designated by travelers 'tattooing.' 



I. The Tahitian punctured method — prac- 

 ticed also by sailors, soldiers, etc. — by which a 

 design is pricked into the cuticle, leaving a 

 smooth even surface of skin. 



II. The Maori chiseled type, produced by an 

 adz-like implement, in addition to the Tahitian 

 pricker, and exhibiting when completed a fine 

 pigmented groove. 



III. The West African incised variety — 

 usually, but not always, non-pigmented — where- 

 in deeper and wider grooves are cut — not 

 tapped — with a knife, bone or hardwood 

 chisel. 



IV. The raised scar (' cicatrice saillante ') of 

 Tasmanians, Australians, Central Africans, etc., 

 resulting from the continued irritation of the 

 original incision, the insertion of foreign matter 

 and the over-production of reparative tissue 

 lifting the design in welts. 



Mr. Ling Roth considers it desirable that the 

 Tahitian word 'tatu' be confined to the first- 

 named process, the native designation ' moko ' 

 be recognized for the second ; for the third and 

 fourth respectively, the terms cicatrix and 

 keloid are offered. 



This classification, looking toward greater 

 precision in the use of descriptive epithets, is 



avowedly based chiefly on the character of the 

 implements used and the method of their em- 

 ployment. The author has, however, over- 

 looked two types as well marked as any of those 

 included, the Dayak and the Eskimo. The 

 former make use of a wooden block upon which 

 the desired pattern is figured in relief. It is 

 transferred to the skin by percussion, the block 

 being pounded with an iron bar. Regarded 

 from the side of its probable descent, this 

 method must be deemed a subvariety of II. 

 Classed by the tool producing it, it forms a dis- 

 tinct variety. 



The other and more important omission, the 

 inductive or line tattooing of the Eskimo seems, 

 most nearly related to type I , the latter form 

 indeed occurring side by side with it. In the 

 central regions, according to Dr. Boas, a needle 

 and thread covered with soot is passed under 

 the skin, the point of the instrument also being 

 rubbed with a mixture of the juice of Fucus and 

 soot or gunpowder. ('Central Eskimo,' p. 561.) 

 The two processes recur more or less intimately 

 associated over the greater part of the Eskimo 

 habitat. The writer of this note would suggest 

 for this inductive variety (type V.) the use of 

 the Central Eskimo word ' kakina ' (pronounced 

 kakeena)=' tattoo marks,' a term derived from 

 the verb * kakiva '=' pierces it,' as in sewing, so 

 as to make the point appear again on the same 

 side. (See Rink, 'Eskimo Tribes,' p. 117.) 



The main objection to the differentiation of 

 these two types (II. b and V.) is the difliculty 

 of distinguishing between II. a and II b, and 

 between I. and V., when neither the operation 

 nor the implement has been observed. 



H. Newell Wardle. 



Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



magazine entomology. 

 To THE Editor of Science : Columns open 

 for attack have surely room for defense — where- 

 fore permit me to say to the critical Mr. Smith, 

 of New Brunswick, that I fear he does not quite 

 understand the article he criticises. The paper 

 in McClure^s for September is part of a book 

 not meant in the least to be scientific, entomo- 

 logic, or any other 'ologic, but simply to set 

 down things seen, and heard, and done, by two 



