16 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 205 



tax on annvial net incomes above 3,000 marks ; 

 III. Trading tax. (&) On real property : IV. 

 Ground tax ; V. House tax. 



Under I. were put, in twelve classes, the in- 

 comes above 420 and under 3,000 mai'ks ; and the 

 annual tax is from 3 to 72 marks, incomes under 

 420 marks being exempt. 



By a law passed in 1883, all incomes under 900 

 marks were exempted, and the remaining classes 

 relieved from one-fourth of their tax ; the instal- 

 ments due in July, August, and September of each 

 year being remitted. 



Under TI. are put the incomes over 3,000 

 marks ; and they fall into forty classes, the tax 

 ranging from 90 to 21,600 marks, the latter on an 

 income from 7^0,000 to 780,000 marks. The pay 

 of persons in the standing army is exempt from 

 state taxation, and has only this year been made 

 liable to local taxation. In assessing the com- 

 munal surtaxes, only half the salary of govern- 

 ment officials is taken into account. An annual 

 net income is construed to be the net income de- 

 rived from all descriptions of property and occu- 

 pations after deducting interest paid on proved 

 debts, amounts paid in other taxes, and costs of 

 production. Deductions are also allowed in spe- 

 cial cases where the tax-payer has a large family 

 to support. The assessment of this class tax is in- 

 trusted to a board composed of the president of 

 the commune and of members elected by the 

 communal representative body, all classes of tax- 

 payers being represented as far as possible. Each 

 tax-payer is duly notified of the class in which he 

 is placed, and opportunity is offered him for pro- 

 test or application for deduction. 



The system of assessing III., the trade tax, is 

 quite complicated. Persons liable to this tax are 

 distributed into classes, ranging from large trades 

 down to hackmen. The individual assessment is 

 thus determined : each class, except the highest, 

 is subdivided into four sections, and a medium 

 rate is fixed for each section in each class. This 

 medium rate, multiplied by the number of persons 

 liable for taxation in the first three sections of each 

 class in the case of towns, and in the fourth sec- 

 tion in the case of a Kreis or circumscription, rep- 

 resents the total annual amount of the tax for 

 which the town or Kreis is liable, and which it 

 has to collect for the state. If the medium rate 

 falls too heavily on any members of a class, they are 

 assessed less, and the rate is raised for those mem- 

 bers of the same class who are better able to pay. 

 Steamers pay an annual tax of 0.75 of a mark 

 for every horse-power ; and carriers by land, with 

 two horses and upwards, pay an annual tax of 3 

 marks for each horse. 



The report on the United States is prepared by 



Mr. Helyar, second secretary of legation at Wash- 

 ington, and is based on the works of Burroughs 

 and Cooley, and on some details gathered by Mr, 

 E. J. Reinck of the U. S. treasury. 



A HAIRY HUMAN FAMILY. 



The superabundance of hair in certain mem- 

 bers of the human family is one of the impor- 

 tant problems of anthropology. Dr. Ecker named 

 this phenomenon ' hypertrichosis ' (' On the pilous 

 system and its anomalies,' analyzed in Revue d'an- 

 thropologie, 1880, p. 170). In Ecker's third class, 

 or ' dog-men,' are included those subjects in which 

 the hypertrichosis is general. In 1879 two Rus- 

 sians, father and son, were exhibited in Paris, 

 who were good examples of this anomaly. The 

 case of Barbara Ursler, reported in 1639-56, is re- 

 viewed by Dr. Ecker^ with an illustration, in 

 Archiv fur anthropologie, xi. 1879, p. 176 (see 

 also Globus, xxxiii. 1878, Nos. 12 and 14; and 

 Strieker, ' Ueber die sogenannten Haavmenschen, 

 Frankfurt-a.-M.,' 1877, p. 97; Bernhard Ornstein, 

 in Archiv fur anthropologie, xvi. pp. 505-510 ; Dr, 

 O. Fraas, Archiv, xiv. 1888, pp. 339-342 ; Mme. 

 Clemence Royer, ' Sur le syst^me pileux,' Revue 

 d^ anthropologie, 1880, pp. 13-26). 



Adrien Teftichew, of the government of Kos- 

 troma, Russia, mentioned above, was, at the time 

 of his exhibition in Paris, fifty-five years old. It 

 was from his appearance that this type received 

 the name of ' dog-men.' His forehead, cheeks, 

 eyelids, ears, and nose were covered with long, 

 smooth hair. The neck, body, and extremities 

 were covered with hair, but not so long as that 

 upon the face. The son Theodore did not differ 

 materially in this respect from his father. 



The Birman family, as described by Ecker, con- 

 sisted of Schwe-Maong, thirty years old, his 

 daughter Maphoon and her two sons, — three 

 generations presenting this anomaly. Moreover,, 

 the lower jaw of Schwe-Maong had only four in- 

 cisors and- the left canine ; the upper jaw, only 

 four teeth; the molars are entirely wanting, their 

 place being filled by fleshy gutters on the gums. 

 Even the alveolar processes are supposed to be 

 absent. 



Schwe-Maong affirms that he never lost any 

 teeth, and that the eruption of his permanent 

 teeth did not take place until he was twenty years 

 old. Maphoon also lacks canines and molars, 

 whose places are supplied by the fleshy gutters 

 with which she does her masticating. 



Dr. Ecker further describes the famous Mexican 

 danseuse, Julie Pastrana, and a child named 

 Possassi, of Hufeland, described by Dr. Beverne 

 in 1802. 



