336 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



in the tree, in the sky, in the sun, are other powerful existences, all kindred with 

 the spirit which sustains the universe, but inferior, and generally subordinated. 

 Mr. Tylor argues that religious anthropomorphism confirms this doctrine of the 

 evolution of gods from human souls. We think, on the contrary, that the bar- 

 baric notion of divine being and power is anthropomorphic ; for the simple reason 

 that "man is the measure of all things," and is compelled to think divinity in 

 terms of humanity. Mr. Tylor travels over familiar ground in his concluding 

 (Jiscussion on the beginning and development, significance and relations, of history 

 and mythology, and on the organization of society. 



We have no space for any fuller analysis of this work, for which the 

 public are under great obligations to the author and the American publ sher. It 

 deserves high commendation. Its drawbacks are few and not serious. We do 

 not think the author has given a justly proportionate development to the physical 

 characteristics of races, and their relations to the Regions which they inhabit. 

 Ethnology is subordinate, and man is the central idea of the work. We can an- 

 ticipate the justification of this mode of treatment; but we think man, attentively 

 considered, leads our thoughts down to racial distinctions, race origins, choro- 

 graphic relations, and ethnic movements. We think, too, a treatise on anthro- 

 pology might well give a fuller view of prehistoric archseology, even to the omis- 

 sion of some of the copious illustrations of language-formation and the arts of 

 life. The work aims to be elementary, and for this reason, undoubtedly, some 

 matters were abbreviated, and others almost om tted; but it is hardly symmetrical. 

 It seems ungracious to make even these exceptions to its excellence ; but we must 

 permit ourselves also to express discontent at the author's manifest effort, espec- 

 ially in the earlier chapters, to write in a very simple style. He has merely fallen 

 into the use of expressions which are needlessly inelegant and ungraceful. Thus, 

 in several places he speaks of "the lie of the land." Other objectionable ex- 

 pressions are " the un-English looking group of animals ; " " man's being the tool- 

 using animal ; " " traces of the letters having been made;" "anyone who hap- 

 pens to have been up country in America." These errors of form, however, are 

 venial, and we welcome to our literature, in this work, a contribution which is a 

 substantial and creditable addition. — The Dial. 



THE SACRIFICIAL STONE OF THE CITY OF MEXICO, IS IT 

 GENUINE OR NOT? 



BY EDWARD PALMER. 



In the city of Mexico are offered for sale, casts in plaster of the so-called 

 sacrificial stone now in the courtyard of the museum in the city Mexico, of which 

 much has been written to prove its genuineness. These casts are much reduced 

 in size, and do not contain the groove of the original. The maker, like many of 

 his countrymen living in the city of Mexico, may not believe in the genuineness 



