i6 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



But the whole of the formidable series of obstacles 

 raised by this kind of argument has been entirely swept 

 away by Dr. Rivers, who has demonstrated how often 

 it has happened that a population has completely lost 

 some useful art which it once had, and even more often 

 clung to some useless practice (65). 



The remarkable feature of the present state of the 

 discussion is that, in spite of Rivers' complete demolition 

 of these difficulties (65), most ethnologists do not seem to 

 realise that there is now a free scope for taking a clear 

 and common-sense view of the truth, unhindered by any 

 obstructions. It is characteristic of the history of scientific, 

 no less than of theological argument, that the immediate 

 effect of the destruction of the foundations of cherished 

 beliefs is to make their more fanatical votaries shout 

 their creed all the louder and more dogmatically, and 

 hurl anathemas at those who dissent. 



This is the only explanation I can offer of the 

 remarkable presidential address delivered by Fewkes to 

 the Anthropological Society of Washington in 191 2 (18), 

 Keane's incoherent recklessness 5 (41, pp. 140, 218, 219, 

 and 367 to 370), and the amazing criticisms which during 

 the last four years I have had annually to meet. There 

 is no attempt at argument, but mere dogmatic and often 

 irrelevant assertions. The constant appeal to the mean- 

 ingless phrase " the similarity of the working of the 



5 Dr. Fewkes' discourse is essentially a farrago of meaningless verbiage. 

 Later on in this communication I shall give a characteristic sample of the 

 late Professor Keane's dialectic ; but the whole of the passages referred to 

 should be read by anyone who is inclined to cavil at my strictures upon such 

 expositions of modern ethnological doctrine. The obvious course for any 

 serious investigator to pursue is to ignore such superficial and illogical pre- 

 tensions : but the ethnological literature of this country and America is so 

 permeated with ideas such as Fewkes and Keane express, that it has become 

 necessary bluntly to expose the utter hollowness of their case. 



