518 Chronicles of Science. [Oct., 



for July and October), have been published during the past quarter. 

 Their contents are for the most part remarkably speculative and 

 general, rather than descriptive, which latter, in the youth of a 

 science, vre venture to think they ought to be. We shall therefore 

 select only a few papers more especially worthy of notice. 



Mr. Carter Blake's paper " On the Human Jaw from the 

 Belgian Bone-caves/' is here published in full ; but as we discussed 

 the abstract of it in our last, we need do no more here than record 

 the fact. 



Mr. E. B. Tylor has a paper u On the Phenomena of the Higher 

 Civilization traceable to a rudimental Origin in Savage Tribes," in 

 which he attempts to show that certain customs still practised in 

 civilized communities are traceable to a barbarous origin. For 

 instance, B The astrology of ZadkieFs Almanac does not appear to me 

 to differ from the old rules ; the ordeal of the key and Bible is very 

 old and widely spread ; country people still make a heart and run 

 pins into it to hurt the heart of some person with whom they choose 

 to associate it, as any savage might do." All that Mr. Tylor writes 

 is worth reading, and this paper is not an exception, for in many 

 instances he shows how curious customs still extant amongst the 

 superstitious crowd of a country fail' have got their origin. But 

 we take the liberty of asking, Can these exhibitions of superstition 

 be dignified with the title of u the phenomena of the Higher 

 Civilization ? n Ought the author not to have said, rather, the 

 Lower Civilization ? It seems, however, that the term " savage " is 

 sufficiently distinctive from " civilization '"' to render the use of any 

 comparative adjective unnecessary. But Mr. Tylor may possibly 

 regard the savage condition as a lTidirnentary stage of civilization, 

 and has some name more glittering than civilization for the habits, 

 customs, and modes of thought of the educated people of the present 

 generation. 



Dr. J. TiAirnani has a paper in support of his theory that long 

 skulls are found in long barrows, and short skulls in short barrows ; 

 but he qualifies it by admitting that while he considers the first 

 part of h:s proposition to be strictly true, the second he concedes is 

 subject to exceptions, and that the round skull is simply the pre- 

 vailing type found in the round barrow. "We cannot enter into the 

 details of measurements, &c. by which the theory is supported, but 

 for them must refer our readers to the paper, which is entitled 

 " Further Piesearches and Observations on the two principal Forms 

 of Ancient British Skulls/' We may also mention that Mr. C. 

 Carter Blake, in the next paper, c; On certain Skulls from Round 

 Barrows in Dorsetshire/' endeavours to show that no such distinc- 

 tions exist : but we have seen that Dr. Thurnam himself states that 

 the " round barrows, round skulls " is not an absolutely rigid 

 proposition. 



