NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 521 



a crime in the eyes of those who consider precise nomenclature 

 to be the end of science ; but those who deem it merely a means 

 whereby knowledge can be securely stored will take a different 

 view — and have done so." We need quote no more from this 

 part of the work, the pages of which have quite a literary charm 

 of their own, stimulating perusal, and with much original criticism 

 compelling either acquiescence or dissent. 



As regards the main body of the work, it has been, as already 

 stated, previously noticed in these pages. A dictionary of birds 

 is a fair trial of strength for any ornithologist. It indispensably 

 requires three possessions : scientific capacity, knowledge of the 

 literature, and the critical faculty ; and if the great lexicographer 

 shared the illusion that a language might be " fixed " by making 

 a catalogue of its words, the present dictionary has very largely 

 focussed ornithology to date. But, apart from special ornitho- 

 logy, Professor Newton, his assistant, and three contributors, 

 have probably produced one of the best books on natural history 

 that has appeared in the English language. 



Man, Past and Present. By A. H. Keane, F.R.G.S. &c. 

 Cambridge : University Press. 1899. 



Some two years ago a notice appeared in these pages of a 

 precursor to this book,— we allude to Mr. Keane's 'Ethnology.' 

 That book discussed the fundamental problems of the science ; 

 the present work is of a more descriptive ethnological character, 

 and deals with the various races of mankind. The four primary 

 divisions of the Hominidse, as proposed in his * Ethnology,' are 

 in the main followed here, due weight being given " to all 

 available data — physical and mental characters, usages, religion, 

 speech, cultural features, history, and geographical range." 

 Whenever two or more groups are found agreeing in all, or at 

 least in the more essential, of such elements, they are treated as 

 branches of one stock. " So far, and no farther, is a strictly 

 zoological or genetic classification possible in the present state 

 of the multifarious inhabitants of the globe." 



There was a time in Anthropology, and probably that period 

 is not closed, when the non-acceptors of the evolutionary view 



