No. 400.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 313 
2. The vertebral column varies equally in each race and in each 
sex, both in length and in diameter, as a whole and in segments. It 
is longest among people with short limbs, short among the negroes 
with long legs. 
3. For each race and each sex the relation between the length of 
the femur plus the length of the tibia to the height of the body is 
determined. The importance of the index of cross-section is shown 
in this connection, for the stature is found to be less in the case of 
long bones with low indices and greater in the case of short ones 
with a high index than would usually be determined by the mathe- 
matical method. 
“The Unity of the Human Species ” is the title of a twenty-page 
article in which the Marquis de Nadiallac endeavors to establish the 
thesis that man belongs to a single species uniform in anatomical 
structure and in the manifestations of his intelligence. He says in 
conclusion : “ By the side of the similarity of the anatomic structure 
of man in all times and of all races, I have sought to place the sim- 
ilarity of his genius, as proved by the identity of his conceptions. 
The ossuaries which contain the remains of his predecessors, the 
custom of coloring his bones red after they have been denuded of 
their flesh, the mysterious symbol to which we have given the name 
Swastika, and other conceptions, other almost universal creations, 
which it would be easy to add, all tend toward the confirmation of 
the knowledge given to us by the earliest arms, the first tools and 
implements of flint, and the most ancient pottery. We believe it 
impossible to misapprehend or mistake the proofs that flow from 
modern researches, all of which affirm with an irrefutable eloquence 
the unity of the human species." 
* Recent Research in Egypt." — Dr. W. M. Flinders Petrie in a 
brief paper calls attention to the important discoveries made by 
archeologists in Egypt during the years 1895-97. During this short 
period the known history of the Nile Valley has been carried back a 
thousand years or more beyond what was previously regarded as the 
beginning of things. Now we look for the beginning many centu- 
ries before the pyramids, probably 5000 B.C., or even earlier. 
Miss Fletcher's paper upon * The Import of the Totem," and that 
by Dr. Fewkes, entitled * A Preliminary Account of Archzological 
Field Work in Arizona in 1897,” have been noticed in the Naturalist 
of January, 1898, and July, 1899. 
