REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. : 159 
pages embodies the results of an examination of the case-book rec- 
ords of the Syracuse Institution and of the Newark Asylum for 
feeble-minded women, together with the physical examination of 
patients with reference to reflexes and structures in the mouth. A 
comparison is made between the normal birth rate and that in the 
feeble-minded for the several months of the year. Data are want- 
ing for the state as a whole, but the records of New York City show 
a decided maximum of births in August, while among the feeble- 
minded the maxima are in May and December. ‘The proportion of 
feeble-minded is not materially affected by immigration. The numeri- 
cal position of the patient in the family is of interest as the propor- 
tion of first or only children is above the average. The etiological 
factors receive careful consideration, and in his concluding remarks 
the author advocates the employment of men for the purpose of 
gathering information regarding the history of each individual ad- 
mitted to these institutions. There can be no doubt but that the 
accumulation of such statistics would contribute toward the ameliora- 
tion of the condition of these unfortunates, and possibly to legislation 
that would remove in some degree the “ varied and numerous ” causes 
of the mentally defective. A careful study of this class will also show 
its intimate relation to the criminal and other abnormal classes; “ it 
will demonstrate the fact that the feeble-minded are simply a link in 
‘the great chain of the degenerate class and not an isolated class by 
itself.” 
Anthropological Notes. — In the November number of the American 
Anthropologist is published an article entitled “ Study of the Normal 
Tibia,” by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, which gives the results of his examina- 
tion of over 2000 normal adult bones. In addition to the study of 
the degree of variation in the individual, between the sexes, and in 
different races, the form of the shaft at the middle was investigated 
and classified in six more or less evident groups. A series of casts 
of these types must prove to be of great value to instructors in 
somatology; it is to be hoped that Dr. Hrdlicka will add to the 
comparative value of the series by a further study of the tibia of the 
anthropoid apes. 
In the November number of the same journal appears an abstract 
of a paper read before the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science upon the “Physical Differences between White 
and Colored Children.” The paper is too much condensed for the 
reviewer to make a satisfactory abstract. However, the general con- 
