REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
African Skulls.'— F. Shrubsall has had exceptional opportunities 
to study African crania, and has produced a model paper describing 
the skulls of the Bantus of South Africa. The large number of 
crania in the series, some two hundred, has enabled him to fairly 
revel in seriations and averages. How great a satisfaction it is to 
the craniologist to gain access to a large series is known only to 
those who have dealt with small numbers of specimens, “too few 
to furnish satisfactory conclusions,” or “ too fragmentary for definite 
results.” On the other hand, the study of such a collection involves 
an immense amount of labor, some idea of which may be gained from 
the number of measurements recorded in the accompanying tables, 
which, by the way, appear to better advantage in the enlarged 
Journal of the Anthropological Institute than in the former demi- 
octavo size. The metrical method is followed in the paper, and the 
text suffices merely to interpret the figures. This we believe to be 
the most satisfactory method, though it must be admitted that the 
descriptions of the “impressionist school” of craniologists have a 
certain value. 
Mr. Shrubsall concludes that the most striking feature of the 
A-bantu crania is that they are remarkably uniform from all parts of 
the area under consideration. In the south the skulls show marks 
of intermixture with the Bushman-Hottentot race., In the east the 
cranium is also modified, and the question of mixture with Semito- 
Hamitic peoples is raised. In the northwest the presence of negroid 
characters indicates crossing with the negroes from the region north 
of the Congo. Finally, “the obvious affinities” of the Bantus “are 
with the Monbuttu of Niam-Niam, and the peoples of the Zeriba 
country, and the Welle-Nile divide.” These conclusions are in 
accordance with the teachings of history and philology. F, R. 
Ceremonial Stones. — In the Proceedings of the Linnean Society 
of New South Wales for December, 1898, Mr. Walter R. Harper 
1 Shrubsall, F. A Study of A-bantu Skulls and Crania, Jour. Anthrop. Ins. 
N. S., vol. i, Nos. 1, 2, pp. 55-103. 
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