No. 394.| REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 827 
and interesting a subject as the historical development of the biologi- 
cal sciences should have been passed over so lightly as in the present 
volume ; for of its 425 pages only about 30 are devoted to the growth 
of biology, whereas in the first volume the biological selections cover 
some hundred of its 325 pages. Excepting for this disproportionate- 
ness, the second volume is fully equal to the first, and will afford 
profitable reading to those interested in the development of physical 
and chemical science. The work is well illustrated. GHP. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
The Races of Europe.'— In the preface to this important work 
Professor Ripley states that “it represents merely an honest effort to 
coordinate, illustrate, and interpret the vast mass of original material 
— product of years of patient investigation by observers in all parts 
of Europe — concerning a primary phase of human association: that 
of race or physical relationship.” The book itself is the product of 
a vast amount of patient research, nor is the modest disclaimer of its 
author, that it contains nothing that is, strictly speaking, original, to 
be taken too literally. In some respects this volume justifies the 
statement that the Caucasic division of the human family “is in 
point of fact the most debatable in the whole range of anthropologi- 
cal studies ? ; on the other hand, it contributes more than any other 
single publication to refute the charge by bringing “this abundant 
store of raw material into some sort of orderly arrangement,” and in its 
lucid exposition of the facts relating to the more difficult problems. 
The work is based upon a course of lectures upon “physical 
geography and anthropology,” subsequently published in Afppietons’ 
Popular Science Monthly; the notices thus called forth have suffi- 
ciently commended the plan and purpose of the work. The intro- 
ductory chapter emphasizes the significance of geography from the 
standpoint of human interests ; in fact, the interrelation of race and 
environment is the keynote of the whole volume. In his chapter 
upon language, nationality, and race the author maintains tHat the 
fundamental importance of ethnic conquests has not been commonly 
recognized by historians, and that it is not the direct relation of his- 
1 Ripley, W. Z. Zhe Races of Europe. New York, D. Appleton & Co, 
1899. 8vo, 624 pp. 
* 
