452 General Notes. [ June, 
The articlé of Mme. Royer is designed to show that the human 
race is descended from a species of animals that never had any 
hair, in opposition to the generally received theory that our race 
has lost its hair in time. Following close after this comes Mr. 
Wake’s paper upon the beard, and on pages 170-175, a review, 
by M. Vars, upon Ecker’s “ Systeme pileux et ses anomalies chez 
Phomme,” so that three-fourths of the original communications 
of the number relate to this external characteristic. After a very 
extended collation of authorities who have remarked upon the 
abundance or scarcity of hair upon tribes in all parts of the 
world, Mr. Wake concludes with Peschel that the beard is a good 
racial characteristic, and “that there are races upon whom it is 
developed in all its exhuberance, while there are others in which 
this distinction appears to be incompletely produced.” , The author 
then goes on to seek the causes of this difference. The growth 
of hair upon the face cannot be attributed to such causes as 
alimentation and climate. Doubtless these have had their effects ; 
but the true cause must be sought in the sum total of all the 
influences, moral as well as physical, to which the organism 
has been subjected. According to this theory, the most general 
and complete development of the beard should be sought among 
the races which have been most favorably situated or the longest 
exposed to the conditions favorable to its production. Beardless 
races, in this sense, may be compared to children, and those that 
are bearded to adults. If the beard be a social mark, we seem 
to be authorized to affirm that bearded races are more nearly | 
related to one another than to those that are beardless. 
M. Sauvage presents, on pp. 119-125, a review of parts vit and 
vit of De Quatrefages and Hamy’s “ Crania Ethnica,” relating 
to the Papuans, and Dr. Collineau, from p. 124 to p. 128, draws 
attention to an inaugural thesis of Dr. G. Calmettes “ Upon the 
medio-frontal, or metopic suture.” 
The Peabody Museum receives a flattering notice, pp. 145-158, 
from the pen of Dr. Topinard, in which the author speaks of “ the 
most important museum of anthropology in the United States. 
The work of the institution from the beginning is very We l 
reviewed. 
Mr. MacLEAN’s CONTRIBUTIONS TO ArcHAOLOGY.— We are 
indebted to the publishers, Robert Clarke & Co., of Cincinnati, 
for three archeological works by Mr. J. R. Maclean, “ A Manua 
of the Antiquity of Man,” eighth edition, 1879; “ Mastodon, 
Mammoth and Man,” second edition, 1880; and “The Mound- 
builders.” The first named volume exhibits a great deal of 
research and patient work on the part of the author, but we are 
forced, in candor, to offer a few criticisms, The authorities are 
