1890. ] Archeology and Ethnology. 589 
It would be rash in our present knowledge to say that all influences 
made upon the germ are of the transmitting type; but as to this case 
of artificial epilepsy we may affirm that such evidence as we have points 
to general and even special heredity of acquired character through 
some affection of the germ produced by that character. A nervous 
disorder, epilepsy, tends to produce in offspring some nervous disorder. 
It is plain that if there is any effect upon the offspring from this dis- 
ease, it is upon the nervous tissue rather than upon any other tissue or 
function, and this deserves to be called general heredity; and so far 
as the special disorder is communicated, this may be called specific 
heredity. If a nervous disease tends to produce in offspring nervous 
disease of any kind, this is so far heredity, 
It seems to me, then, that Prof. Weismann’s theory of non-trans- 
missibility of acquired character fails even when tried by his own 
presentation of this test case, but it is certainly to be desired, as he 
intimates (p. 82) that the series of experiments should be carefully and 
thoroughly followed up. We certainly owe much to Prof. Weismann’s 
hypothesis, but it is not too much to say that it is still unproved in 
point of fact, and unsatisfactory as yet to the scientific imagination, at 
least so far as artificial epilepsy is conserved.—HiramM M. STANLEY. 
ARCHASOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. ! 
Prof. F. W. Putnam, Curator of the Peabody Museum of American 
Archeology and mS in Cambridge, closes his last report in 
the following manner 
“Thus there are the foll ts to be taken int 
in any endeavor to trace the siesta t North American tribes and nations 
back to their origin. First, small, oval-headed, paleolithic man. Sec- 
ond, the long-headed Eskimo. Third, the long-headed people south 
ofthe Eskimo. Fourth, theshort-headed race of the southwest. Fifth, 
the Carib element of the southeast. All these elements must be studied 
with their differences in physical characteristics, in arts and in languages 
From a commingling of all, with greater or less predominance of one 
over the other, uniting here and subdividing there, through many 
thousand years, there has finally resulted an American people having 
many characteristics in common, notwithstanding their great diversity 
in physical characteristics, in arts, in customs and in languages. To 
1 This department is edited by Thomas Wilson, Esq., Smithsonian Instiution, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 
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