1890.] Anthropology and Prehistoric Archeology. 977 
them. A confirmation of this view is found in the fact that the valves 
are variable in character, and tend to disappear in the veins where 
they are no longer needed. He concludes, upon surveying the whole 
field, that this indicates a derivation of the vertebrates from some form 
of the annelid worms, among which a single unit produces by success- 
ive budding a compound longitudinal body. This view is fully con- 
firmed by the behavior of the human embryo. In the spinal column 
of the human embryo thirty-eight segments can at one time be made 
out, Four or five of these generally disappear, but cases are by no 
means wanting in which they remain until after birth, and constitute a 
well-marked free tail, In one case, carefully examined and described 
by Lissner, a girl of twelve years had an appendage of this character 
12.5 centimetres long, Other observers, probably less careful and 
exact, report much greater lengths. From some observations it would 
appear that abnormities of this kind may be transmitted from parent 
to offspring. Dr. Max Bartels recently collected from widely-scattered 
literature reports of 116 actually observed and described cases of tailed 
men. In 35 instances authors report such abnormities to be 
by an entire people, they themselves having observed certain indi- 
viduals. These cases are scattered throughout the whole of the known 
globe, and extend back for a thousand years. 
At first man’s skull seems to be much simpler than the typical form. 
The bones are fewer and less complicated. But follow back the course 
of development, and we find the bones separating,—the frontal into 
two pieces, the occipital and temporal each into four, the sphenoid - 
into eight, repeating what we find as we descend the vertebrate scale. 
The capacity of the cranium is usually held to distinguish man, yet 
the lowest microcephali approach to the apes in this respect, and the 
lower races have unquestionably smaller brains than the higher. As 
far as can be judged, there has also been an increase in average 
capacity during historic times. : 
‘ The Indian Origin of Maple Sugar," by Mr. Henry W. Henshaw, ot 
Washington.— The point was as to whether the Indians learned to 
make sugar of the whites or vice versa. The argument drawn from 
the maple-tree festivals and linguistic evidence showed the red men 
were in no way indebted to the whites for sugar, no more than for the 
cultivation of corn, the pumpkin, bean, and tobacco. Their simple 
process was aboriginal, resulting from their own observation and 
inventive powers. They collect the sap in birch-bark vessels. These 
hold in some cases a hundred gallons, They take advantage of cold 
April nights to freeze the sap, and in the morning throw out the ice. 
