36 A REVIEW OF DR. A. B. MEYER'S NEGRITOS. 



The writers that our author quotes most, and differs from 

 most violently, are MM. de Quatrefages and Hamy, both of 

 them anthropologists of renown. To readers of this Journal, 

 the criticisms of the views of M. de Quatrefages will be of in- 

 terest, as some of these views are set forth in two articles entitled 

 the "Pigmies" published in Nos. 11 and 13 of the Journal, 

 S. B. R. A. S. Let us take some of these references in detail. 



P. 23. " The most prolific writer on the Negritos is de Quatre- 

 " fages, who published a monograph in the year 1872, entitled 

 " Etude sur les Mincopies et la race Negrito en general " . . 

 "and then in 1882, together with Hamy, the ' Crania Ethnica. 1 



" I will not enter into a detailed discussion of this writer's 

 " partially fantastic ideas on the Negrito question. Time will 

 " decide whether the views advanced by him with great cer- 

 " tainty will hold good, in that traces of the Negritos are found 

 "nearly everywhere from India to Japan and New Guinea, and 

 " that Negritos and Papuans live together in New Guinea and 

 " elsewhere, owned and intermixed, differing from the true Pa- 

 " puans " . . . The same illustrations too are continually 

 " reproduced ... . De Qua tref ages' literary references are 

 " frequently untrustworthy. He is in spite of his shortcomings 

 " respected by many writers as a reliable authority, etc., etc," 



The "Crania Ethnica" is a constant stumbling-block and rock 

 of offence to our author. He writes of a certain skull described 

 as coming from Borneo. P. 26. " The mischief caused by this 

 "Negrito skull will be carried on in books for some time to come 

 " in consequence of this frequent repetition." He is strongly 

 of opinion that the existence of Negritos in Borneo has not yet 

 been proved, and is much annoyed with M. de Quatrefages for 

 assuming the contrary on the evidence of a solitary skull. 



Writing of the Moluccas of Lesser Sunda isles, our author 

 disputes an opinion of Prof. Flower regarding the existence of 

 a " small Negroid population" in certain islands. " He is" he 

 says, " surely adopting, absolutely without the test of criticism, 

 " de Quatrefages' more recent statements (Les Pygmees, 1887) 

 which are more or less figments of de Quatrefages' imagination," 

 etc. 



Again (with reference to Negritos in Java), " Flower ap- 

 " pears here again to follow de Quatrefages (Pygme'es, 1887) 



