1884.] The Northernmost Inhabitants of the Earth. 861 
not mistaken, lost much of their interest and value in the light of 
modern evolutionary problems, and savor more of scholasticism 
than of science. 
At all events the present problem is, as embryology shows, so 
remote in its bearings ; the common point of origin of arthropod 
and vertebrate, the fork in the primitive developmental path where 
the two branches began to diverge, is set so far back in the ani- 
mal scale, and is so remote in geological time, that with our pres- 
ent knowledge we are inclined to regard the consideration of such 
problems as belonging rather to metaphysics than to pure science}; 
although it should be granted that farther researches among the 
lower worms may yet result in the discovery of facts bearing 
upon the origin of the singular differences in the disposition of 
the arthropod and vertebrate nervous systems. 
In conclusion, therefore, we are led to endorse the following 
opinion of Gegenbaur, in his Comparative Anatomy (English 
translation): “The greater size of the cephalic ganglion com- 
pared with that of the ventral ganglia, has been already seen in 
many of the Annulata; in the Arthropoda it is ordinarily still 
More distinct ; this condition may be partly explained by its rela~ 
tions to the more highly developed organs of sense, if we recog- 
nize in the dorsal cesophageal ganglion something similar to the 
brain of the Vertebrata. Led by an idea of this kind, some have 
compared even the ventral ganglia, or ventral medulla, with the 
dorsal medulla of the Vertebrata, and have striven to carry the 
comparison still farther; these attempts ignore the complete 
difference between the type of structure of the Arthropoda and 
_ Of the Vertebrata,” p. 252. 
:0:— 
$ THE NORTHERNMOST INHABITANTS OF THE 
EAR 
An ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH.’ 
BY EMIL BESSELS. l 
TE Greenland coast bordering the entrance of Smith sound 
1S peopled by Eskimos who are the northernmost inhabitants 
ae ; ; RSE 
Ni present ethnographic sketch forms chapter XIX of “ Die Amerikanische 
binge Expedition,” by Emil Bessels (Leipzig, Wilhelm Engelmann). It was 
“indly t: 
na ranslated by the author for the NATURALIST, as of special interest at pa 
trated. a of the station at Lady Franklin bay. The original is more fully illus- 
s f" DS. 
