October 31, 1884. 



SCIENCE 



423 



percentage of taxed property rising in Rhode 

 Island to 60, though it falls in Connecticut to 

 38.4, and in Vermont to 30. In Vermont, 

 also, the tax is very small (only $1,745,000) ; 

 while New Hampshire, with scarcely more 

 population, raised $2,698,000 by taxation, and 

 Rhode Island, with 56,000 less people, raised 

 $2,603,000. The estimated wealth of Rhode 

 Island, however, was $420,000,000, while that 

 of Vermont was but $289,000,000, and that of 

 New Hampshire, $328,000,000. 



The mode of exhibiting propert}- , debt, taxa- 

 tion, etc., b}' pyramidal diagrams, — the largest 

 states at the bottom, and so on, upward, — is a 

 very effective one to the eye, far more so than 

 the map-form of making such statistics impres- 

 sive. A map, and an arrangement of divided 

 disks and parallelograms, are also used to illus- 

 trate the ownership of the national debt, etc. 

 These devices are a novel and increasing fea- 

 ture of statistical reports, and are doubtless 

 useful to the general and casual reader ; but 

 scientific inquirers must be warned against 

 making too much of them. Statistics them- 

 selves, in their most exact form, are apt to 

 mislead as soon as comparisons are attempted ; 

 for then a multitude of qualifying circum- 

 stances come into view, or, if not seen, make 

 the result of the comparison deceptive. To 

 make these statistics still less exact by redu- 

 cing them to the pictorial form, introduces a 

 new element of error. The investigator must 

 therefore be prepared to see these general views 

 become dissolving views, as he extends his 

 inquiry into the real facts, which the best col- 

 lected statistics do but disguise with a thicker 

 or thinner veil of imperfect classification. 



THE ABORIGINES OF CHILE. 



Los aborijenes de Chile. Por Jose Toribio Me- 

 dina. Testo i laminas. Santiago, Imprenta 

 Gutenberg, 1882. 427 p. 4°. 



The original sources on which we must de- 

 pend for a knowledge of the ethnology of Chile 

 are difficult of ace ss, and Senor Medina has 

 performed a meritorious work in collecting them 

 in this volume. Nor is it a mere compilation. 

 To a very full description of the Araucanian 

 Indians he adds a discussion of the archeo- 

 logical relics of that country, such as up to the 

 present we might have sought in vain. Some 

 of his conclusions will be read with interest. 



Although no unequivocal signs of quaternary 

 man have been found in Chile, Medina men- 

 tions two or three discoveries of stone imple- 

 ments at great depths, one of which, as figured, 



has every appearance of a genuine quaternary 

 celt. As is well known, in the contiguous ter- 

 ritory of the Pampas, Ameghino has described 

 undoubted and abundant human remains from 

 quaternaiy deposits. At any rate, the state of 

 preservation of the remains in the graves of the 

 Araucanians seems to leave no doubt that they 

 were relatively a late immigration. To the 

 antecedent population the author attributes the 

 curious petroglyphs which are not uncommon 

 on the Chilian rocks. His effort, however, to 

 make it appear that this earlier people was of 

 a more civilized t3 T pe," cannot be said to be suc- 

 cessful. 



Appended to the text are two hundred and 

 fift3'-two lithographs of archeologic finds. 

 They include articles in stone, copper, silver, 

 bronze, and potteiy. Those in stone present 

 some forms which are not at all, or not often, 

 found with us. Such are the rounded and pol- 

 ished sling-stones, — a weapon popular in South 

 America, but scarcely known in the northern 

 continent. Stone implements for net-making 

 are another curiosity. They are of the shape 

 and size of a cigar, with grooves around each 

 end. Perforated circular stones, about three 

 inches in diameter, are extremely common, and, 

 the author thinks, were used principal^ to add 

 weight to agricultural implements, — a quite 

 improbable theory. Both the stone implements 

 and the pottery present markedly different de- 

 grees of technical skill. This the author ex- 

 plains chronologically, attributing the ruder to 

 a much more ancient date ; but the opinion 

 that they merely represent different degrees of 

 contemporary skill is equally probable. 



Shell-heaps are numerous along the Chilian 

 coast, some of them six metres in height ; but 

 mounds, earthworks, or walls are not described. 

 No fresh information is furnished on the Arau- 

 canian language, and this part of the volume 

 has slight value. The history of the Incarial 

 conquest is detailed at length ; but the influence 

 of the Incarial culture on the southern tribes, 

 which was very widely felt, is not allowed its 

 proper prominence. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Chesapeake zoological laboratory of the 

 Johns Hopkins university was stationed this year at 

 Beaufort, N.C., and was open from June 1 to Sept. 

 19. Owing to the illness of the director, it was most of 

 the time under the charge of Prof. H. W. Conn. The 

 embryology of echinoderms, annelids, and medusae, 

 formed the principal studies. Dr. Brooks nearly 

 completed his monograph of the medusae of Beau- 

 fort, and studied the embryology of Eutimia, besides 



