556 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. IV., No. 98. 



criticism that the society gives ' no lectures, 

 no soirees, no displays.' Fourth, he argues 

 that original researches should be encouraged in 

 Manchester, and that this society should inspire 

 and aid such work. This leads him to mention 

 the good influence of Owens college and the 

 Victoria university. He closes the chapter 

 with the strong assertion, which few men of 

 science will dispute, that if Manchester, and 

 man} 7 cities and countries besides, were obliter- 

 ated from the earth, the loss would be less 

 than it would be if the world should lose the 

 influence which came from Dal ton's atomic 

 theory and from Joule's law of the mechanical 

 equivalent of heat. 



INDIAN SIGN-LANGUAGE. 



The Indian sign-language ; with brief explanatory 

 notes of the gestures taught deaf-mutes in our 

 institutions for their instruction, and a descrip- 

 tion of some of the peculiar laws, customs, myths, 

 superstitions, ways of living, code of peace, and 

 war-signals of our aborigines. By W. P. Clark, 

 U.S.A. Philadelphia, Hamersley, 1885. 443 p. 

 8°. 



The study of the gesture-speech of our In- 

 dians began in 1801, when Mr. William Dunbar 

 read a paper on the subject before the American 

 philosophical society, which was published in 

 their Transactions. Only quite within the last 

 decade, however, has the subject received the 

 careful attention which it merits. In 1880 

 there appeared, under the auspices of the Bureau 

 of ethnology, three works, or rather portions 

 of the same work, from the pen of Col. Gar- 

 rick Mallery, U.S.A., entitled " A collection 

 of gesture signs and signals of the North- 

 American Indians, with some comparisons" 

 (distributed only to collaborators, and there- 

 fore one of the bibliographic rarities of the 

 government press) ; ' ' Introduction to the study 

 of sign-language among the North-American 

 Indians ; " and " Sign-language among North- 

 American Indians compared with that among 

 other peoples and deaf-mutes." This last, 

 which was printed in the first report of the 

 Bureau of ethnology, is amply illustrated, and 

 may be considered the completion of Col. 

 Mallery 's investigations in this direction. It 

 includes a history of gesture-language in both 

 the old and new world, its study as a phase 

 of evolution, its prevalence in America, its re- 

 lations to philology, its connection with the 

 origin of writing and the interpretation of pic- 

 tographs, and the bearings it has upon theories 

 of sjmtax and etymology. 



These applications are striking and instruc- 

 tive in a high degree, and vindicate the emi- 

 nently important place which the philosophic 

 study of gesture-speech must hereafter occupy 

 in archeologic research. An excellent illustra- 

 tion of it is given by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, in 

 an article on American pictography in the 

 Transactions of the Anthropological society 

 of Washington (vol. ii. 1883), where b} T its aid 

 he translates in the most satisfactory manner 

 a petroglyph from California, and an Innuit 

 carving on ivor}<. Such a demonstration of 

 the significant character of these primitive 

 rock inscriptions and carvings was the more 

 timely, since the distinguished ethnologist, Dr. 

 Richard Andree, in his ' Ethnographische pa- 

 rallelen unci vergleiche,' has condemned pretty 

 much all these relics as the idle and meaning- 

 less amusements of savages. 



Capt. Clark's work is a welcome addition 

 to our knowledge of the subject. He speaks 

 from long personal observation and a practical 

 familiarity with this mode of communicating 

 ideas. His studies began in 1876, and were 

 continued for years, mainly within the lim- 

 its of the plains or prairie tribes. As in 

 Mallery 's treatise, the words are arranged 

 alphabetically, the signs following them, thus 

 facilitating comparison. An advantage in 

 Capt. Clark's presentation is, that he adds the 

 mental conception or picture which the native 

 forms to himself of the object or idea to be 

 represented, thus furnishing a clearer meaning 

 to the sign, and also enlightening the reader 

 as to the ps3 T chology of the aboriginal thinker. 

 His definitions are try no means confined to ex- 

 plaining the sign-language. He fully redeems 

 the promise on his titlepage to describe the 

 laws, customs, myths, and peculiarities of the 

 tribes he names. These facts are all fresh, 

 derived from original observation, and add a 

 great deal to the available ethnological infor- 

 mation of the prairie Indians. 



Such material must, however, be used with 

 caution. When (p. 10) the author infers from 

 the myths of the Indians that there was a time, 

 referred to in these narratives, in which the 

 natives did not know the use of the bow and 

 arrow, he attributes to these stories an an- 

 tiquity which they b} T no means possess. The 

 stemmed and barbed arrow-head was in use 

 when the loess of the now long, since dried-up 

 Nebraska lakes was in process of formation, 

 almost a geologic cycle ago. 



In an appendix the author describes a num- 

 ber of signals with a blanket, a pony, or a 

 mirror, and adds the explanation of various 

 geographical names. It is a peculiarity that 



