June 26, 1885. 



SCIENCE. 



525 



the pros are Adams, Struve, and Christie; among the 

 cons, Newcomb, Foerster, and Auwers. 



w. c. w. 



THE NATIVES OF AMERICA.* 



The native population (before the changes wrought 

 by the European conquest) of the great continent of 

 America, excluding the Eskimo, present, considering 

 the vast extent of the country they inhabit, and the 

 great differences of climate and other surrounding 

 conditions, a remarkable similarity of essential char- 

 acters, with much diversity of detail. 



The construction of the numerous American lan- 

 guages, of which as many as twelve hundred have 

 been distinguished, is said to point to unity of origin ; 

 as, though widely different in many respects, they 

 are all, or nearly all, constructed on the same general 

 grammatical principle, — that called polysynthesis, 

 which differs from that of the languages of any of the 

 old-world nations. The mental characteristics of all 

 the American tribes have much that is in common; 

 and the very different stages of culture to which they 

 had attained at the time of the conquest, as that of the 

 Incas and Aztecs, and the hunting and fishing tribes 

 of the north and south, which have been quoted as 

 evidence of diversities of race, were not greater than 

 those between different nations of Europe — as Gauls 

 and Germans on one hand, and Greeks and Romans 

 on the other — in the time of Julius Caesar. Yet all 

 these were Aryans ; and, in treating the Americans as 

 one race, it is not intended that they are more closely 

 allied than the different Aryan people of Europe and 

 Asia. The best argument that can be used for the 

 unity of the American race, using the word in a 

 broad sense, is the great difficulty of forming any 

 natural divisions founded upon physical characters. 

 The important character of the hair does not differ 

 throughout the whole continent. It is always straight 

 and lank, long, and abundant on the scalp, but sparse 

 elsewhere. The color of the skin is practically uni- 

 form, notwithstanding the enormous differences of 

 climate under which many members of the group 

 exist. In the features and cranium certain special 

 modifications prevail in different districts, but the 

 same forms appear at widely separated parts of the 

 continent. I have examined skulls from Vancouver's 

 Island, from Peru, and from Patagonia, which were 

 almost undistinguishable from one another. 



Naturalists who have a-Iraitted but three primary 

 types of the human species have always found a dif- 

 ficulty with the Americans, hesitating between pla- 

 cing them with the Mongolian or so-called 'yellow' 

 races, or elevating them to the rank of a primary 

 group. Cuvier does not seem to have been able to 

 settle this point to his own satisfaction, and leaves it 

 an open question. Although the large majority of 

 Americans have in the special form of the nasal 

 bones, leading to the characteristic high bridge of the 

 no>e of the living face, in the well-developed super- 

 ciliary ridge and retreating forehead, characters which 



1 Extract from the address of Prof. W. H. Flower as presi- 

 dent of the Anthropological institute of Great Britain. 



distinguish them from the typical Asiatic Mongol, in 

 many other respects they resemble them so much, 

 that, although admitting the difficulties of the case, 

 I am inclined to include them as aberrant members 

 of the Mongolian type. It is, however, quite open to 

 anyone adopting the negro, Mongolian, and Cauca- 

 sian as primary divisions, to place the American 

 apart as a fourth. 



Now that the high antiquity of man in America, per- 

 haps as high as that which he has in Europe, has been 

 discovered, the puzzling problem, from which part 

 of the old world the people of America have sprung, 

 has lost its significance. It is quite as likely that the 

 people of Asia may have been derived from America, 

 as the reverse. However this may be, the population 

 of America had been, before the time of Columbus, 

 practically isolated from the rest of the world, except 

 at the extreme north. Such visits as those of the early 

 Norsemen to the coasts of Greenland, Labrador, and 

 Nova Scotia, or the possible accidental stranding of 

 a canoe containing survivors of a voyage across the 

 Pacific or the Atlantic, can have no appreciable ef- 

 fect upon the characteristics of the people. It is 

 difficult, therefore, to look upon the anomalous and 

 special characters of the American people as the 

 effects of crossing, as was suggested in the case of 

 the Australians, — a consideration which gives more 

 weight to the view of treating them as a distinct pri- 

 mary division. 



CLAUSES TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. 



It is an interesting and sad fact that Eng- 

 land and America have not as yet produced 

 one really good manual of zoologj^, while Ger- 

 many has at least two of the first order. One 

 of these, Professor Claus's ' Grundziige der 

 zoologie,' has reached its fourth edition, with 

 every probabilitj^ that a fifth will soon follow. 

 The last edition contains about fourteen hun- 

 dred pages. Its large size makes it unwieldy 

 for the beginner, and, moreover, there are no 

 figures. By shortening especially the descrip- 

 tions of orders and families, and some further 

 condensation, the book was reduced to about 

 eight hundred pages, and space saved for 

 about the same number of figures. The new 

 book thus formed is the ' Lehrbuch der zoolo- 

 gie,' translated under the above title. In all 

 Professor Claus's writings, one cannot fail to 

 notice his judicial fairness. The discussion of 

 Darwinism (vol. i. pp. 139 7 179) is especially 

 remarkable for its impartiality and candor, 

 as well as its clearness and condensation. The 

 arrangement of material in the general part, 

 and the descriptions of the types, show the 

 comprehensiveness of his mind and the ex- 

 tensiveness of his knowledge, while his exact- 



Elemeniary text-book of zoology. By Dr. C. Claus and Adam 

 Sedgwick, with the assistance of F. G. Heathcote. 2 vole. 

 New York, Macmillan, 1885. 8°. 



