SCIENCE. 



337 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Anthropology : An Introduction to the Study of 

 Man and Civilization, by Edward B. Tylor, 

 D. C. L., F. R. S. With Illustrations. D. Apple- 

 ton & Co., New York, 1881. 



The present volume is one which will be very accep- 

 table to a large class of scientific readers, for it places 

 before them within the compass of a book of three hun- 

 dred pages, the principles on which the science of An- 

 thropology is based, and a synopsis of the mass of facts 

 collected and arranged by Anthropologists, which are 

 scattered in some fifty standard works and hundreds of 

 independent papers on the subject. 



As an introduction to the science of Anthropology, 

 Dr. Tylor's work is a great success, and if carefully 

 studied will save a vast amount of desultory reading on 

 the part of the student, and as strictly technical details 

 are carefully avoided, the author has succeeded in bring- 

 ing the subject within reach of readers who have received 

 or are receiving the ordinary higher English education. 



The work opens with a brief but sufficiently compre- 

 hensive survey of the varieties of men, their language, 

 their civilization and their ancient relics, thus showing by 

 vestiges of man's early existence, what proofs we have 

 of his first appearance and ultimate development. 



The most common observer cannot fail to notice the 

 broad distinction among races of men, but it is only 

 within modern times that these distinctions have been 

 worked out by scientific methods. One of the first ques- 

 tions which arise in tracing the history of mankind, is, 

 did man originate from one stock «in some primitive 

 centre, and afterwards spread far and wide, or are the 

 Negroes, Mongolians, Whites and other races distinct 

 species, each sprung from a separate origin. 



Dr. Tylor favors the views propounded by modern 

 zoologists, which is against the several origins of man- 

 kind, tor two principal reasons. First, that all tribes of 

 men, from the blackest to the whitest, the most savage 

 to the most cultured, have such general likeness in the 

 structure of their bodies and the working of their minds, — 

 as is easiest and best accounted for by their being de- 

 scended from a common ancestry, however distant,— and 

 secondly, that all the human races, notwithstanding their 

 form and color, appear capable of freely intermarrying 

 and forming cross races of every combination, which 

 appears to point to a common ancestry. The author 

 thereforf advises the acceptance of this theory of the 

 unity of mankind as best agreeing with ordinary exper- 

 ience and scientific research. 



Any decision on this subject, however, must be con- 

 sidered provisional only, as our means of judging what 

 man's progenitors were like, both in mind and body, be- 

 fore the forefathers of the present negroes and Tartars 

 and Australians were separated into dis'inct stocks, is at 

 the best most imperfect. Nor is it yet clear by what 

 causes these stocks or races passed into their different 

 types of skull and limbs, of complexion and hair. 



We find no aid from the study of ancient inscriptions 

 and figures, as to the condition of races at the beginning 

 of historic times. 



Figures of Egyptians drawn more than 4000 years ago, 

 describe features very similar to those found in Egypt at 

 the present day. The celebrated inscription of Prince 

 Una, dating back 2000 years B. C, makes mention of the 

 Nahsi or Negroes who were levied and drilled by ten 

 thousands for the Egyptian army ; and on the tomb of 

 Knumkept of the 12th dynasty there is represented a 

 procession of Amu, who are seen by their features to be 

 of the race to which Syrians and Hebrews belonged. In 

 fact all the evidences derived from ancient monuments, 

 geography and history, prove that the great race-divisions 

 of mankind are of no recent growth, but were already 



settled before the beginning of the historical period. We 

 must then look to the prehistoric period as the time when 

 the chief work was done of forming and spreading over 

 the world the races of mankind. 



We might expect that " language " would tell of man's 

 age on the earth, but the reader of this work will find 

 that although there is evidence that all recent language 

 was derived from one primitive language, the most 

 patient research shows that all trace of that primitive 

 language is lost. 



The first chapter of Dr. Tylor's work includes a history 

 of the civilization of man and his gradual development 

 in the appreciation of Art. The first traces of man in 

 the stone age is described, dating back from twenty to a 

 hundred thousand years, presenting evidence that, even at 

 that remote period, man possessed all the attributes 

 of humanity in a savage and rude condition. 



In the second chapter man is compared with the brute 

 creation. To show how man may have advanced from 

 savagery to civilization is a reasonable task and is worked 

 out to some extent by the author. But the evidence is 

 wanting for crossing that mental gulf that divides the 

 lowest savage from the highest ape. 



The general conclusion advanced by the author in this 

 branch of the subject is expressed by Dr. Tylor as fol- 

 lows,: "On the whole the safest conclusion warranted 

 by facts is that the mental machinery of the lower animals 

 is roughly similar to our own, up to a limit. Beyond this 

 limit the human mind opens out into a wide range of 

 thought and feeling which the beast mind shows no sign 

 of approaching. If we consider man's course of life from 

 birth to death, we see that it is, so to speak, founded on 

 functions which he has in common with lower beings. 

 Man, endowed with instinct and capable of learning by 

 experience, drawn by pleasure and driven by pain, must 

 like the beast, maintain his life by food and sleep, must 

 save himself by flight, or fight it out with his foes, must 

 propagate his species and care for the next generation. 

 Upon this lower framework of animal life is raised the 

 wondrous edifice of human language, science, art and 

 order." 



To the many who have yet to master the principles of 

 this, the latest of sciences. " Anthropology," we com- 

 mend this book as one which will be read with much sat- 

 isfaction and profit, for the study of man and civilization 

 is not a matter of scientific interest only, but at once 

 passes into the practical business of lite. We have in it 

 the means of understanding our own lives and our place 

 in the world, vaguely and imperfectly, it is true, but at 

 any rate more clearly than any former generation. 



The knowledge of man's course of lite from the remot- 

 est past to the present, will not only help us to forecast 

 the future, but, says the author, guide us in our duty of 

 leaving the world better than we found it. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous communi- 

 cations.} 



FIRE BALLS. 

 To the Edit 'r of " Science ":— 



The interesting instance, narrated in a recent number 

 of " Science," of the descent of fireballs as observed 

 by Henry O. Forbes, calls to mind two occurrences which 

 I have witnessed under circumstances favorable for 

 accurate observation. 



One sultry summer day, at sea, I was lying on the deck 

 of a small schooner, watching in the sky the gathering 

 clouds of a sudden and violent thunder shower. I was 

 looking over the main mast, whose top was in the centre 

 of my field of view. As the first scattered drops of rain 

 began to fall, and in advance of any lightning or thunder, 

 there appeared upon the top of the mast a brush of fire 



