66 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
modern men of science, viz. that all vertebrate animals proceeded from a 
common stock. Professor Huxley, as we have already stated, described 
this view of the matter some years ago. But since that date a great deal of 
matter has been added to our knowledge of this point. There is, for instance, 
as the author points out, the remarkable form intermediate between birds 
and reptiles, which Professor Marsh, of Connecticut, U.S.A., pointed out in 
1872. This form, which is fossil, is about the size of a pigeon. The whole 
of the general plan of the skeleton is truly bird-like, but the vertebrae are 
biconcave, and there are well-developed teeth in both its jaws. So com- 
pletely did the jaw resemble a reptile’s that Professor March, who first 
discovered only this bone, described it as that of a reptile before the other 
parts were subsequently found. 
We had hoped to have touched on some of the last parts of the author’s 
volume, those relating to Mr. Galton’s idea of the mental superiority of 
ancient Greece, and also to transmutation and natural theology, two subjects 
of the highest interest ; but we have already outrun our space as editorially 
allotted. Suffice it to say, that they are treated by the author with that 
calmness and consideration which are so characteristic of him and many other 
of our best science workers. We must therefore conclude, which we do unwil- 
lingly 5 but we trust, at all events, that we have said enough to prove to 
the reader of this Review, how vast, how true, how important, and intellec- 
tually how able, is this treatise upon the antiquity of man. 
WHO ARE THE TODAS ?* 
T HIS is a question which we fear there are not many of our readers who 
would be capable of answering with any degree of clearness. Yet it is 
not without its importance, as the present work discloses to us ; and it has 
been very clearly answered by Lieut.-Col. W. E. Marshall, the author of 
the book upon our table. It is to be regretted that the author has selected 
as his title u A Phrenologist among the Todas,” for that leads the reader to 
infer that it is a work dealing almost exclusively with the cranial estimate 
of the race, and in a fashion which the popular low-class lecturers of all 
our large towns so commonly adopt. He has thereby, we fear, excluded a 
good many who simply regard the work as phrenological and therefore 
absurd. This we confess was the light in which we ourselves were disposed 
to regard the volume at the outset. But on perusal it is seen how very 
little phrenology has to do with the book ; and on the other hand, what a 
valuable record it is of the habits, tone of mind, and condition of education 
of a people who are very little known, and who inhabit the inland portion of 
the extreme southern division of our peninsula of Hindustan. The author 
of the work gives immense praise to the Rev. Friedrich Metz, who has 
spent more than twenty years among the inhabitants of the Nilgherry Hills, 
and whose knowledge of the various dialects of India and familiarity with 
* 11 A Phrenologist among the Todas ; or, the Study of a Primitive 
Tribe in South India.” By William E. Marshall, Lieut.-Col. of Her 
Majesty’s Bengal Staff Corps. London ; Longmans, 1873. 
