[From Toe AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST FOR AprIL, 1896] 
BOOK REVIEWS 
Archeological Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico. By William H. 
Holmes, Curator, Department of Anthropology. Part I, Monuments of 
Yucatan, (Field Columbian Museum, publication 8, Anthropological 
series, Vol. 1, No. 1. Chicago, 1895.) 8°, 187 pp., 18 pls., with 14 de- 
scriptive pages. : 
A new intellectual center has formed. For something over a 
generation the energy of Chicago was spent in accumulating 
wealth, the foundation for leisure and culture; two decades past 
the budding culture manifested itself in appreciation of the 
drama and then of music, the first and second mile-stones in 
intellectual progress among peoples; awakening to the beauties 
of painting and sculpture quickly followed in normal sequence, 
and the reading and accumulation of standard literature came 
after, so that a dozen years ago those who note psychic signs 
perceived that an intellectual sun was rising on the city by the 
saltless sea. At that time it would have been rash to predict a 
date for the dawn of a scientific culture, though the culture itself 
was presaged as the end of the series of stages passing up through 
the drama, music, painting, sculpture, literature; but soon after 
a great library came, then a noble university, and next, under 
the stimulus of an international exposition, a grand museum. 
and these institutions interact with spreading intelligence and 
make strongly for still better things. The scientific culture of 
Chicago is young but vigorous; already several important peri- 
odicals are issued, chiefly under the patronage of the university, 
and several noteworthy publications have emanated from the 
museum; and no better illustration of the excellence of the 
scientific work in this new center has appeared than is found in 
the recent monograph on the Monuments of Yucatan. The 
rapidly growing intellectual activity of Chicago must bea source 
of gratification to all thoughtful people, and the recent activity 
in research is a matter for congratulation in all scientific circles. 
When the Spaniards came to the new worid few things im- 
pressed them more profoundly than the extent and splendor of 
the structures found in certain provinces; and the early descrip- 
tions of America were enriched with accounts, sometimes dis- 
torted and overdrawn but always attractive, of the temples and 
