Denikcr : The Races of Man 1 1 1 portance of the head-form as a criterion of racial descent. It is refresh- ing to have so clear an expression of opinion upon this point, in view of the insular and sceptical attitude assumed by certain of our American scientists. In one matter alone do we take issue flatly with his data and his conclusions ; namely in his optimistic views (p. iiS) concerning^ the possibility of acclimatization of the European in the tropics. As we have elsewhere pointed out, this view is entirely out of joint with the ex- pressed opinion of nearly all scientific authority. The second portion of the book, dealing with psychic and sociolog- ical phenomena, constitutes perhaps the least satisfactory portion. It is obvioasly an impossible task to treat of such topics in a philosophical way within the limits of three chapters. The chapter upon language, for example, failing to point to the parallel between the child-mind and the ideation of the savage, is hopelessly inadequate. The absence of any use of Romanes's work in this field is indicative of this defect. The author revives our interest again, however, in the concluding seven chap- ters, devoted to ethnography. Each of the continental groups of man is described in a masterly way, with a wealth of bibliographical knowledge which is most commendable. Our author seems to be acquainted with practically all of the best authorities, and that too at first hand. Only one section of this part of the work seems to us to be seriously at fault. We refer to his treatment and complicated classification of the population of Europe. Space forbids that we should enter upon criticism of his ten-fold division into European "races " in place of the traditional three ; especially since we have already done so in detail in our own work upon the Races of Europe. The weight of authority still persists in regarding his "races" rather as "types" ; and recent publication of data upon the subject has confirmed this objection to his scheme. One of the great merits of this excellent book consists in its wealth of detailed citation of authorities. This renders it all the more lament- able that the bibliographical work should be so villainously out of form. There is scarcely a part, wherein some careless slip of spelling, accent or punctuation does not occur. One might indeed excuse the misspell- ing of proper names such as Conner (p. 74), Euscalduna (p. 348), Braemer (p. 335), Erismann (p. 31) or Regalia (p. 77), or even the woful miscapitalization of German texts ; but the persistent neglect of accent in such common French words as Memoire (pp. 29, 34 and 42 for example) is inexcusable in a work of this kind, from which copied cita- tions are certain to be made. Only a few slips of a more serious order occur, such as the omission of " per cent." (p. 56), the mistranslation of broad ivAo our English word large (p. 71) and Niederle 1897, which 'should be 1896 (p. 344). The book is well illustrated from refreshingly original photographs ; and as we have already said, despite its defects, many of which may be eliminated in its certain future editions, is a notable contribution to science. William Z. Ripley.
