known to have inhabited, with a reference to the animals whose remains are associated with his rude flint implements. Full of suggestion also are the comparisons between the faunas of the periods of palæolithic and neolithic culture.
In the chapters devoted to the "Specific unity" and the "Varietal diversity" of Man, the arguments used on these points by anthropologists are well worthy of consideration by general zoologists; and when we remember the very elastic use of the terms species and variety necessarily made by monographists and descriptive naturalists, we may somewhat incline to the dictum of our author, who writes:—"It is not always easy to draw the line between species and mere variety, more especially as to neither of these terms is any longer attached the idea of finality."
In the second division of his work Mr. Keane discusses the "main divisions of the Hominidæ, and, adopting Linné's original fourfold division, divides his subject under the following classification:—"Homo Æthiopicus," "Homo Mongolicus," "Homo Americanus," and "Homo Caucasius."[1]
In conclusion, we will advise the reader to bear in mind an excellent remark in the author's preface: "In a work of this nature, dealing with a multiplicity of subjects on all of which nobody can be supposed to have personal knowledge, it is not to be expected that the views advocated, or even the mere statements of facts, will be always accepted on the ipse dixit of the writer. Hence the necessity of constant reference to received authorities." These are abundantly quoted throughout, so fully indeed that a student who would with an open mind refer to and fully read the references given by Mr. Keane—either with approval or disapproval—could not fail to obtain a somewhat complete grasp of anthropology. And this we consider is the province of a good hand-book, not to dogmatise or inculcate a canon of scientific faith, but to present the whole subject to the enquirer, and not only guide him to the good roads, but mention also the jungle-paths where investigation is not always barren.
- ↑ It is at least worthy of remark, that in two contemporaneous standard works, both bearing the imprimatur of Cambridge, and written by writers so diverse in thought as Mr. Keane and Dr. Sharp, and on animals so widely separated as Man and Insects, a reversion to the system of Linnaeus should in each case have been more or less followed.
